At the beginning of the lessons, I was very excited. It felt like I could really experiment and put the composition and colour theory of the class of Celine to the test.
In the first lesson, I chose this picture of two boxing men, because I thought the way their bodies looked in their movement was very interesting. Also, because the image was black and white, I felt like there were lots of options in how I was going to translate this picture into something my own. At first, I was very focused on the essence of the forms. I painted their bodies and kept the background simple. The way the creatures looked without a facial expression interested me: in their poses you could make a new scene out of it. At some point I wasn’t sure if they were dancing, happy, fighting, angry or one of them was falling down with the other one trying to save them. I really liked that! One thing I wanted to change a bit was my painting style: I always feel rushed when painting and I’m not very careful while doing it. In the last block with Celine I also had difficulties with picking colors. I was not very aware of the colors I picked, so sometimes I ended up with a mixture of not-so-thought-through colors.
I decided to pick the last experiment I did and make it into a bigger painting. I had some handmade paper left (I think the paper really suits the painting). What I wanted was to make them into walking suns, with a flower field growing from their lights. On the small experiment, it was still very dark (which is also nice because they are shining in the night). On this one I wanted to make it a bright whole. I wanted them to be happy, standing and talking to each other in the field they themselves created. I really like how the bodies and the field turned out. I think the shadows in the grass could be better. The background is where I really didn’t know what I was doing (that’s why I eventually painted it over with white). I first had a lot of blue, then I made some pink lines from the sunny heads and then I also added black. Next thing I regretted my choices, so I just painted it white. I think it has the balance now I wanted it to have, but the struggle was a good lesson.
For this assignment I picked some of my old analog photographs. At the first ones I was quite ‘hold back’. I think I was following the picture too much. Then Eric told me to leave the brush behind and try other materials. I used some old bike parts, paper cards and a pin. Because the materials forced me to let go of the direction I wanted it to be, I had to experiment more. I especially liked using the paper cards, because I could wipe away paint in a very rectangular shape, still leaving some of it behind. It made a nice contrast with the ‘random’ paint. Moving to the last ones, I started to look how I could completely cover op parts of the photograph, and how far I could go with that: when is an image still recognizable? Do you even want that? I like the last one the most: because of the colors, the yellow still a little see though and the different shades of blue. At first it may look like something abstract: until you see the jeans hanging.
For this one, I picked a theme to search for: death sentences. I have to say, after doing this I felt quite weird. Because it was quite a heavy subject, I was focusing more on the concept then on the painting itself (especially on the last three ones). In the first one, I wanted to make the execution room more like a house. I really liked the idea, but not really how it turned out. My colors were all over the place, I don’t think they look nice together. If I look at it now, I should have done it more like the little cabinet on the foreground. I like how the red and blue go together, with the detail of yellow. The second one I actually really like: because of the colors, the way I left some transparent red around the field and how I painted over the words on the van. The last two ones are done with too much black and red. I wonder what happened if I picked another color instead of red: because red (and also black) is very obvious to pick for themes like death.
Eric told us to put all our new knowledge into one painting. First, we made a composition. I made a collage, then put it into photoshop so I could find a nice color scheme. For the painting, I picked a few and mixed the colors very conscious. This is what I really wanted to do more, so I made sure I wasn’t in a hurry (that’s why I didn’t start painting already in the class), and I made sure I was very pleased with my colors. I first made a grey, little bit transparent background. Then the blue rectangle you also see very well in the collage. Then I started painting things on and around it, and layering them. I like how some things I almost copied from the collage, some things I completely left behind, and how I added other things from my imagination and how that worked together. I’m very happy with the colors and the balance. Next thing I want to improve is my detail. I’m still painting a little hurried, I have to pay attention to the detail more.
For this class we had to download “Spark AR”. Eric thought us how to put your work into this program. Finally: we experienced the “filtering” how we see it today. I myself didn’t really like the whole instagram thing: but what interesses me is the possibility to do something with analog made work and make it digital someway. Maybe like put it in after effects or make it into an animation.
In the future I want to work more on my detail and use of color. I want to make sure I have enough time and be conscious about the steps I make during the proces. I also think I can use more structure in my paint, and more semi-transparant layers. Overall I really enjoyed this class!