Title: Flower
Size: 22.5 x 18 cm
Medium: Acrylics on board
Completion: September 2023
Exhibition
Flower is a demonstration of the complexity and detail of color in a seemingly simple photograph. Flower was made on a gessoed canvas with acrylic paints which were available in class. The point of the piece was to be able to notice minute details from a photograph and capture them on canvas. the colors had to clearly be separated by sharp lines, no gradation was allowed.The most critical part of the piece that truly completed it was layering, which resulted in crisp contrast between colors.
Size: 22.5 x 18 cm
Medium: Acrylics on board
Completion: September 2023
Exhibition
Flower is a demonstration of the complexity and detail of color in a seemingly simple photograph. Flower was made on a gessoed canvas with acrylic paints which were available in class. The point of the piece was to be able to notice minute details from a photograph and capture them on canvas. the colors had to clearly be separated by sharp lines, no gradation was allowed.The most critical part of the piece that truly completed it was layering, which resulted in crisp contrast between colors.
Planning
A series of photographs were provided to choose from. I chose to recreate a section of the crystal flowers because the value of the piece was dramatic, since it has a lot of contrast. From what I could see, the variation of the color palette was limited to browns, yellows, and black and white. I was attracted to this photo because the dramatic lighting and strong shading reminded me of baroque style paintings, which I had worked with the previous year. I was willing to improve my attention to detail and ability to recreate the different shades of those muted colors on a larger board than I have used before.
I chose a section towards the bottom right of the piece, because I felt that that specific location had more of the yellows and browns I wanted to work with. The size requirement of the piece was that it had to be 2 inches long, but we could decide the width to match the proportions of the board. I chose to do a single inch for the width, and made 16 rectangles to separate sections that I could focus on one at a time. I did not make many separate sections because I was afraid that the pencil would cover up many of the little details that I later wish I had not covered up.
After I had chosen my desired section, I cut it out, because the rest of the image distracted me from my goal, and it was easier to focus on just a single segment. I only saved my cut out image and took a picture of it on my phone to refer back to, so that I would be able to zoom in when there wasn't a magnifying glass available.
After I had chosen my desired section, I cut it out, because the rest of the image distracted me from my goal, and it was easier to focus on just a single segment. I only saved my cut out image and took a picture of it on my phone to refer back to, so that I would be able to zoom in when there wasn't a magnifying glass available.
Process
Finally getting ready to work on my board, I began by recreating the 16 squares
on the board with pencil. Each square was about 1.5 inches, in width and length. This part was particularly tricky for me because at first I could not figure out how to make the squares on the canvas the same as the small paper cutout. The dimensions were not proportionate, and I had to
improvise with them, making the overall piece look more crowded with less space to highlight the contrasting darks and lights that I wanted to show because the length was not the exact same. I was not able to accurately recreate an accurate enlargement of the photo, because it had been a long time since I practiced this technique of enlarging an image without tracing.
As I was sketching my selected piece onto my board, I focused on the outline of the crystal flower. I had to use a magnifying glass to get a better look at the detail of line, color, and texture. While I observed it I had to draw every change of color and contrast of light on my board, so that I could later go over it with paint. I challenged myself to observe closer every single time I added any new outlines. First I would focus on the obvious outline created by the white light, then I would look at the changing shades of color, and lastly I would focus on the variation of the dark colors, especially in the background. The picture to the right was the final outline I drew for each different shade I could see. I did not want to overdo it, I wanted to be cautious of the amount of negative space. During this process I did not pay attention to how strongly I was pressing the pencil, and some lines overlap and are much darker than should have been.
I used my own acrylics that I brought. I wanted to use acrylics that were available outside of class so I could have more time to record my colors and to test my ability to recreate colors that i could see in the photograph. These acrylics were small and I was able to take them anywhere I wanted to work on my painting. As you can see in the image to the right, I did not have a diverse color selection to choose from. This made the process of creating the necessary colors a lot longer than if I had more varying shades of colors. I thought that having acrylics would give me a chance to record my colors better, because they do not dry as fast when they are very wet. I have also worked the most with acrylics in the past, which I wanted to use to my advantage, instead of trying to experiment with other types of paint to save time.
Experimenting
Before I started painting on the canvas, I wanted to test the quality and overall look of my acrylics. I began by just keeping a record of my original acrylic paints, to see how much different my colors would change, and if it was worth the effort going through many constant color changes in my piece. I tested the warm colors first, as they are the majority of the tones in the piece. I focused on darker shades first, since that is what the background consisted of, and I always begin with the background in every painting I do, hence, why there is a lot of black combined with other colors. The most repeated colors were black, red, orange, yellow, and umber. White was not used as often because when I did use it, I had to use a significant amount, enough to layer sections 3 times with a single mixture. On my sketchbook I marked which original acrylic colors I used and mixed to create a different shade each time. The final colors do not look nearly as dark as they do on the final piece, and some look too light to be used for shadows, but as I layered them they became darker.
I continued this same process with cool colors. The majority of cool colors were a variation of a distinct shade of gray. This is why a lot of my experimental records have a lot of black and white. I seldom used violet and blue, given that they were minor components in the overall painting. I mixed them with the different shades of gray to be able to tell them apart, such as how I was able to tell them apart on the photo by noting hints of blue that would have not been seen at a glance from far away in the original photo. Similar to the dark warm colors, the blue-grays got much darker than originally intended because of the heavy layering. There were few light cool colors incorporated, and I ended up making more subtle violet-white parts that would not be visible-or noticeable-on paper.
Process (continued)
Not knowing exactly where to start, I focused on capturing solid colors that I already had available. I began with black, wherever I saw any on the piece, not focusing on a single square at once like I had originally planned. Since black is a dark color, it only took two coats of paint to completely hide the white of the canvas. After black, I continued with the dark colors, such as brown, maroon, and dark umber. The picture in the middle shows the addition of those dark brown variations, as well as some grays and other cool colors. I primarily started with black and worked my way towards light, and on the canvas I started from the right and worked my way left. As I worked from right to left, I had a lot of color mixtures on my palette that I did not want to waste so I layered 4 coats of each color on the canvas in one sitting each time I painted. This made my process go slower, but I did not have to go back and add more layers once I was finished with one section.
I worked towards the bottom after I completed the right side, because there were a lot of darker colors and less variation of unique hues that I had to recreate. The majority of the colors in the bottom section were very dark and they were all different shades of brown, which led the final piece to look blended with gradation, although the colors are separated. At this point of my process I was also using a scarce amount of paint out of fear that it would run out before I finished my entire board.
From that point on I moved on the lighter colors that we see on the final product. This included the yellows, oranges and even bright red towards the top right side of the board. Layering the colors was the most time consuming part of this process. Especially because the yellows were very light, and my pencil marks were noticeable through a thin layer of paint. The last section I did was the top left corner, which I finished surprisingly quickly due to the fact that it was mainly made up of darker colors that I had used in the very beginning.
I worked towards the bottom after I completed the right side, because there were a lot of darker colors and less variation of unique hues that I had to recreate. The majority of the colors in the bottom section were very dark and they were all different shades of brown, which led the final piece to look blended with gradation, although the colors are separated. At this point of my process I was also using a scarce amount of paint out of fear that it would run out before I finished my entire board.
From that point on I moved on the lighter colors that we see on the final product. This included the yellows, oranges and even bright red towards the top right side of the board. Layering the colors was the most time consuming part of this process. Especially because the yellows were very light, and my pencil marks were noticeable through a thin layer of paint. The last section I did was the top left corner, which I finished surprisingly quickly due to the fact that it was mainly made up of darker colors that I had used in the very beginning.
Reflection
The biggest challenge I encountered during this project was time management. I spent a lot of time layering single, small sections at a time that I often felt dissatisfied after each session when I worked on my project. I would say that I feel as though I've learned to complete my work in a more efficient way, working on larger segments at a time, and layering as much as possible whenever possible to make the entire piece feel complete. I've learned to focus more on a balance of quality and quantity, because I would usually only focus on the quality and be behind on my work. I do enjoy when I am able to replicate colors as closely as possible in my art, because I love paying attention to detail more than I do looking at an art piece as a whole. My biggest struggle was accurately replicating the image itself into the board, because I got impatient with myself and wanted to start painting as soon as possible. I still hope that when someone looks at my artwork they will see it as a whole, because all the thought I put into those details are looked at as a whole, it has more unity than looking at details alone.