DOGA COBANOGLU
DOGA COBANOGLU
VISUAL ART
VISUAL ART
UNIT 1: 'LOOKS LIKE' VERSUS 'IS LIKE'
Understanding and learning; Portraiture
Within this unit we have concisely come to understand the genre of portraiture, which is the specific art genre of depicting a person in a spectrum of methods enhanced by not only what they seem to look like but who they clearly are in the core. This is done by breaking down the main components and expressing this in methods that highlight the invisible and visible reality. I was able to truly understand how a handful of artists are able to utilise this genre through class work, reflection and our investigation - Odutola's cultural reflection while Magritte's hidden message. Art created in this genre has no limit in terms of how and in what method to show your depiction of who you are the person really is.
Development of Portraiture skills
At the beginning of this unit we discussed the concept of how we imagine ourselves to be a 'good' painter or not to be, the majority of the art class replied with a no. Our teacher then explained how after the process of this unit we should all be able to raise our hand confidently when asked the question again. To paint well we must draw well. To do this we needed to develop or skills. To draw a person you must first understand their facial anatomy which in this case is the bones structure, muscles and fat pads. Better known as their facial architecture. There is an "average" skull of a human as we seem to have a central depiction of one but in reality everyone has a wide range of sizes and shapes bones within the skull depending on who they are. This makes it the ever so interesting when drawing diversity. We started understanding that along with the bone structure there was fat pads placed upon the bone to decrease the roughness with the bone and muscle above it. Along with biological reason stated, these three components also give shape and familiarity to the specific person they belong to. By understanding their location, use and of size these components, we could better know and enhance the 'looks like' feature.
Labeled Facial Anatomy of the Skull:
This is one of the images we used to understand the bone structure and the position of each component of the skull. An interesting element I found was the two holes in the structure of the skull other than the eyehole, I never knew there was that feature and an absence of bone. But now thinking of it, the overall picture makes sense as there are four holes in the face for each part of the senses.
source:
i.pinimg.com/originals/6b/10/7c/6b107c973b3b258b210f52e58894dbee.jpg
Pre-Instruction and Analysing Faces - Development:
To start the process we did a pre-instruction drawing of what we were able to do when asked to draw a skull. In my opinion, mine was very unsuccessful and needed a large amount of improvement which is probably great in terms of what we are learning this unit; development. From there on we were expanded on facial anatomy. For example the zygomatic bone known to be the "sunglasses", the nasal bone as the hole in our nose, the temporal near the centre of the skull and much more as you can see in the image above. Once this information had been fully understood we analysed potential celebrity faces. This was to understand their different facial structure of the same bone on diverse faces and to find where the bones were located. I was given Britney Spears and my analysis is down below as the picture shows. We also discussed the affects of age and gravity on pulling down the facial skin around the bone making the structure clearer. When looking at an older persons picture their facial anatomy is much clearer than a young smooth faced person.
Facial Anatomy of Britney Spears:
Learning How to Draw a Skull from Different View Points:
From there we were shown how to simply draw a side view and front view of an average skull using simple methods which showed me many components of the skull. Firstly, once we had learnt Mr Keys method to illustrate the skull, the whole process was immensely easier. The process of drawing a skull from a side view; we were given larges pieces of paper on which we step by step watched Mr Keys draw the skull, starting with a large round egg. From there we made a dot which was a bit south of the centre of the egg and drew a line horizontally going through it and one vertically. We then added in the sunglasses with a slanted line on the lower right box of the egg. Following that we added bent 'U' shape above the sunglasses with a curve. Then we placed a nose curve parallel to it. Lastly for the jaw of the skull, we used the vertical line to elongate the left of the jaw and made a curved line horizontally from it which was inline with the east point of the egg. From there as you can see in the image below the small touches of the jaw was complete - the steps stated are brief examples of what we had done to draw the side view of the skull. There was also a similar variation for a front view and three dimensional view.
Understanding the Materials:
To draw our final piece of the skull we were handed normal black charcoal to draw and rub out easily, compressed black charcoal to leave big marks and white charcoal to create tone with the black. We tested the materials out on black pieces of paper before our official final piece to practice their purpose and usage. As you are able to see below I tried to draw a simple side view of the skull using the procedure stated above. Along with this I attempted to understand tone value with the two shades.
Testing the Materials:
Final Piece Of Skull:
The first decision of our final piece was to either to do a side view, front view or three dimensional view of the skull. We were handed one between two images of an example of the real life skull view we had choses. We then used the same materials stated in the previous paragraph with the change of grey paper from black. I chose to do a front view as you can see from the two progress images below. I started with drawing the mild outline of the front view of the skull as we had learned to accomplish. From there we then began giving detail where needed without shade and tone. Once the outline was fully complete I used black and white compressed chalk to shade where needed and gave colour. Lastly, I painted the outside of the piece black paint to enhance the skulls dimension and highlight the figure itself. Looking back I wish I had not done this as it was not as effective in the overall aesthetics for my piece, although it looked spectacular on some of the other pieces it was not the choice for me.
Final Piece Progress:
Drawing our own eyes, nose & mouth:
Once we had accomplished the finish of our final piece, we moved on to other components of the face. Discluding fat and muscle which was stated above, this section is fully concentrated on the eye, mouth and nose. We were given tips and thorough examples of how to draw the three key components. Starting with the eye, it is divisible in to the orbit, canthus and eyelid.We would start with drawing a fairly medium sized circle and then plotting two points on either side of the circle in the direction our eye was slanted at. We would join the together in a oval shape, each corner known to be the canthus. We would then place another line on top of the top oval half in the form of an eyelid. Lastly, a smaller circle would be place in the oval repsentung the orbit. We then drew one in the size, slant and representation of our own eye. As you are able to see it the accuracy of what my eye actually looked like but it was larger than the original. On the other hand, the hose was made up one big circel and two on each side overlapping like a venn diagram. This enabled the shape of the nose to be more simple and structured. Wr used to draw our own as you can see below. Although I did not have time for the mouth, I had come to the understanding that top of the mouth was divisible into a tripartite, while the bottom was a bipartite. Once we had understood this the figure came easier to draw. Overall, the outcome of this task gave us a boost of confidence in terms of our drawing skills on the three main components of the face.
Appliance:
Placing three components of the face in the skull
This task was to conjoin the skull understanding with facial features. For example to draw the front view of the skull and to place two eyes in their correct holes, to submerge the nose and mouth in place. It showed the visible and invisible connection they had in a illustration. Although unfortunately I was not able to complete this task but understood why it took place.
Learning Acrylics - painting the other half
Within this class we received a painting workshop or in other words working with acrylic to make, use correctly and understand the shade and colour we are able to use them for within our own final piece at the end of the unit. We were given a presentation on an artist who had done three portraits throughout his life which were captured on very significant dates. The first before world war 1, the second after world war 1 and the third in world war 2. We were given the option to pick one and depcit the other half of the image. I chose his last portrait which he had done within his last months of living as he had been diagnosed with incurable cancer. I first understood the colour ranges and what was needed with the paints we were given. I then applied to the parallel reflection of the painting to understand tone. I could have improved on the background but I believe I accomplished some of the major shading in my part. To summarise, this workshop was very effective towards are understanding of using a small range of primary colours to create much more on the page.
Undertstanding how to recreate the same shades
Understanding the language of art
I have come to understanding that when portraying an object or person in an 'is like' form, specifically in abstract you can utilise tools like colour, line and shape to represent a form of language of emotion. A unique meta-language that can be utilised to show a very different style of art. Our understanding grew much more when we started the task below. We drew four specific emotions given to use on four pieces of paper in the form stated above. We then as a class separated which one represented what. This showed us that just by line and shape you can say much more. The four emotions were; illness, joy, anger and peaceful.
Group activity: 4 emotions
Abstract Emotional Perception with Chalk
In this task we received an immense variety of chalk shades and a piece of white paper. On this paper we drew a fairly large rectangle with space around its outer area for further use. The key of the task was to portray a close friends emotional feeling in a 'summary' using colour, lines and shapes, with the absence of symbols through the meta-language. The person I chose to portray was a complicated human being from what I had come to understood. The overall summary of her emotions was that she was depicted in a bubble, the middle was always kind and peaceful while the outer layers confided with a blur of deep and thoughtful emotions. There was a thin black layer representing the coverage of the blur. It was then surrounded by the happiness, kindness and spread of love. At times the central emotions leaked out. This was what I depicted in the abstract portrait.
Emotional representation of Stefanie:
Mind- Web for Self Understanding
To understand the purpose of communication in our portrait we made a mind web depicting what makes us us. The memories that make us who we are, not us making the memories. We broke it down in to a large interconnected web that gave us a larger understanding of who we were as a person. For example the knowledge we acquired that made us who we are or the memories, abilities and much more. As yo are able to see my mind-web is still in the further developing, the developing will take place as I have chosen to do my self as my final piece.
Mind web of me
Photography Workshop - Mini Portfolio
The purpose of the photographs I made were for the pure reason of aesthetic and a very visual perspective. My figure is shown with many primary colours such as red and blue in the background to enhance the colour scheme and matching. I chose to do this as it intrigues me to see the works and effectivity colour can do in a photo. I believe i achieved this in two out of three of the photographs achieved this as they both had minimum colours that worked well together. But one of the photographs I took depicted the complete opposite. It was showing the colour in her facial emotion with a black and white edit. A metaphor I was hoping for, colour is emotional value rather than only objective. For next time it would be even better if I mixed up colours to see the affect rather than just one simple colour. To change the perspective.
Outcome:
Planning Phase - Decisions
Subject of my portrait: myself, a self-portrait
Photograph of choice for portrait: (no edit)
Taken by: Stefanie Van Der Merwe
Van Gogh:
The use of brushstrokes to define direction of line to shape; background and figure.
Range of artists:
For the face and skin, sky and blue dimensions to make it realistic yet different from original skin.
Inspirations:
Statement of Intent:
I intend to portray myself in my final piece, meaning the painting is in-fact a self-portrait. I want the self-portrait to communicate my realistic features to identify what I look like through my facial anatomy and specifically my hair to the extent where I am still recognisable clearly. Along with this I want to communicate who I am truly through hidden features that implicate something about me, inspired by my analysis on René Magritte who took great interest in hidden parts of himself in his self-portraits. My skin will be a reflection of the daytime sky as it is one of the components of life that play an immense role of who I have become. This is due to my constant moving of home and travelling extensively in-general, I have spent a lot of time up in the sky and gazing at many sky's around the world, even though in the end there is only one sky. The sky signifies my growth throughout my life and understanding of my constant change. Although this may not be as significant but the painting will have a yellow background as it has been a colour I have liked the most for the longest time and also happens to contrast well with the figure giving it a spotlight. The drawing of myself excluding the background will use Van Gogh's technique of brush stroke in his portrait done in 1889, you can find this image above in my inspiration section. I will use main shades of the same colour in repetitive thin brush strokes to implicate pattern, texture and to add realistic features to the sky within me. Lastly, the portrait will intend to contrast the light and dark through the sun coming from the left hand side implying that the right side of the painting will be much darker representing my change of perception, as it changes subtly but rapidly. To summarise, I intend to make a self-portait that will not only portray what I look like what I am like through the techniques stated above.
Sheet of Studies:
Whole process:
Lesson 1: Monday 9th October 2017
What I did : Today was the first full lesson in which I took the begin of starting my final piece, my first task was to take the planned coloured drawing on my final sheet on my sheet of studies and place a 4 x 4 grid upon it. I reflected a larger 4 x 4 grid upon the canvas I had chosen. From there I went box by box completing the figure near to accurately on my canvas. I was able to do this within the whole lesson completing the majority of the boxes except the last two. I found this quite effective as one of my curious worries was how I would enlarge the figure onto the larger canvas.
Lesson 2: Wednesday 11th October 2017
What I did: Within this class I spent the first 20 minutes finishing off the grid and finalising the sketch of the painting I created upon the canvas. From there I rubbed off any remarks that were either too dark of unneeded like the grid. When that was finished I moved on the understanding what shade of yellow I would like to use for the background, although in my sheet of studies it was very bright I had come to the understanding that I wanted a yellow that was eye-catching yet not too bright; through research I found the shade "bumble bee yellow" and I created mixing a base of neon like yellow with one dollop of ochre and at times white was added to find the correct shade. I used this shade to paint the majority of my background with large brush strokes vertically.
Lesson 3: Monday 16th October 2017
What I did: Within this lesson I finished painting the background bumblebee yellow including the sides of the canvas except the bottom. I then found a base shade for my hair which was a mix of purple, yellow, red, green and ochre. I started painting some of the base hair using that shade with klarge brush strokes to cover area.
Lesson 4: Wednesday 18th October 2017
Mid- Reflection on ATL skill; organisation. At this point I have organised my work independently and have been working well each class productively. A key component I can do better on my organisation by being less distracted in general as I have a very short attention span. I can do this by concentrating on my work only rather than socialising.
What I did: Within this lesson I finished the base colour of the hair that I had started then I played with the colours purple, yellow, red, green and ochre to make many shades of brown. I then did thin brush strokes following the direction of the hair to add texture and using the technical skills like Van Gogh in his self-portrait. I would like to make more brown shades and use smaller and thinner brush strokes to add texture.
Lesson 5: Monday 23rd October 2017
What I did: Within this lesson I finished the hair by adding light and dark through darker and lighter thin strokes of shades of brown. This gave it a gradient as the background was a block, the hair was big strokes and the skin would be many small strokes of colour. I then painted the sunglasses with red and black (the fire still needs to be painted on). From there I moved on to the shirt, in the original photograph there are many shades within the t-shirt due to the light. I used blocks of white and white added with small amounts of black to show the light change to dark. I only began this near the end so I was not able to finish this but I have accomplished a somewhat base layer.
Lesson 6: Wednesday 25th October 2017
What I did: In todays lesson I did not continue with the t-shirt painting with light and dark as I had started last lesson. I found it was more significant to paint the skin first as it plays a big role in the overall self-portrait. I first painted the skin a base sky blue. From there I painted the lips a dark shade of blue. Then I placed many ranges of blue and orange and stroke by stroke I painted small brush strokes mimicking Van Gogh's self-portrait style to create a sky like texture. I tried to follow the lines as if they were giving my face a form , at times they were abstract in line with the sky's "abstractness". I will continue with this next class.
Lesson 7: Monday 30th October 2017
What I did: Within this lesson I incorporated Van Gogh's brush stroke technique upon the blue background of the skin, I used the shades from before and continued upon making layers. Due to the advice my art teacher gave i was able to understand that even though the white on its own looked great as I showed in picture one above, I needed more layers and texture and that it would work. From there I continued with the small brushstrokes in many layers i had done but i went over on top in direction of the skin shape to give form. At times I directed all the brushstrokes in the direction of the skin form. Once that was done i painted the flames within the sunglasses. Lastly, I started upon continuing the shirt, i reallized I wanted to place the same technique upon the shirt as I had done on the hair. I will continue this.
Lesson 8: Wednesday 8th November 2017
What I did: Within this lesson I finished applying brush strokes on the already painted t-shirt, done in the same technique as the skin but less realistic to imply the inanimate surface or being of the t-shirt versus the skin. Along with this I added a darker shade to my hair to give it volume and dimension, also adding realism as my actual hair is slightly darker from what was before. Lastly, I spent some time fixing the patches in the background which had been smudged by another colour or not fully painted using an yellow and ochre mix. Along with a touch of stars in the background which need further enhancement.
Lesson 9: Monday 13th November 2017
What I did: This class I was able to concentrate on the sunglasses in the painting specifically, using my teachers feedback I painted some areas of the sunglasses lighter or darker shade of red depending on where the light ht it. In this position the light was coming from the upper righthand corner of the painting. This addition gave a realistic feature to the sunglasses enabling them to be more plasticky and fit into the painting itself. From there I added some corrections and additional fill ins to the hair, skin and background. Lastly, I redid the fire within the sunglasses using the image aside as an inspiration.
Lesson 10: Monday 20th November 2017
What I did: In my last lesson I first recovered all the sides of the painting and repainted the background using the same shade of yellow (light yellow + ochre) except I made my own ochre this time which was very intriguing (turquoise + red + light yellow). As you can tell from the image before todays outcome there is now a clear background. I then added final touches to my painting; fixing the hair tips, white stars, any blue adding and any small fixes. I then signed it.
Photographic evidence:
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Finished final piece:
Summative Reflection
What technical skills enable accurate depiction of likeness?
To succeed to an extent in portraying myself through my “likeness” or in other words the “looks like” OR “is like” concept, I used 2 main technical skills we had learned beforehand and enabled to apply it. As my self-portrait was based upon an abstract colour concept, colour was not a factor I used to depict the picture. I used figure/ skin direction; to show the movement and shape of myself through the direction of the colours and brushstrokes and the use of shading in interpretation of where the light is coming from. Specifically through Van Gogh’s example of small yet meaningfully directed brushstrokes to shape the body rather than fill it up with brushstrokes, I believe this was truly shown in my painting in the face. The face displays the main directions of the muscles and overall structure while the sunglasses are portrayed as realistic using the shading of paint. Also, placed in my skin to show the sky hence enabling that to have a further realistic side. I gained this technical skill through the chalk activities with the skull when the lines drawn and shading would be the only definition of the skull as colour was once giant and indefinite factor. Additionally, the second technical skill which enabled likeness depiction was proportion. Even though the painting was larger in terms of surface area to the a4 example of the picture. I believe, if I had proportioned it correct;y in terms of the shoulder to the face, the background area to the hair etc, then my painting would be closer to looking like myself. I believe I was able to do this well within the body figure as all components were proportionate to each other, but I also imagine that my background was to small in terms of the original picture which is where I lacked proportion. We had practiced this technical skill when painting the other half of other artists pieces in which we understood the size and proportion of the reflection of the image. In all, the two factors that played a huge role in the likeness of the painting to the person was brushstroke/shading and proportion.
How did your investigation of other artists work impact your own art work?
My investigation inspired me; both artists I believe did not portray themselves to the exact in their self-portrait in terms of likeness hence it was shown in the “is like” factor who they truly were. One displaying the hidden features of his mind psychology while the other showed her opinion on racism and cultural heritage. This inspired to not only paint for it to physically look like me but for the painting to have a meaning. Hence this is why my skin was not the “norm” but something I wanted to display as the sky, the sky within me or the fire in the sunglasses, a representation of my opinion oh our state of human behaviour at times. It impacted me in a way to do better to show much more. I hope the person looking at my painting will understand much more than a figure in sunglasses.
To what extent does the identity of the model for a portrait impact the artwork?
Extremely, I believe their identity is what makes up the painting if the artist is willing to display who they truly are. How much of the identity is put in the portrait is dependent on how much the artists is anting to display them in a “is like” or "looks like” state. If I was to paint a portrait i believe I would put everything I knew that was important about the model within the portrait as it is a depiction of who they are. If there was no identity it could be a portrait of anyone, no specifics, many people have the blue eyes or the red hair but not all have the replica of their personality.
Is the perception of ‘likeness’ objective or subjective?
Subjective. The likeness no matter if its what they look like or who what they are like, it is seen through the painters eye. It is subjective to the painter. The identity is not just based on factual concepts such as eye colour, birth and so on but emotional features that is INFLUENCED even the physical factor can be misconceived or once again influenced.The term objective is related to being unbiased hence why the perception likeness can't by objective. It is dependent on the eyehole of the artist, what they see emotionally and physically is what they paint. I believe the only time art is objective is when it is not based on something else or replicating another but a clean slate from the mind OR physically drawn to the accurate in terms of measurement, colour and so on. Hence in conclusion, the perception of ‘likeness’ is subjective.
Overall thoughts on my final piece:
I can strongly say this is one of the paintings I have put myself in the most, changed the most of the painting in the procedure and developed my technical skills to the outmost.
References:
https://www.skymedia.co.uk/channels/sky-arts/
https://tr.pinterest.com/pin/528047125039537355/?lp=true
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/explore/sky-painting/?lp=true
tomasz-mro.deviantart.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Gogh_self-portrait_(1889)
http://dreamicus.com/fire.html
https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/chooseyourwords/objective-subjective/