Self Portraits Through The Generations By Albert Durham
Logo Mood board
Before I begun working on the rest of my promotional material I first decided to explore logos. These are my initial designs. I decided to experiment with three different colours, blue, red and green also using a different shape of paint effect each time. I kind of like the first idea due to the different tones of blues, however I do not like the font used as it is not professional enough for my theme. This is why for my next logo I used the Orator font which is a lot cleaner, bold and more professional as if it was used for an actual gallery. I also like the red splatter I feel the cleanness of the font contrasts well with the messiness of the shape. For my third idea I have used a different paint shape this time it seems more rushed, and instead of using just one block colour I have instead used a gradient from light to dark green. I do like the font in this idea as it is clean and modern but I do not like the use of green as it looks too digital.
I have decided to use my second initial idea for my final logo idea. This is because of the use of the clean bold all capitals font but also because of the bold one tone red paint splash as it looks as if I have splashed it on to the page myself.
I have chosen these fonts as I wish to perhaps experiment with them to create my poster. I really like the first font as it relates to Jack Kirby due to its comic book influence. His artwork will be featured on the exhibition. I also really like the fourth font as its very modern and wispy and remind me of paint strokes which relate to the fact that the galleries are focused on paintings. My final font I wish to experiment with involves the fifth font as it has a very classical feel and I feel could be incorporated really well if applied with a watercolour effect to make it look unique.
Van Gogh Self Portraits Van Gogh was a Dutch post impressionist artist whose work had far reaching influence in the 20th Century. His output includes self portraits, landscapes, still life‘s, olive trees and cypresses. Within his work he created over 43 self portraits all with different intensities and with or without his beard.
This image to the right contains one figure which is Van Gogh the colours used are a mixture of warm which is used for the face whilst the rest of the back ground is incredibly dour with cool and depressing colours being the most prevalent. He is presented with an incredibly morose look upon his face which is also featuring a red haired beard. This to the bottom right also only focuses on the artist there isn’t as much intensity compared to the first image but due to the use of colour which are incredibly dour and depressing still gives the impression that the artist is unhappy. He is presented in a blue waist coat and overcoat with a focused look upon his face. The background is also predominantly cool in colour scheme but textually features a lot of swirling type patterns created by the paint brush which is a common feature in Van Gogh’s work.
Caravaggio Self Portrait Caravaggio (29th September 1571-18th July 1610) was an Italian painter active in Rome, Sicily. He is mostly known for being active during the Baroque period of artwork. This painting is a self portrait of Caravaggio portraying Bacchus the Greek God of wine. He is presented with a crown of leaves upon his head and a tunic that covers his torso. His body is turned away from the audience whilst his head is turned towards us with a rather sickly, morose look upon his face. His hands he is holding on to a group of white grapes. In front of him there appears to be a table that has two peaches and a set of red grapes. The light is shining on the figure who is the focus whilst the background is incredibly dark. Caravaggio appears to be incredibly sickly due to the very pale nature of his skin.
Henri Matisse Self Portraits Henri Matisse ( 31st December 1869-3rd November 1954) was a French artist known for his use of colour and fluidity with his draughtsmanship. He was a Draughtsman, printmaker and sculptor. In the first image Matisse is depicted as a lot younger perhaps mid 30s to early 40s. He is wearing a striped shirt and is equipped with a beard and fairly shaved hair. The image was created using oil on canvas. The tones are incredibly cool and understated with the background being most evident of this going from blue straight to black. In the second drawing Matisse is presented being much older possibly late 50s early 60s, he is lacking in hair and equipped with round glasses and an aged beard. The piece is monochromatic as it does not include any colour as it was created using chalk on paper. This meant it was much easier to blend tonally on important aspects of the subject.
Rembrandt Self Portrait Rembrandt Harmenzoon Van Rijn made around 70 self-portraits within his lifetime. Half of them paintings and half of them were etchings and drawings. He is considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in history. His most notable self portraits include Self Portrait with Beret and turned up collar created in 1659, A young Rembrandt created in 1628 and a self portrait with two circles which was created in 1660 and was used as a way to show his drawing prowess. Rembrandt came to prominence during a time known as the Dutch Golden age. Rembrandt has presented himself here to be much older which is evident due to his grey hair and wrinkles upon his face. He has also presented himself at work as he is equipped with painting equipment evident in his right hand. The light in the painting comes from the top left shining upon the subjects face and illuminates his white turban. This also makes his brown coat and red and white garments appear to be much darker due to the use of shadow. He has also used a variety of marks using the handle of the brush to show facial hair.
Jack Kirby Self Portrait Jack Kirby was an American comic book artist, writer and editor who is mostly known for creating many Iconic Marvel and DC characters way up until his death on February 6th 1994. The illustration here presented Jack as a fairly old man being in his early 50s around the time of this illustration, this is evident due to his greying hair and wrinkles in certain areas of his face. The line work is incredibly bold and dynamic which is prevalent in all of Kirby’s work. The figure is presented wearing a pale yellow shirt turning his head towards the audience with a speech bubble besides him saying “ Kirby says don’t ask! Just READ IT! Please?” in bold stylised writing. He is also presented at the drawing board drawing another issue of a comic book. The colours used are incredibly one dimensional and bold but due to the use of lines means that shading is not necessary.
Denys Cowan Self Portrait Denys Cowan is an American Comic Book Artist mostly well known for creating static shock and co founder for Milestone Comics. This illustration presents the artist as fairly young between early to mid 30s. He is clearly a black male due to the tones he has used for his skin when it comes to the ink. He is wearing a black cap with the logo for Milestone Comic. Behind this is his name presented in colourful writings with triangular patterns underlining it. The line work is incredibly kinetic and scratchy with a crosshatching effect being used for shading. The colours used contrast incredibly well due to the dark tones of the earthy browns and dark browns to the colourful oranges purples and greens.
Poster Designs
Poster influence 1 I do quite like the placement of text as it is clear to read. However it is slightly too small.
I also like the use of the large YEAH behind the modern floral pattern as it can be seen but is a hidden part of the image.
I would like to take the technique of cutting and pasting from this image and use it within my own design as I can create a poster that is incredibly modern and clean.
I have chosen this poster as an influence for my design due to its use of creating a unique pattern by cutting imagery.
I really like the use of colour as the use of reds, pinks and purples contrasts well with the sterile white background.
I really like the pattern as it is clean, professional and the placement means there is more room for text.
I do however feel that the imagery is slightly jarring when looking at it first glance, as it is hard to see that it originally a flower.
Poster influence 2 I would like to use the shard technique from this image as I think it can be highly effective for an image.
I have chosen this design as I like how the woman in the image has been edited to look like she has been shattered liked a shard of glass.
The image itself is incredibly clean and colourful as her skin and make up make the simple image pop. I may also use the shading within the shards to create a 3 dimensional image.
I also like how the use of shading also makes the woman look as if she is looking through a wall adding a 3D element to it.
Poster Influence 3 I decided to look at this image as I wish to perhaps use a comic book style of illustration as in my gallery I'm looking at the work of comic book artist Jack Kirby. In which I feel this use of painterly illustration would apply well to for my poster.
I also like how the movement of the two figure below is portrayed as it is incredibly kinetic yet at the same time realistic giving a unique energy to the poster overall.
I also really like the logo due to its industrial look of the chipping paint, but also because it is incredibly bold, clear to read and colourful due to the different shades of red.
I have chosen this poster as my final poster influence due to the very comical and comic book style that it uses.
There is a very large amount of colour that are mostly warm due to the use of flames and the red logo and costumes of the two central figures.
I really like the painterly style that is brought to all of the figures in the image, this makes it seem as if it is a cover to a comic book, but the use of realistic portrayals of each figure help illustrate that it is in fact from a movie.
I also really like the use of tattered edges as this also makes it look some what like an old fashioned grindhouse movie poster.
For my first poster design I decided to take inspiration from my second poster influence. To do this I took images from Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Carel Fabritius’ Portraits and cut them out to look similar to shards of glass. I have then began to position them at the top of the poster so as to make way for the logo and writing.
I have then added the other portraits of Caravaggio, Denys Cowan and Jack Kirby, cutting them out in the same style as the first three portraits. I then began to add the text. To do this I used Dafont and then pasted the initial text into Photoshop. I then began to create an outline around each word, I then found an image of a watercolour splash and copied the outline over the top, I then clicked paste. This created a very unique colourful font.
This is my final outcome using the technique used in the second poster influence. I quite like how it turned out however I feel it could be improved as the font is placed weirdly and the colour scheme used for it does not match the background. To change this I may use the same technique but apply a light orange colour to it instead of pink/
For this image I took an illustration I did of Rembrandt, placed it on a light pink background and the made it look like shards of glass using the same technique as I did for the first poster and the added abstract purple geometric shapes for which I plan to add text to.
For the font I once again used Dafont and this time I used a comic book themed font as it fits due to the use of Jack Kirby in my gallery. I then added colour to it using the same technique as I did for the first poster idea.
This is the outcome of my process for this poster. I don’t like it very much as I feel the colour palette makes it cheap and tacky and I also feel that cutting the illustration up ruins it. I also feel like font also looks very unprofessional as its similar to comics sans.
For my final poster idea. I used my original Rembrandt illustration in the style of Jack Kirby. I have applied it to a white sterile back ground. In the back ground I have added a red paint splash. For the font I have used Photoshop as the fonts using Dafont came out pixelated. Overall I really like this image due to the illustration which merges to genres together. I also like the use of the sterile background, and I like how the font is simplistic but easy to read.
First poster idea
I really like the placement of the red splatter as it contrasts well with the white background. The circles however I feel I may remove or at least change the colours as they clash with the red.
I like how the face is shaded its use of tones match the original.
However the use of tone could be improved on the clothing as the tones aren’t gradual.
I really like the use of the font due to its minimalist nature
I created this comic book version of Rembrandt using Photoshop paint tools, and have drawn him in the style of Jack Kirby
I have tried to experiment with using paintings from different eras and switching up there aesthetics to create a more interesting image.
Poster Idea 2 I also really like how it has been laid out as it leaves enough room for not only a logo but also the text as well. I would like to use a similar layout for my final poster idea.
I also quite like the colour of the background as its very subtle and not too bright meaning more focus on the parts of the composition.
I also really like the shatter effect that I’ve incorporated from the second idea. I feel it works better if it isn’t just one painting.
To create this font I copied a font from the website Da Font. I then made and outline over the top of a watercolour splash and selected the copy merge tool in the edit tab. I then pasted creating this effect with the fonts. I really quite like the colouring for this font as its modern and abstract and catches the eye of the audience.
Poster Idea 2 To create the shattering Rembrandt image I took my initial Rembrandt drawing and cut it apart to make it look like it has been shattered like glass. I will not be using this as my final idea.
I do not like the font as it looks pixelated. This wasn’t my attention.
I quite like the broken glass effect and may use it for my third poster idea.
However I do not like the colour scheme and feel that it is incredibly tacky. I also feel that it should be slightly more subtle.
I also feel that this poster lacks in quality as it is also too simplistic. The colour of the font however I do like as it compliments the shape in the background. However I do not like the shape as it is too roughly done. Doesn’t look professional.
I have chosen this poster as my final poster as I like the comic book style illustration of Rembrandt helps inform the audience that the gallery features classical and modern pieces of art. For the log I thought it would be best to separated the text from the splash, this is so it wouldn’t be cluttered making the text easier to read.
Ticket Designs
To begin my initial ticket designs I first chose three desired backgrounds. This is so I could explore how my logo would look when applied to different tones as well as illustrations. Therefore when it came to seeing how it would look on top of an illustration I decided to use a black and white Jack Kirby drawing, this is because it relates to the pieces shown in my gallery but also fits with how I have presented my walls in my gallery as they are plastered with black and white jack Kirby drawings.
I then began to apply my logo to the tickets but decided to place it in different locations to see how it would look. I also used the multiply option on all of them. The only one I feel did not work using this effect was the middle as it clashed heavily with the Illustration behind it. Therefore I cut around it and put it back to normal in order for it to be easily more comprehensible.
I then applied the text to my log using a font that is a different tone of red than the font. I have also applied it in different ways to experiment with it looks good in the middle, spread out or placed directly in the middle of the red splatter. Overall my favourite ticket layout is the middle. This is due to the splash of colour contrasting really well with the black and white. Also it looks a lot cleaner to me with the font being in the middle of the logo not spread out. Therefore I will use the middle design as my final ticket design.
To create my gallery I used white foam board. I used this material due to its durability, it is also really easy to cut into and draw onto, this meant I could make my gallery be as accurate as possible. After I cut out my board I then stuck cream coloured sugar paper onto it this is so I could give the diorama texture as if it was a painted building. I then added 3 windows on the left and right side of my gallery to make seem like a more authentic structure. I also added a front door and a fire escape to also make it more realistic. For the front door I cut out an arched door and applied it to the same white foam board, I then cut around the door so the foam board would be the same shape, I did this to more dimensions to my final outcome. On the inside I have decided to go further of using Jack Kirby’s artwork for the prevailing aesthetic, so therefore I have applied black and white Jack Kirby Comic strips to all of the walls. I felt to make it necessary that they were black and white so they did not take the focus away from the painting.
For the paintings I have featured various artists from different eras and different styles. I did this so I could have a variety of different takes on the theme of self portraits. This is why I have Jack Kirby and Caravaggio in the same gallery. To make it seem like a more authentic gallery I have added wooden frames around all of the paintings. I did this by using a frame from google, and then applied it to all of my paintings, before I printed them out and stuck them on to my final outcome. I have also added the names of the paintings, the artists and date of creation to make it seem even more authentic. Overall I feel I have succeeded at being able to explore self portraiture in different styles, and I also feel that I have also managed to go further and look at self portraiture in unexpected areas such as comic books. I feel what could have been done better however is measurement due to certain bits sticking out, making the diorama not as professional as I’d have liked.