Sketchbook

Year 3 Fine Art || BA3b

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Photography Test Shoot

Figure 1 displays some photos from a test shoot I did in my bedroom back in January. I needed reference photos but I didn't have any models so at around 1am I decided to put some makeup on and try to take some photos. They turned out pretty good but due to my room being very small and not having access to blank walls it was hard to get impactful photos to reference from in my paintings. Having said that they did have an intimacy to them which fitted in with some research I had been doing about safe spaces for the LGBT community. For me my bedroom is a safe space so I felt comfortable being able to express myself as in the photos whereas I may not have felt the same in a studio setting.

Figure 1

Digital Painting Plans

I had been feeling a bit uninspired and had been struggling to create work so I decided to try using photoshop for a change to plan out some ideas for paintings using photos that I had taken during my photoshoots with members of the LGBT community. I used images from online for the backgrounds just to play around and get an idea of the colours and shapes I wanted to use. As you can see I was quite fond of putting a circle behind the figures head.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Above you can see some of my own pattern designs that I created using photoshop in slightly different variants. It had been suggested to me that to save time I could speak to print and see if I could screen print the patterns rather than painting them. However I ultimately dropped this idea as I had never done print before and it would be cutting it too close to submission if I tried learning now.

Painting

Below Figure 1 shows the process of one of my first paintings in this unit. As you can see I started off with a red and blue background but later chnaged that to green and pink. I felt like the red and blue was too distracting and the pink and green matched the skin tone better. My eyes in some lighting look green so the green in the background made more sense while the pink is the same colour as my lips. As for the skin-tone I did a lot of research into colour theory along the way as it occurred to me this was my first time painting fair skin.

I didn't have a clear plan for this painting and I kind of made it up along the way but it meant that I ran into a lot of hurdles along the way. I didn't draw anything out which meant certain aspects of the figure were really hard to get correct. I ended up going for a patterned background as I had been working on some ideas for possible paintings on photoshop using patterned backgrounds as that ties into my love for fashion and fabric but I later abandoned this painting to work on a new one as I needed to step back from it for a while to gather my thoughts.

Figure 1: Process photos

Figure 2: Close ups

This is where I ended up with the painting. I may come back to this in the future but the canvas itself actually has a tear.

Figure 3 shows the painting I moved onto which I planned out initially on photoshop. After discussions with my peers I had some ideas to try and make to pose and expression of the figure more captivating. Using bolder makeup, and a more structured background. The red circle draws attention to the face while also appearing to have a somewhat religious undertone with the halo often being depicted behind a religious figures head. It was more of an artistic decision than anything but definitely gave me some ideas. I stumbled across an artist called ..... whose work often depicts members of the LGBT community as religious figures and I started to draw inspiration from that.

The background is reminiscent of Indian fabric and patterns which was a key focus in my year 2 work as I was exploring my Indian heritage through art. However, similarly to the previous painting I didn't feel like this painting was working as I intended it to so I went back to photoshop to plan.

Figure 3: Close ups

Figure 4: Random painting

Figure 5 shows the process of what ended up being my Gradfest piece. These paintings were thoroughly planned from the panelled background, to the colour scheme, and the flowers in the middle panel. The flower is a pansy which is symbolic in the LGBT community as it is a word that has since been reclaimed by the community as it used to be a slur. Pansies also used to grow in my parents garden so there is a nod to my childhood in the paintings while also keeping that repeated pattern referencing my heritage.

As for the colour scheme I tried to choose colours that worked well with that persons skin tone or colours that I felt matched their aura. I created the dots to transition between colours and to make them all even I used these small rounded rubbers and put them on the end of an etching needle so I could dip them in paint and get all of the dots the same size. It was quite tedious but it did the job.

I designed the outside panels by taking photos of old canvases that I had thrown paint on and filling in the shapes using photoshop with different colours to repurpose canvases that had either already been used or I didn't have access to. It was a really effective way of taking 1 painting and creating 5 paintings. Each design was unique as well due to the fill tools acting different each time.

As for the photos below, I had this 6 metre roll of canvas that I hadn't used but I really wanted to incorporate it somehow. I came up with an idea of the colours bleeding out of the canvas and having the stretched canvas mounted onto the un-stretched canvas behind it. I had seen a couple other artists do this before in different ways using wall paper etc but never a canvas mounted onto a canvas. The shapes created are supposed to be very fluid kind of like sexual orientation as some people are constantly changing while figuring out who they are.

In the paintings above and below you can see that I ended up adding pink to one of the canvases that was initially blue and green. This was simply because all of the designs had some sort of theme running through them which tended to be green blue and pink. This painting felt a bit outcast without it so I edited the pink in on photoshop before then changing the actual canvas. I think the painting benefited from the pink as it contrasted really well against the cool toned blues and green. Each shade of pink is also slightly different making them all unique to each-other.

Figure 5: Process of my Gradfest piece

The finished product is in my resolved body of work.

Drawing

During Easter while I was at home I had a part time job that was taking up most of my time so while travelling to and from work I took a sketchbook with me. In the video below you can see some drawings I started doing on the bus. Buses aren't very steady so by drawing random lines I didn't have to worry about them going squiggly as it just became a part of the drawing. It is more prominent in some parts of the drawings than others where the roads were particulaely bumpy. As Cumbria doesn't have the best roads. I started doing these drawings even when I wasn't on the bus as they became really satisfying for me to draw and it was a nice break from all of the realism that I do. The shapes created are unintentionally reminiscent of the shapes in my large colourful paintings which I want to push further after uni. I actually used one of the drawings as a background in the photoshoot I did in my bedroom as it created a nice subtle backdrop for the portraits.

Figure 6: Video of sketchbook drawings

Figure 7: Sketchbook drawings

Figure 8: More sketchbook drawings

Drag n Draw

Drag n draw was a life drawing event hosted at the bicycle shop. Rather than regular life models we had the pleasure of drawing drag queens and even got to see them perform. Drag is a huge part of gay culture and something that I loved for years now so it was a joy to be able to draw them from life. We did some short activities and then some longer activities which were all very enjoyable. The fashion, makeup and hair was very inspiring and I will definitely be keeping a look out for any future events they host. Figure 7 is a video that compiles all of my drawings from the day.

Figure 9: Video of drawings from Drag n Draw

Gradfest Plan

Figure 10: Initial plan

Figure 11: Final plan

Initially for Gradfest I wanted to have 3 paintings but due to time constraints and having to move out of the studios early I did not have time to complete all 3 and therefore decided to only do 2 of the paintings. I felt like the painting of Joy was lacking something in its colour as the other 2 both had pink running through them which added a nice contrast in the colours. So I mapped it out on photoshop before recreating it in person. I wasn't too sure on the pink at first but when I recreated it physically it worked really well!

After hanging my work like the design and speaking we some tutors we felt like the work did not fit the space and the smaller canvases felt like a different piece. we considered multiple different options but ultimately ended up hanging the work like you see at the end of the video in figure 12 below.

Figure 12: Process compilation of setting up for grad fest

After we hand in our work I may add more to my space for Gradfest even though it won't be marked as I love what I have to work with so far but I feel as though the white space in the middle needs something to connect the 2 together. Possibly a narrower strip of painted loose canvas in one of the corners where the wall comes outwards?