Title: Closing In Size: 24 x 24 inches Medium: Acrylic paint on canvas Completion date: March 2023 Exhibition Text: This is a piece that was created to experiment with different, more clear paint-strokes, and different colors. It portrays the feeling of anxiety by showing an almost sickly girl hiding away from any darkness. This is a piece that I connect deeply to, as I have very bad anxiety, so I modeled a lot of the ideas on how I feel and how I know those close to me feel. The goal for this work was to show others that they are not alone in this feeling, and that there are people who understand them. |
Inspiration
I started researching this project pretty early on because I had just been introduced to a national youth art competition. Initially, I wasn't really interested in doing something like this, however, I started to look into it and realized that I have nothing to lose by entering, and I have everything to gain if I do good. I figured that since I was already planning on doing my choice project next, I could make it for this contest and be done with it early. I always need a little push when it comes to starting a project, and I decided to use this as said push.
Women of Algiers (Version O) by Pablo Picasso
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Once I got myself to start doing research, I found that the submission for the contest must be on topics that matter to the artist. I am someone who has anxiety, and regularly sees how it affects both myself, the people around me, and how it looks when someone else has anxiety. That is why I chose this topic as my inspiration for the project. From there, I started looking into artists I think could be a good fit for this topic. I was initially pretty wary of Pablo Picasso and his works for a project like this, but then I looked into his blue period. I found the blue period to be the perfect fit for what I wanted. |
I used one painting in particular as inspiration, this painting was The Old Guitarist by Picasso. I found the contorted body and long limbs perfect for an almost sickly look. I also decided that the bony and shadowed skin would make a good tired figure as well. A person with anxiety constantly feels sick to their stomach with the feeling that something is wrong or from stress, this gives them a sickly and drained look, which is further pushed from the exhaustion one gets from those feelings being a constant in their lives. While The Old Guitarist may have been made to portray specific emotions, it can easily be transformed to show a different set of emotions.
I do plan to keep a very similar form in mind, I want to have a more hunched over silhouette that shows the bony curvature of the back, but I also want to find a way to keep most for the limbs visible to show a similar sickly appearance. I'll probably avoid the use of props, mostly because I don't really see any objects in particular standing out and doing a good job of representing anxiety like a more simple pose could. |
The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso
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Experimentation & Planning
I started planning this project immediately after finishing the previous project, mostly because i didn't want to be cramming all of the work in at the last minute like I had just done. This got e excited and ready to work, but that enthusiasm started to rub off onto my inspiration and my sketches, while I still find my inspiration perfect for the theme, the initial posing I was planning on doing is very confident and outgoing, meaning it ended up being the exact opposite of what I wanted to do.
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To find a good pose that was contorted enough to fit the style, I looked to the internet for ideas and found an image that was the exact thing I was looking for at the time, it even included the skeletal structure so I could understand how the body and posed that way. I did a quick sketch of it that night, but decided to turn the head the other way, in an attempt to make it a little less outgoing and more timid. Despite doing this, It wasn't quite the posing I wanted. I decided it would be a good idea to take a break and come back to it later to look at it with a fresh mind. By doing this, I was able to come up with a few smaller sketches that worked a bit better for what I was looking for.
By creating these smaller poses, I was able to come up with a new idea that still had a little contortion in it relatively quickly. From there, it was time to come up with the smaller details such as the background, clothing, color scheme, and expressions. I went on to focus on the background for a short period of time, I knew that anxiety was almost like there was always something encroaching on your brain, so I kind of wanted to go with that idea so I made a little sketch for it.
I liked the sketch I made, and thought it could make for a good work, but felt that it was straying away from the original artist's style that I was using for inspiration. It's because of that, that I decided that I was going to add a simple addition to the background to make is similar to the original style, but still show that this was something that happens in ordinary life. I chose to add a window. By doing this, I was able to show that this could happen in a home or anywhere else. I also showed that this wasn't just a feeling that made the subject feel trapped in an abyss, it also showed that it could come from anywhere, as the only thing showing through the window was the color that is also encroaching around the edges of the canvas. |
The last things I had to come up with was an expression, as well as clothing. For the expression, I chose to have the faced covered by hair to connect with more people. Anxiety isn't something that just one person has, it is a mental struggle that 19.1% of people in the U.S. have been diagnosed within the past year. By covering the face, it represents those people too.
For the clothing, I knew I wanted something that could show a lot of skin so people could see the discoloration and the boniness of it. I quickly chose to just omit the clothing completely and just drape a blanket over the subject so the figure was still appropriate and eligible for the competition. By leaving out the clothing, it represents how exposed a person with anxiety feels, they feel like everyone is watching and judging them. It's like the dream everybody thinks of when they hear a nightmare, like the one where you go to school naked or your teeth fall out. |
Process
I started my process by turning on a show and looking through paintings done by different artists. I quite know what I wanted to do yet, so I was looking anywhere I could for inspiration, even my email. In my email, I found information on an art competition, and I figured that since there was nothing to lose and I had a choice project that was due around the time the submissions were due, that I could enter my work and hopefully make some money in the process. I figured it could be a great opportunity and that there were several ways it could benefit me, including with motivation. From there, I decided on my theme and planned what I was going to do for this work.
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I started making the physical work by stretching my canvas. I did it in the usual manner by choosing the size, fitting the pieces together and stapling the around the edge of the stretcher. After stapling, I got out some Gesso and a wide brush and began to prime my canvas to get it ready for paint. By doing this, I was allowing the canvas to have a relatively flat surface that wouldn't absorb the paint that I was using, allowing me to have straighter brushstrokes and use less paint.
Once the canvas was primed, I began to sketch out the design onto the canvas so I could see where to put the paint and how I wanted the shadows to look. Initially, I made the sketch too small and had to erase it and try again, this time, I lightly sketched a box to ensure the figure would be size I wanted it to be, as well as making sure the size would look good with the rest of the canvas.
Once the canvas was primed, I began to sketch out the design onto the canvas so I could see where to put the paint and how I wanted the shadows to look. Initially, I made the sketch too small and had to erase it and try again, this time, I lightly sketched a box to ensure the figure would be size I wanted it to be, as well as making sure the size would look good with the rest of the canvas.
After the sketch was done, it was time for me to go out and get paint. Normally, this it the time that I would get out all of my supplies and start by putting down the first layer, but I recently ran out of paint and needed to get more if I wanted to even start thinking about adding it to the canvas. When I got my paint, I went home and immediately started to set up my supplies and started to add the paint to the areas I wanted to focus on. Most people paint in a very specific way, where they put down a base color for each area, then work up the colors as they go. I am very different to this, where I just choose the place I want to start with and paint that part in detail, then move on the the next area I want to work on. I like to work in pieces as I get to see how I grow as I'm painting, and I get to see how far along I am easily. |
I started painting the body first, then the hair, then moved on to the background by painting the window and the main color of the background, next, I painted the blanket, and finished by painting the encroaching darkness. Once I finished with that, all I needed to do was make little touch ups to the areas I think need some help, and then I was finished with the piece!
With the body, I tried to make it more blue with light yellow highlights, unfortunately, it ended up turning out to be more green and yellow. I still think it turned out well, and you can see the inspiration behind it, but as a result, it's a little farther from the desired product than I wanted, I still think I was able to convey the inspiration through the brushwork though.
For the hair, I initially chose to make the lines more concise and clear, but I found that the style differed too much from the original piece. Because of this, I chose to paint over it in different sections by taking a dry brush, putting a small amount of paint on it and going in back and forth motions. This provided a style that fit a bit better and emphasized the brushwork a bit more than it did previously.
When making the blanket, I didn't really have anything to go off of. I hadn't taken a picture and there wasn't a blanket in the picture of my inspiration, so I started to just go off of memory. After a minute of sketching, I decided that I would probably be better to take a picture of my own and base it off of that, the only problem with that is that I don't actually have a small blanket, so the picture didn't actually help much. I just had to steal a fold here and there and try to make it look nice as well as stylized.
Finally, it was time for the background! I had quite a bit of trial and error with this part. I started with a flat dark blue, but was too dark, so the darkness wouldn't actually show. After that, I had to wait for it to dry and put a light blue over it and made a window with a slightly darker blue. While I liked it much more than the darker blue, on its own, it didn't go well with the figure. I decided to make it a bit of a more cohesive work by waiting for it dry overnight, then wetting my brush and using just a little bit of a darker color than the space I was going to put it on painted it on in up and down motions. By doing this, I was able to make a more cohesive piece, and kept the brush-emphasized style.
The final part I needed to create was the encroaching darkness. Initially, I wanted to have a smoother look with sleek edges, but I wasn't quite sure how that would look with the rest of the piece. I sketched the idea onto the painting, and even started filling it in. As I was filling it in, I saw how much I liked the more messy style, and thought that it fit better with the meaning as well. It showed a more aggressive and intimidating kind of darkness in comparison to what it likely would've been.
Reflection
I really like this painting. Although it turned out completely different than what I was expecting at the beginning of the project, I feel I was able to make it into something that represented the emotions I wanted to portray well. It showed the pain of anxiety, and after showing it to others, I can tell that it's something that people with anxiety (who aren't me) can really connect with it. By seeing these reactions, I'm able to confidently say that I am pretty proud of this work. The only really troubles I had with it were time management. I was on track when I started the project, in fact, I started working on it much earlier than usual, but I slowed down a little and that led to me turning the work in late. I was being careless with my time a chose to prioritize other projects and that led to the results of this project to be rushed. While it may have had a positive ending with this work, I know that if I keep up this behavior, it will really affect my work in the future. |
Critique
The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso
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This painting is strongly inspired by Picasso's blue period, and one piece in particular, the old guitarist. Some clear similarities between my work and the inspirational piece would be the use of brushstrokes, the color palette, the use of objects and the simplistic backgrounds. With the brushstrokes, both piece make the paint strokes clear and visible, while there is blending, there isn't as much as there would be in some other artists' works or in other time periods. The style gives an almost sketchy look to it, where the placement looks intentional, but slightly chaotic. The color palettes are similar int eh sense that they are both blue toned and use a light yellow as a highlight color. By doing this, I was able to make the blanket stand out, similar to how Picasso made the guitar stand out by using a color on the opposite side of the color wheel, providing a warmer tone, balancing out the piece while still being meaningful. The background behind the encroaching darkness is very simplistic, it consists of about four or five different colors, has very basic shapes, and has clear brushstrokes.
In contrast to the piece of inspiration, my work has a slightly more green tone to it. I tried to make it more blue, but I was running out of time, and I decided that I thought the color would end up looking nice anyways. The posing is another big difference. While it still maintains the lanky and sickly look, it's a little less contorted and the body is hidden a little more because of the blanket. The final main difference would be darkness, while it stays with the style by having very clear and intentional brushstrokes, there isn't anything like this in my main painting of inspireation. |
Original work
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ACT Questions
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
There is always a pretty clear relationship between my inspiration and the work resulting from it. I make my works very obviously inspired by the works, and don't stray away from the original very much. This is what makes the relationship easy to identify. In this work, when planning it out and looking at the inspiration, it would change my mood, which affects the theme of the piece and its overall outcome. For this work, the inspiration was clearly very emotional, and one of my strongest emotions at any given time is anxiety. I decided to lean into that and use it for the piece.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Pablo Picasso regularly made works based on mental illness, especially the ones he had deep connections with. As anxiety is something that he had and made paintings about it. This makes it clear that he would relate to my work well, and that he may have even made something similar.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While Picasso did have many mental disorders in his lifetime, he was not crazy. Many people assumed he was crazy, even before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disorder. This is mostly because he chose to show others the emotions he was feeling with these disorders through his art, leading others to believe that this was a sign of him losing his mind, similar to how they felt with many other artists in the past.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Throughout almost every work I looked at, there was always the theme of mental illness. In this, the works portrayed different mental illnesses as well as how they can make one feel.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Because Pablo Picasso is a well known and studied artist, there were not many inferences that had to be made. He was researched thoroughly and it wasn't difficult to find the information I needed to have a full understanding of how to portray a similar style to his own.
There is always a pretty clear relationship between my inspiration and the work resulting from it. I make my works very obviously inspired by the works, and don't stray away from the original very much. This is what makes the relationship easy to identify. In this work, when planning it out and looking at the inspiration, it would change my mood, which affects the theme of the piece and its overall outcome. For this work, the inspiration was clearly very emotional, and one of my strongest emotions at any given time is anxiety. I decided to lean into that and use it for the piece.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Pablo Picasso regularly made works based on mental illness, especially the ones he had deep connections with. As anxiety is something that he had and made paintings about it. This makes it clear that he would relate to my work well, and that he may have even made something similar.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While Picasso did have many mental disorders in his lifetime, he was not crazy. Many people assumed he was crazy, even before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disorder. This is mostly because he chose to show others the emotions he was feeling with these disorders through his art, leading others to believe that this was a sign of him losing his mind, similar to how they felt with many other artists in the past.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Throughout almost every work I looked at, there was always the theme of mental illness. In this, the works portrayed different mental illnesses as well as how they can make one feel.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Because Pablo Picasso is a well known and studied artist, there were not many inferences that had to be made. He was researched thoroughly and it wasn't difficult to find the information I needed to have a full understanding of how to portray a similar style to his own.
Citations
- “1901 To 1904.” Pablo Picasso's Blue Period. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.pablopicasso.org/blue-period.jsp.