National Portrait Gallery

National Portrait Gallery:

I decided to research the National Portrait Gallery because they have a yearly competition for a portrait artist each year called the BP PORTRAIT AWARD. In total I looked at four of the previous winners from the years; 2004, 2014, 2000 & 1999. The 2004 winner was called Stephan Shankland and he painted this image of what he labelled as “The Miracle”. This painting was inspirational to me because of the detail on it and the realism it have. The realistic colours Stephen used shows real skills in my opinion. The next artist I looked at is called Thomas Ganter from winning in 2014. He called his painting “Man with a Plaid Blanket”. This images show they pain and sadness on the man’s face by the use of colours and detail. I think this was a good winner as I believe it has a hidden meaning behind it. I think that is homelessness. Now the next on I looked at was labelled “Two Women in White”. This was created by Victoria Russell as she won the competition in the year 2000. Again the colours used are effective and are showing the lighting very well. Also I think that she has a hidden meaning trying to be seen is obesity. Here is a photo of her painting. Finally the last artist I looked at was called Clive Smith. He painted this and named it “Double Single”. The colours on this painting was very dull, boring and disheartening to be honest. The way he has taken the light and shadows provides the audience with reassurance that this artist has real talent. The hidden meaning behind this image is depression I think. I believe this because the person in the painting looks like he has just lost someone really close to them.        

 

Artist Research

Artist Research:

 

 For this page I chose three artist which are part of an art movement. The three which I chose were Andy Warhol, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso. Andy Warhol is a pop artist. Matisse is part of the impressionism movement, and Picasso is a cubist artist. I chose to recreate the queen’s Andy Warhol because although it’s not a self-portrait, I focuses on the detail on her features very well and show a nice contrast with colours. Now, I looked at Matisse’s portrait of his wife Marguerite, because again I know it a portrait, he captures the simplicity of her face and again uses a nice variety of colours to shade her skin and background. After I chose Warhol and Matisse, I decided to make a self-portrait for my final piece, which is why have chosen Picasso’s self-portrait to recreate on this page. For all of the images I recreated I use acrylic paints for them. I did this because I love the way the paint makes the images look bold and I felt it was the best way to recreate them the way I did.

 

 

Samples Of Techniques

Photos of me (sample of techniques) #1:  

On this page I have taken 4 images of myself and re-created them in different ways using a range of different media’s. For example; on the cube face, I have used acrylic paint to block in the colours of my face. On the Danger face, I have used acrylic paint again but his time I have only used red. I have also used graphite, charcoal and black pens to show off diverse techniques for shading and tone. Next on the spiral image; this was prepared on a scraffito background. This means that you tape the section of the page you want to use for the background, and then you use oil pastels to colour in the section you have taped. After this you need to mix up black acrylic paint with a little washing up liquid. Once you have done this you just use this mixture to paint over the oil pastels until it’s fully black. Following this, you need to find a scratching tool and begin to scratch your image into the black paint. You will see the colour come though and this acts as our lines. Finally the pinched photo was not one of the best. I have used colour pencils. To make this more experimental I have cut the fact out and in its place I have stuck black paper in its place. I must say that colour pencils are not my strong point.  

           

Photos of me (sample of techniques) #2:

On this page I used four full images of myself and two other images of my eye and mouth to try techniques. Using the zig-zag image of me I have tried two techniques. These are the felt pens technique to create a cartoony look to the image, and coloured pencils to colour in a reflection. I did the reflection part just to fill the negative spaces I had on the background. Next I used the brick image to create another brick image using my face. I did this by taking the image and cutting it up into what looked like bricks. I then glued them on to a yellow paper background and then cut around the image leaving a boarder to help the brick effect taken outcome. The following image I completed was the water effect image. For this image I cut some black paper to fit the size of the image. Then I glued my image over the top in one corner so the image can be move to see my interpretation of my image. To create my reconstruction of myself. I used the same colours as on the photo using coloured pencils because I think they work very well on black paper. The effect the outcome has to the audience is that it looks realistic to the photo. I need to work on my blending skills but other than that I think this image turned out very good. For reflection image I copied around the photo on to card the glued both onto the background so it seems like a reflection. The on the card I painted it white so I had texture to draw onto. When it came to drawing on it using a pencil I thought that the texture wasn’t bad to work on but I think that I could have tried better to capture my features better than I did. The other drawings I did on this page were two drawings of my mouth and my eye. The eye image was drawn and coloured in on black paper, cut out then glued onto he background. The mouth was done in the same way too. For both of these images I use pencil colours to add tint to them.

My samples of Mono-Printing

Mono-Prints:

To create my mono-prints I used 3 different colours of ink; blue, yellow and purple. I used blue for the sample I did of other women from magazines faces. For the first practice sample I did, I chose this image as she has clear feature on her face. The outcome of this practice sample has not been the best as pressed my hands and the paper as I drew around her features so the ink has made blemishes were I didn’t wasn’t the ink to go. So on the second practice sample I tried my best to not press on with my hand but when I looked I had pressed on in small places. For this sample I chose another woman but his time I got the image from a newspaper not a magazine. This one had the features more clear but still with blotches in places. Now comes my samples of myself. These samples are better than my practice ones as they haven’t come out blotchy like the others. The cube faced mono-print has made first with yellow ink. The outcome is very similar to the second practice print I made. It has a few smudges on it around the edges. The features on my faces seem to be very sketchy and don’t have a lot of detail like the second print I made. Now, the last print I made was created using purple ink and I used the shuffle image of myself for this one. The outcome was very effective and by creating practice samples first I finally learnt not to place my hand on the paper at all whist making my features. As I have marked where the horizontal line are as well as my face, I think that this ad to the affect the final outcome gives to the audience. The only thing I would change if I was to re-do this printing technique would be to be more careful when coping my feature as I have rushed it a little and it has made me mark places which didn’t need marking.

Mono-Printing of me



Mono-Printing Sample Practise

 

Mono Printing

 

Mono-print is a process in which one can use a combination of painting and printmaking techniques. It results in a unique image and some effects that cannot be achieved in any other form of art. Mono-print is a spontaneous technique that gives the artist freedom to work with a wide selection of materials such as inks, pencils, crayons, and pastels, and to choose from a variety of methods to transfer images

 

The process produces a single print by using pressure to transfer an image drawn or painted on a plexi glass. The image is created on the plexi glass by inking the plate with a brayer [roller] and then manipulating the ink with various methods. A sheet of paper, often dampened, is placed over the completed image and run through the press by mechanically moving it under rollers. The image then gets transferred onto the paper. Oftentimes, the plate is cleaned, and a second color or image is applied over the first image.

Registration of the paper to the plate is critical in order to line up all the layers. On a newsprint, mark the size of the paper that the artwork will be printed on. Inside these lines, mark the size of the plate in the desired location as it should appear on the paper.

There are two basic methods of working on the plate, the additive and the subtractive. In the additive approach, the image is painted directly on the plate. This is known as working into light filled. In a subtractive approach, the ink is applied all over the plate, and then the image is removed with various tools. This method is also known as working from a dark filled.

 

 

Chine-collé is another technique where another paper is collaged onto the print. The inked plate is placed on the press bed and the collaged paper is placed on the ink. The collaged paper with glue facing up is placed on the plate and the paper is then placed over it and run through the press. This way collaged paper and the ink are applied in one run through the press to achieve different textures.

Frottage is a hand transfer technique in which unique images are created by placing paper over a textured surface and rubbing the paper with a crayon or pencil.

Suminagashi is a Japanese technique of printing over water. The design is created by placing drawing ink over a tray with water. A paper is then put over the water and the design is transferred on to it.

Each mono-print is different and unique and the artist may use one or more techniques to achieve the image that he or she want to create.

 



Portrait Evaluation

I have decided to produce a self-portrait because I didn’t feel comfortable choosing one of my peer’s as I didn’t want them to be disappointed in the outcome. The artists I have looked at were; Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol & Henri Matisse. I looked at Picasso because he is a very good artist who uses cubism as his main movement. He also is a surrealism artist as well. The painting I have chosen to recreate for Andy Warhol is not a self-portrait but I was more looking at this as a face not just a self-portrait. Matisse’s work I have looked at is also not a self-portrait but I have looked at the simplicity of his work in this piece of art he has created in the honour of his wife. I also looked at 4 other non-famous were chosen from the list of winners from the National Portrait Gallery competition called BP PORTRAIT AWARD. The ones I have chosen are as follows; Stephen Shankland from 2004, Thomas Ganter from 2013, Victoria Russell from 2000 & Clive Smith from 1999. These artists appeal to me as their work is not photo realistic but realistic still. Their pieces of work are as inspiring as they capture real life situation like miracle children, homelessness, obesity & depression. The media’s I have used on my final piece are acrylic paints on white paper, acrylic paints on black paper, collage, felt pens, scrafitto, colour pencils and water colour paints. The drawing on black paper and not just white was also from the observational drawing projects. The black paper seeped through the acrylic paint on my final piece but the affect was good. My moodboards with samples of techniques on them turned out quite well I’d say. I think this as some of the images are really effective but some could be improved. The ones that I like are; scrafitto, danger, underwater, brick and also zig-zag. I like these because they have turned out like I wanted them to. The ones which could have gone better were; reflection, cube & pinched. These didn’t look like I took care in them but I tried my best. I think that the reflection image was too simple, the cube and the pinched image are not realistic at all. As for my final piece I have sectioned my image into 7 parts. Each one I used different media’s. For the bottom section I used water colour paints. I think that the outcome was good but I could have tried to stay in the lines better to make it neater. The second section up was filled in with coloured pencils. This section has a cartoony effect on it but still works with the rest of the image. The next section up from this was painted using acrylics paints on white paper. I tried to blend them together correctly but I believe that I failed at this as they are two totally unrelated colours which are not close with the colour on the photo I was working from at all. If I was to re-do this section I would have used a different media all together; maybe mono printing. The middle section of my self-portrait was created using the scrafitto technique. This technique was learnt from the observational drawing. This technique is when you fill in with block colours of oil pastels then you make a mixture of washing up liquid and black. After the mix is a smooth texture add a thin even layer of the mix over the oil pastels until all the colour has gone. Once dried, you are now able to scratch into the black paint to show the colour through the scratch lines. The fifth  section up was finished using coloured felt tips. This was to create a cartoony affect. This worked ok but could have been blended better using water. The second section down from the top was done using cut up M&S magazines. This worked very well in my opinion as I used the relevant colours as on the photo and u cut them to the shapes they needed to be. I like the collage technique but if I was to change one thing I did on this section it would be use different/ more relevant images rather than a food magazine. Finally the last section at the top of my piece was produced by gluing black paper on to my A2 cartridge paper and then painting on the top to finish off the piece of work. The effect it gave to the piece was very free-lance but the brush strokes are very visible and messy. I have done this on a purpose. This purpose was to imitate my hair and the way the sealing is blurred in the photo. In relevance to my skills improving; I think in some ways yes they have but there are still a few areas which could be improved. For example; my blending acrylic paint skills defiantly need to be developed. Also my cartoony technique could be improved. For this project I know I have had more time than other’s as I had to go on leave to have my son when the project was to be handed in, but in the time I have had this project back I think I have used my time wisely and effectively to generate all the worked needed to be handed to pass. So I will give myself thumbs up for time management as I have finished the projects within 3 weeks of receiving it back. For this time frame we were given I think that I have produced work which are to the best of my ability at the moment within this time frame, for both my final piece and also in both of my moodboards. I think this because they are to; in my opinion, a good standard considering I did most of my work at home. My overall thoughts for this project are that I felt I had no chance to pass this project when we first received it as I hate drawing faces, but now I love what I have produced. The fact is that I lacked confidence in this area of art but now my sureness has grown to the point where I can safely say I believe I have done a pretty good job considering the fact I had drawing faces.