Landscape Final

Throughout this project while studying and creating my own landscape, I have simplified my definition of landscape. I believe that a landscape could be as basic as a large captured scene. I think this definition relates to my "artistic voice" a lot because I have noticed over the last year that I have found a particular interest in a mix of realism and abstraction when representing landscapes. This mix really showed up in my last work of the year. As I have compared realism and abstraction, I believe that I have also relied a lot on contrasting colors and textures to get across certain emotions in my works.

In terms of feedback, a lot of what my classmates had to say was about my use of strong colors. They said that the harsh difference in the building's color and the background's color really made each aspect of the work "stand out". It was also interesting to see where the viewer was brought into the painting. Everyone had a different place that their eye was drawn to. There were lots of possible "entrances" to the painting. Other comments that were added were: I maintained good brushstrokes throughout the work, I created a peaceful scene and maybe I could have added some more detail to the building. The two comments that stood out to me were about the contrasting colors and how the viewer's eyes navigated through the painting. I feel like those comments show me that I was able to get my intentions across. My whole idea at the beginning of the work was to maintain the contrast and provide an intriguing picture that movers the eyes around a lot.

I do not believe this represents all my knowledge to this point as an artist because this project was shorter and I did not have much time as I had liked. However, I was able to get across some of my development this year using formal techniques such as color, contrast and texture.

I could have pushed myself more if I had had more time. I could have refined my details a lot and worked on my background to make it less regular. I was still able to "stretch and explore" by experimenting with colors and just going for it instead of paying attention to every little detail.

Landscape

My definiton of a landscape would be a captured scene in which lies a foreground, middleground( not always necessary) and a background. To me, this seems like a traditional definition for landscape because it covers all sorts of generic landscapes that have been created throughout the history of art. So far during this project I have been working on the basics when its comes to landscape composition. As seen in my attached painting and sketches, I have tried to create a sense of three-dimentionality as well as clearly illustrate the different plains and sections of the compositions. To conclude this project, I would like to head towards refining my skills by completing either a sketch or painting that stays with the traditional forms of landscape.

Printing Final

My litho print turned out to be much simpler than I initially intended. I found that it was much easier to work and practice with the medium if I used all of my effort on it. I wound up only working with the French and American flags in order to create lots of prints. This multitude of prints offered a wide range of success and provided me with the option of choosing the ones that I liked the most. I was really intrigued at the variety of textures I wound up with after using the pronto plates more of less. No two prints were ever the same even though I kept doing the same process. Also, the red and blue colors would mix differently ever time creating a new visual each time. Overall, I was attracted to this process because if offered a wide degree of experimentation even with a simple subject.

In-process Printmaking

I have had very mixed outcomes with my pronto plate prints. The first few tests prints of the entirely blue french flag and the entirely red american flag came out very nice and clean. Then as I began to use the pronto plates more and more, they accumulated too much ink which resulted in a blurrier image and ink spilling over into the borders. I think that replicating my process numerous times could be interesting if I were to make small changes each time. I have thought about changing the direction of the flags, maybe the color, and even possibly adding another layer (presumably a Basque cross). For my end product I would really like to work on getting better prints like I had been doing at the beginning of this project. Being very precise and paying close attention to the detail I would like in my print will be essential to creating an aesthetically pleasing composition.

Final Blog Post

Beginning with my workbook, I tried to emulate Edward Hopper's style through drawing vast landscapes with ink just as he did. I focused a lot on the bigger picture in my scetches as well as a sense of loneliness created in Hopper's work. I could have dug a little deeper by paying more attention to detail. I got caught up in the larger view and did not spend much time focusing directly on my approach to detail.
I believe that my final product emulated Hopper's style fairly well. I employed his use of harsh contrast of light versus dark, captured a sense of loneliness, used detailed signs and used a subject that helps to define the time we live in now. I spent lots of time learning about Hopper's style and I think that those studies transfered into my work as I was able to engage and persist with his style.
I felt that the conversations with my pen pals were helpful and thoughtful. Towards the end of my work they guided me as to how to finish my painting. The creative personal insight I recieved from my friends was great but I thought that the formal language was lacking a little.
I really enjoyed working with the different colors in this project. It was very difficult to get the right color sometimes, but I needed to find a color that worked in contrast with the others. Color mixing was also very important. In order to capture the building and the road, I had to successfully use different shades to give my subjects some definition.
As to my personal expression, as long as I stayed within Hopper's tendencies, I could work fairly freely. I changed to the point of view from my original subject picture to a straight on shot, and I was able to experiment with lots of different ideas I had while keeping a sense of loneliness in the picture.
I think I have two main strengths as an artist: first, I like to think that I work well with shade and light/dark contrast. This showed in my painting with lots of complementary colors. Secondly, once I have the basics down, I work well with conveying emotion in my work. I thought that my final work emulated Hopper's sense of loneliness very well.

Here is my final work:

Artist Emulation Paining In Progress

Artist Emulation (2nd Post)

In trying to emulate my chosen artist, Edward Hopper, I am going to focus my final work on an oil painting. Hopper's style of painting involves lots of harsh contrast between dark and light colors that I will have to use. Also, as I am trying to create a modernized version of one of Hopper's paintings (Early Sunday Morning) that incorporates a large use of space, my composition will have to reflect the same use of space. Simplicity and uniformity will be another large theme in my painting that I am trying to get across. I will have to observe the details of both Hopper's painting and apply their concepts to the scene that I am painting. Stretching and exploring will be essential for me n this project because though the painting that I am emulating is simple, there are many small details and emotions that I will have to express.