Graphite Illustration
"Essential"Medium 20" x 30"
Graphite on Printing Board January 2021 Exhibition TextFor the past year I had been working at my job, which was not a great experience, It was emotionally troublesome and was always a little frightening knowing the current state of the world and how the pandemic was affecting everyone. This piece shows my frustrations and my fears, through the movement realism and inspired by Grant Wood along with Stanley Rayfield, a famous social realist artist.
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Inspiration/ Thought Process
Anxiety has always been a struggle within my life, and I can assume many others also suffer from this mental disorder, We all have it, and it is the worst feeling that I can explain. This piece was my attempt at vocalizing my struggle and anxiety within a specific moment within my life, and How I could show the pain and depression I felt from the moment that gave me this struggle of my emotions. Starting from my inspirations within the art world to give me I loved the feeling of dread and anxiety and just darkness that Grant Wood's Realistic work gives off, like within the piece "Social Realism" It gives this haunting almost unsettling feeling. This type of movement and changing within someone's feelings is critical in making a piece stand out and fit within the symbolic art movement, which was my goal within my piece, I wanted to use the technique that Grant used, not in the making of the art, but in the feeling and the message of the art. I wanted to convey a feeling of sadness, Dread, anger, and stress, but I could also be making people feel or relate to other emotions, maybe its suppressing anger through sadness through the red, I wanted to convey emotion through images like Grant Wood.
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The story of my anxiety that fueled my piece was from the anxiety of owning a pet, I had just recently purchased a chameleon as seen in my project 2, who was my model, I had so many worries about her well being, I had to manage her food, her enclosure, her water, temperature, etc. and that was manageable at first, until she had eggs. This shocked me, I had no idea how to fix this issue, I had spent days frantically researching, looking up all help and sources I could, on how to let her lay the eggs so she didn't become egg-bound and die. This was the fuel to the fire, that made me inspired to make this piece. I needed to really think, and I poured my soul into this piece. From this my inspiration was amplified behind the lenses of a symbolic work, to try to symbolize the human condition, this being Anxiety.
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Planning Sketches
This was the first sketch I had as I already knew exactly what I wanted to do, this was an extremely rough sketch that wasn't very detailed and was very stylized. I wanted to convey a different theme and idea which is why I did such a drastic change to the feel and look of the piece.
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This was my first planning picture as I wanted to have a direct reference when I draw so I could effectively draw in a realistic style. I didn't go one for one, but I knew exactly what I wanted which is why I just wanted a picture of my torso and up.
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This was my final sketch but eventually actually morphed into the start of my final piece too, I was so happy with how the sketch turned out before I put details in that I decided to keep working on it to finalize it into my final piece, which at this point I had just gotten to the part of drawing the other figures to the sides of my face.
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Process
Experimentation
My experimentation was mostly around how I wanted to represent the message I was trying to show. I wanted to show the struggles of an essential worker and what it feels like to work within an environment where you should be in control but are actually just the pawn. So I wanted to represent the feeling of anguish and almost desensitization to something so awful, which is why I was experimenting with how I wanted to represent the evil within the piece. my first idea was to just have the Covid virus floating around my head and making that the "evil" within the message. This however wasn't satisfactory to what I wanted to fully represent which was the customers. So I drew in two screaming non binary people (as to leave it inconspicuous) and have them without masks, as I dealt with mask less people on a daily basis who spout angrily when I refuse them service.
Now from a technical standpoint My experimentation went mostly into how I went about shading, I wanted to see how charcoal worked, but it made too dark of a mark and didn't mix well enough seeing as the paper I was using and the graphite I used previous just didn't work together. So I opted to use a very dark B6 pencil to make thick lines and smudge them with my fingers or a mixing stick to spread it around and create a shadow to give dynamic lighting to the scene. |
Process
My process was quite simple, I created a thumbnail sketch to try and understand what exactly I wanted to draw, layout, and what the message was. After cementing my idea I remade the sketch into a better version of it, which actually ended up being the final piece just with extreme added detail. I first made a rough outline of all the figures, being just circles at the beginning, and a base for their neck and body so I could ad general shapes then move onto actual anatomy. I used references for both of the figures on the left and right and of course used the reference to my self for my figure in the middle. After finishing the final sketch I then went back in and added all the small details that being where I wanted the shading to be, and how dark and light it would be based on where I marked and sectioning it off with a number system, 1 being dark 5 being very light shading. I then made cross hatching lines with varying darkness and used my smudging tool to mix the graphite around and give it a natural shadow. I used this method over charcoal as I had already done a charcoal piece, but I also wanted to use it so I can give a sense of depth easier and use movement and especially contrast and saturation to my benefit. There is also an alternate version where there are some pieces like the girls hair is longer, and there is a vignette around the edges to give a very saturated and centralized look to it.
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Compare/Contrast
Similarities
Differences
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Reflection
I am very proud of the work that I have made for my final project, and I feel that I have gone out of my comfort zone with this piece as I normally do not do realistic pieces and try to avoid realism. This was a great exercise and I feel that I really showed my best work. The anatomy was very well done, along with the dynamic lighting and shading I felt that I have achieved my goal with this piece. I also expressed my anxiety and my worries through my piece about being an "essential" worker during a national pandemic, Nothing feels as bad as seeing people without wearing masks try to enter where you work, and possibly infect you. But after a while the nerves subside and you're desensitized to it, which is exactly what I was going for with my piece.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
My inspiration directly affected the mood and the look of my piece, making it, as The dark and dreary look of my piece was because of Kathe's use of mono chromatic color.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
My approach I wanted to use the term symbolism without actually taking inspiration from most symbolism artists, I wanted to convey a hidden yet broad message within my piece.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
the entirety of Kathe's works seem to be dark, monotone, and dreary, which is an aesthetic I love! its such a good motif for the art and really makes the viewer think about not only the piece, but themselves.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My basis for my inspiration was pain. I wanted to convey empotional struggle and pain within my piece, specifically about love and how love can harm, but also help.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The meanings behind Kathe Kollwitz's works as there aren't and defined ideas or meanings to them.
My inspiration directly affected the mood and the look of my piece, making it, as The dark and dreary look of my piece was because of Kathe's use of mono chromatic color.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
My approach I wanted to use the term symbolism without actually taking inspiration from most symbolism artists, I wanted to convey a hidden yet broad message within my piece.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
the entirety of Kathe's works seem to be dark, monotone, and dreary, which is an aesthetic I love! its such a good motif for the art and really makes the viewer think about not only the piece, but themselves.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My basis for my inspiration was pain. I wanted to convey empotional struggle and pain within my piece, specifically about love and how love can harm, but also help.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The meanings behind Kathe Kollwitz's works as there aren't and defined ideas or meanings to them.
Bibliography
Haas, C., By, Cherie Dawn HaasCherie Dawn Haas is the Editor of Realism Today, Haas, C., Cherie Dawn Haas is the Editor of Realism Today, -, G., . . . Allon, J. (2020, March 16). The Powerful Portraits of Stanley Rayfield. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from https://realismtoday.com/contemporary-realism-portraits-stanley-rayfield/
Blatty, D. (2019, August 27). Grant Wood. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from https://www.biography.com/artist/grant-wood
Grant Wood Biography (1891-1942) - Life of American Painter. (2012, September 13). Retrieved January 11, 2021, from https://totallyhistory.com/grant-wood/
Blatty, D. (2019, August 27). Grant Wood. Retrieved January 11, 2021, from https://www.biography.com/artist/grant-wood
Grant Wood Biography (1891-1942) - Life of American Painter. (2012, September 13). Retrieved January 11, 2021, from https://totallyhistory.com/grant-wood/