VISUAL DIARY Xiyan Mao
CONTENTS Project 2
Project 3
- artists research - thumbnail sketches - brush techniques - tonal sphere - tonal scale - tonal trial painting - final tonal painting
- artists research - geometric designs - colour wheel - complementary colour chart - first geometric abstract painting - second geometric abstract painting
page 3~16
page 17~31
NGV Response
page 32~38
Project 4
page 39~66
Project 5
- artists research - thumbnail sketches (2 sets) - trial Alla Prima painting (2 sets) - final Alla Prima painting (2 sets)
- NGV collection research - final appropriation painting
Glossary
page 67~84
page 85~94
page 2
PROJECT 2
Tonal painting
Artists research
Brittany Tucker, Can I Pay by Card?, 20191
Brittany Tucker is an American artist who foucing on tonal painting. Most of her work are combining her self portriat and a white man. The painting above is one of the example.Tucker has painted herself with full rendering, shadows, and highlight. It is getting a very strong contrast between the portrait and the men just in lines next to her. She has painted the white men more like a cartoon image, more visually impress a 2-dimensional effect, by fully use black as background and white lines to outline the form of the men. Whereas, herself is more demonstrating a 3-dimensional sense by blending different scale of black, grey and white. I really like her style of painting, it is really creative and thoughtful. You could hardly image such image before seeing her work. As her depiction on her website says2, the reason that she choose to paint such art theme is “to misrepresent the white body by caricaturing and simplifying it in order to address the relationship between American blackness and whiteness”. She is trying to reflect the issues in contemporary society with this style of painting. But it makes a lot of fun when you looking at such cartoonish painting. The combination of two painting effect on the same artwork is interesting, and it is exciting to see these two syles are not rejecting each other, but sucessfully work together.
1 Tucker, Brittany. 2019. “Can I Pay By Card?”. Medium. https://medium.com/@curate.LA/artist-brittany-tucker-on-what-comes-afterrepresentation-44f3ce6328d5. 2 “Artist Statement — Brittany Tucker”. 2021. Brittany Tucker. https://www.brittanytucker.net/artist-statement. page 4
Gerhard Richter, Sammler mit Hund, 19661
Gerhard Richer is a German visual artist. During 1960-1970, he found one of the visual effects is particularly interesting--- blurry. The image above is one of his example of oil painting on canvas during that time. The reason for him to start adding blur effect to his works is that he believe “the flowing transitions, the smooth equalizing surface, clarify the content and make the representation credible “2 . He has discovered the relationship between important and unimportant infomation in one painting, and he finally got one solution to make every thing in his painting ot equal value and impartance, it is blurring. In fact, I was choosing this painting because of the motion it demonstrates. I would wonder how brushes were used and hand control of the brushes to create such effect. Because it is clearly blurry, but still the infoemation0 the forms of human, the dogs, and their neessary details such as glass, eyes, tie etc. are not lost even under such effect. I would guess soft brushes was carefully used to finish this final blurring process.
1 Richter, Gerhard. 1966. “Sammler Mit Hund”. Https://Www.Gerhard-Richter.Com/En/Art/Paintings/Photo-Paintings/Animals-2/Collector-With-Dog-5740/?&Categoryid=2&P=1&Sp=32. https://www.gerhard-richter.com/. 2 Richter, Gerhard; Obrist, Hans Ulrich (1995). The Daily Practice of Painting: Writings and Interviews, 1962–1993. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. page 5
As a beginner in oil painting.......
Failures during first time paint: - not enough paints mixed - not sure how much paint I need to fill the colour scale - usually run out of colour after painting the first block - sometimes adding too much white - loss the original colour after mixing with white - and it is hard to get it back - again.....enough mixture of paint - leave some paints for backup - sometimes brush is too dry to paint - sometimes too wet - transparency
What I learn from previous experience: - sometimes what I see on the palette knife might be little bit different colour after paint it on the paper, so testing is important - using this failure paper to test colour before paint on my final work page 6
Tonal scale
After testing all colour and improving the amount of mixtures, the final tonal scale has finished.
* masking tape is used to assist forming the colour block Taking off the masking tape after finishing the painting. Be careful the angle when taking off, the masking tape will easily result laceration on the paper.
page 7
page 8
Sphere tonal painting
This tonal painting of a sphere was done at the same time as working on the tonal scale. Material: - medium size flat brush - palette knife - half canvas paper - burnt umber and french ultramarine - linseed oil as oil medium I firstly start painting from the blackest part, then gradual mixing white to the colour again and again to achieve this gradient. At each touching edges/curves I used cleaned-soft brush to blend them together, aiming to make the transition more smooth. - the final layer of light grey under the highight, I think it is not well finished the edges are still clearly to see. It would be still recognizeable that it is a sphere. But I am always fell something not correct and sudden when looking at this light part of the sphere.
* this image colour might be different from what tonal scale shows, they have been taken photograph in seperate day and time.... this one is under a yellowish LED lamp, and the tonal scale is under a really nice natural daylight, so that one should be the most close to that I could see in reality
page 9
Thumbnail drawing
- this one really hard to find the accurate form, especially at the folding area, where several piece paper folding together
- it looks like a pavilion... this actually giving me some inspiration to my architecture project - I feel little tone changes while sketching
- I like this one because it showing clear division of space, half of the model has huge unfolded area facing the camera, the other half are more in folded mode. - the highlight and the darkest shadow are all strongly contrasting to each other page 10
- intersting form and point of view - the folding is not enough in this pic
- I like this one because the form really looks like a paper fan, it is easy to define each folds as well - will choose one between Drawing 5 and Drawing 3 for my final
page 11
Brush Techiniques
page 12
Trail tonal painting Materials: - half canvas paper - oil paint: tinium white, burnt umber, french ultramarine - pencil&rubber - masking tape - tonal chart
- cropped model
Methods/steps: 1. stick canvas paper on drawing surface with masking tape 2. using pencil to draw simple shape of the model on the canvas 3. get a set of tonal scale 4. use flat brush to cover the model area with white 5. larger brush to cover the background with heavier colour 6. start adding detail shadows on the model , from layering light- tonal painting for cropped model er shadow to darker shadow 7. dry the brush and blending the shadows to make the surface more visually smoother Things to improve: - the edges of the need to be take care and refined in further painting- sharp or blend the edge - the background is too dark to add any shadow, some detail will be lost in this situation - the control of oil medium is not quite well controlled, especially for the background, there are parts showing transparent, and parts showing opaque. page 13
Final tonal painting
1
2
Stage 1-3 are focusing on painting the background. Learnt from previous trails, I have mixed more white to the neutral black to result a relatively light grey as the vertical background. The horizontal surface will be more lighter than the background, aiming to giving some depth to the space.
3 page 14
The other thing I’ve tried to improve during this process is the edges. As highlighted in the circle, I tried achieve a refined, clean and clear edge. The amount of linseed oil is hard to control to achieve this. If less linseed oil, the edge will be really rough, and if more, the edge will not be opaque. The way to conrol the movement of brush is important as well.
4
Stage 4-6 are focusing on the folding paper model.
5
Firstly, painting the model area in white, then adding some really light grey as basic shadow on the surface of model. Basic folding shape will be seen after adding the light grey. Secondly, painting shadows which the model casted on the background and surface. If the model is touching the surface, the shadow need to be darker and clearer. If the shadow are casting far from the model, then it will be more blurred and blended. Next step will be gradually adding one layer of darker shadow on another paint layer again and again to create depth to the model. It is important to blend the colours smoothly together.
6 page 15
The final stage for this painting giving the most value and depth. It is adding the darkest shadow and lightest white (highlight) to the edges of the folding paper. And they are the key point which makes the paper on the painting seems to have certain thickness like what it shows in reality.
Tonal painting_Folding paper_Final
page 16
PROJECT 3
Geometric abstraction
Artists research
Untitled no.4, Robert Hunter, 19851 Robert Hunter is an Australian artists who leads late modernist abstract art in Australia. He has his signature white painting like the example image shown above. His practice mainly focuses on diagonal, horizontal and vertical geometric formations. The artwork shown here is synthetic polymer paint on board. Frank mainly used masking tape to form the grids, and paint perfect shapes in shades of white grey. This painting really encourages audiences to stop and take a closer look. Although it might be a trick, because you would find out that it will be much easy to read the whole painting pattern if you stand further away from the painting. I like his style of art because he seems not really rely on using colours to deliver his understanding of abstract art. Instead, the paintings he did which fully covered with same/similar white/blue tone usually unemotive and not delievering messages through the colours, but the shapes. The single colour tone combined with grided shapes are making eyes really comfort, they are not giving a strong impression, but delievering a sense of pure and healing.
1 Hunter, Robert. 1985. “Untitled No. 4 | MCA Australia”. Mca.Com.Au. https://www.mca.com.au/artists-works/works/1995178/. page 18
Hyena Stomp, Frank Stella, 19621 Frank Stella is an American artists who is famous for his hard-edge painting such as the painting example shown above. Acrylic paints are normally used. In his works, shapes, colours, composition and straight hard lines are all exaggerated. His long time studies of shapes and colours made him believe that “The shapes and the interaction of the shapes and colors would give you a narrative sense. You could have a sense of an abstract piece flowing along and being part of an action or activity.”2 This work really makes me think and wonder how shapes were designed as it goes towards the center, how colours interact and changes, where is the changing point of colour etc. The first impression when looking at this painting will be so much different if you starring at it for a long time, or if I took my glass off to see it, it would be another sense. I think the reason behind it is mostly about the design of colour. The colour here is too strong and bright, which combining with this shape will easily giving audience some illusion.
1 Stella, Frank. 1962. “Hyena Stomp”. Tate Kids. https://www.tate.org.uk/kids/explore/who-is/who-frank-stella. 2 “Frank Stella | Artnet”. 2021. Artnet.Com. http://www.artnet.com/artists/frank-stella/. page 19
* Feedback: - the straight lines are ok, avoid using too much curves because they will be hard to form by using masking tape page 20
Added several geometries only with straight lines or one curve/circle
page 21
page 22
Colour chart
page 23
page 24
Colour wheel
Primary colour(center): red, yellow, blue Secondary colour(2nd layer): violet, green, orange - secondary colour made from mixtures of two primary colours, 3rd layer colour is made from mixture of two secondary colours, 4th layer colour........ Complementary colour: opposite side colour on the colour wheel ie. yellow and violet orange and blue red and green blue green and red orange..... ** - the colour dry really fast, so it is important to fill one section quickly before the layer dry - if putting too much water will be like what blue and violet section shows
page 25
Geometric Abstraction Finals
The masking tape has ripped off the colours as well. This is what I did to try to fix the edges aftering filling the top yellow area. This kind of probelm always occurs during the process of this painting, so several edge details on the final work are whether relatively darker than original colour or lines are not perfectly straight.
What I find: the colours become really opaque and milky as you adding more white - masking tape, it might be left under direct sunlight too much time, it becomes really really sticky, I need to buy a new one
page 26
Geometric abstraction_Final_1
page 27
Stage 1-4 is the preparation process for this geometric painting. - find someting round ie, I got a bottom of bottle to help me draw the circle - use pencil (2B) to draw basic lines on canvas paper **mine ones are too dark, be aware of the pencil used and how much strength needed when draw the outline, they might be too strong lines to be fully covered when painting colours on top - masking tape stick on top of paper, align on the lines drawn, in order to paint perfect edges - to get the hollow area for circle, firstly covering the full circle area with masking tape (cont. next page) page 28
paper are also ripped off because of masking tape is too sticky...
*** important: to avoid above issue, stick masking tape several times on table before stick on the paper (take lots of time)
too much paints, probably too much water as well.....the paints leak to other area while ripping off the masking tape, would probably wait few minutes to half dry before ripping off masking tape
Process: - find a cutting knife cut a circle shape on the masking tape - fill in different tints of orange colour (orange+white) - rip off the masking tape, problems occurs - continue sticking tape to form the next round of shapes - fill in blue colours in (blue+white) page 29
Repeating previous processes on sticking masking tape, mixing colour, painting and ripping off the tapes. Step by step, I finally got these. The final image is a gradient test that I did before filling the final white area around the circle. Because I want to blend different colours such as orange and blue shown in my example, and not just one tints of colours (orange----orange+white) **Note that I have bought a new masking tape for this work, so the edges of shapes in this painting will be more sharp and hard than previous work, still there are some errors occur, but the lines really got improved. page 30
Geometric abstraction_Final_2
page 31
NGV Response
A monk with a book, Titian, 15501 Titian is an Italian painter. He produced this artpiece during Renaissance using oil painting on canvas. - the artwork is fully covered with oil paints, however if zoom in the yellowish backgruond, the tooth and weaves are not refined, and certain rough canvas texture will be shown - monk centralized, portrait, focusing human - not much detail on the clothes, instead, he painted it all black - the face and hand and book will stand out by contrasting with the dark cloth - the whole painting is in a warm mood, which besides the darkest and highlight colour, all other colour that used are in a yellow tone - the face, the book, the backgrond... - the background painted with a colour like mixture of ochre and umber, differentiating the foreground (human body) and background, giving certain depth to the ground area - Titian might use large flat brushes to quikly cover black and backgruond color, the face and book might require several riggers or small size flat/round brush - consider the brush texture is not really clear shown in this painting, and the gradient are blended such smooth, I guess soft brushes are most used - the painting have so much deail if zoom in, ie, small white highlight, the movement of the beard, the pattern on the book etc. 1 “A Monk With A Book”. 1550. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/3751/. page 33
Madonna in prayer, Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato, 1640-16501 Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato is also an Italian artist. This painting was finished during Baroque period. - when comparing with the previous Renaissance painting, the dfference of art between two periods of time in the Europe history will be clear. This painting exaggerated more dramatic colour, which is bright, colourful, active and emotive. Whereas the “A monk with a book“ are more touching realism, appeal a single tone. - this painting also has the prayer to focus - no hard lines but the edges are clear by using different colour - shadows are soft, very fine blended gradient - Sfumato paintig techniques - the lighting might came from top left of this painting evidence: scarf’s shadow on the face, the dark area of both scarf and cloth (all darker on the right) the highlight on the neck
1 Sassoferrato, Giovanni Battista Salvi da. 1640. “Madonna In Prayer”. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/ work/70383/. page 34
Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, Jusepe de Ribera, 1620-16241 Jusepe de Ribera is a Spainish painter, printmaker. His mature works were done in Italy, which this paitning is an example. - clear exaggerated dark and bright = Chiaroscuro - different from the pevious two paintings which are all portrait, this painting has several people involved, so how does Ribera define the focal point and leading the audieces to a first impression? - all people in this panting were giving different level of brightness, such as man in the front with really bright skin colour and highlights, I believe what audience firstly seen when looking at this painting will be him - very detailed shadows demonstrate the motion of human body - colour are thin and soft - you could not see the brushwork, but soft brush ust be used to create such soomth effect of human body - it almost seems like a spotlight shooting from top left of the painting to this front man due to the level difference
1 RIBERA, Jusepe de. 1620. “Martyrdom Of Saint Lawrence”. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/ work/83337/. page 35
The melon, Édouard Manet, 18801 Édouard Manet is a French modernist painter who focuses on paint realism and impressionism. This painting is one of his still life oil painting on canvas, - brush movement is really strong in this painting - several levels of paints, layering one on another, making the melon form really stand out - Alla prima, the highlight area on the melon should be contained all other colours under the final layer, thus this final brush stroke is particularly thick and opaque, it almost like this melon has juice leaking out from the melon itself - light source from top left of the object, as highlight shows - I would guess the artist didn’t use really small size brush because from the painting itself, there are not certain areas which have really tiny and soft details. A medium sized flat/ round brush would just enough to paint all details on the melon. Also, with the kind of painting style, the mood and impression of the painting is more important than a refined and realistic details. And this is what I think this painting is successful about, the impression appeals a lot
1 Manet, Édouard. 1880. “The Melon”. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/4162/. page 36
Study from the human body, Francis Bacon, 19491 Francis Bacon is a British painter who focuses on human forms. This artwork is one of his example on oil painting the human body. - paint on canvas - Dry brush technique has clearly used - the brush movement, vertically - most of the colours are not opaque - not much oil medium - medium size hard brush might be used to produce such effect - even though this dry brush painting will not show that much detail such as smooth, soft shadows, but the contrast between colour white and grey and yellow will help to form a rough human body shape. - because of the brush is dry when painting, the oil paints layer will not be thick - the highlights on the human arm seems opaque but if zoom in to have a look, it should be layered several layers of dry white to produce this effect
1 Bacon, Francis. 1949. “Study From The Human Body”. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/3761/. page 37
Parrots live forever, Audrey Flack, 19781 Audrey Flack is an American artist and photographer. This artwork was done on canvas with use of oil paints and synthetic polymer paint. - projection and masking are used to create clear forms and edges when colouring - different with all previous works, this painting used synthetic polymer paint probably to fill one layer before the oil paints above, so that the final work demonstrating an really opaque, brightful colour - the problem for this painting might be the way to differentiate the foreground, middleground and background under such bright colour fully covering the canvas, such as the parrot, now it is clearly the foreground because of its surface texture, its highlight and the materiality, but it could be difficult to deal with this object while painting because the colour behind this parrot is also red - I would wonder if such materiality of the parrot, the fruits are all achieved benefiting from the use of synthetic polymer paints.
1 Flack, Audrey. 1978. “Parrots Live Forever”. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/3957/. page 38
PROJECT 4
Alla Prima oil painting
Artists research
Louise Hearman, Untitled#1234, 20071 Louise Hearman is an Australian based artist. Her works are well known as surreal juxtaposition and eerie light. The image above is an clear example on demonstrating eerie light. Her works are normally left untitled because she hopes the viewers giving their own defination from different perspectives. From my perspective, this painting has a really strong emotion on terrifying. Normally, when painter painting a portrait, they would got a spotlight at least on the face of the focal object/person. But for this work, Hearman has painted the girls face completely under dark, which giving a strong mood. Combinig with the background light red, this work makes me feel like a poster for a horror movie. I actually curious about how she draw the hair lines, it seems really detailed thin lines which I believe it would be hard to achieve especially painting with an Alla Prima techniques. How she stops the white hair lines from mixing up with the underlayer colour- umber? 1 Hearman, Louise. 2007. “Louise Hearman | MCA Australia”. Mca.Com.Au. https://www.mca.com.au/artists-works/artists/louise-hearman/. page 40
Edouard Manet, Boating, 18741 Edouarf Manet is a French modernist painter. His painting style has trasformed from realism to impressionism. The oil painting above is a good example of Alla prima painting. The brush stroke is really clear. And you the viewer could feel the thickness of the colour paints. The movement of brushes shown on the lady’s cloth and the sea are all showing a beautiful visual effect.
1 Manet, Edouard. 1874. “Boating”. Metmuseum.Org. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436947. page 41
Trail sketching&painting
I choose the third one. Because there are various colour gradient changes. The first one is to bright and the second one has too much shadows ---to dark,
page 42
Trail photograph Annotations: - light source and shadows, highlights on the object - background - composition of objects - from sketching, i found this trail composition has really clear shadows on the background, thus the objects themselves really stands out with fresh colours and clear highlights.
page 43
* background colour is too dark ----- need more linseed oil....? * hard to rub a clear shape for my objects, only a rough lighter space shown in the image
1. filling the background with burnt umber 2. use rag to rub the area fo objects
* a sharp and clear line for the shadow edge
3. painting another layer of burnt umber as background shadow
* all colours and outlines at this stage is really rough, which it is even hard to recognize what i am painting, but the good news is the shape of the apple finally clearly shown in this painting
3. painting another layer of burnt umber as background shadow (cont.)
* the shape and 3-d features of objects are shown more by adding some lines on them
4. painting another layer of burnt umber in the objects’ area to demonstrate the darkest/ shadow part page 44
5. paint another layer of black colour to the darkest area at the background
6. fill a bottom/ground colour (red) to the apple, be careful when painting the edges
7. get the mixtures of background colour tone, mine one is cold grey
8. blend between two different colour tone together to make the transition more smoothly, more like folding a drape instead of a sharp folding edge of a paper page 45
9. start adding mid-tone shadows to the apple 10. add darkest lines and some vertical linear patterns, also paint the yellow part of the apple 11. try to blend the yellow to red ground colour then, add highlight to inform the light source direction 12. add some details **My apple didn’t blend really well. The highlight, darkest part and the yellow part on the apple don’t seems intergrated. It felt like they are been installed on this object but not demonstrated as part of the apple.
page 46
13. paint ground colour for white cabbage 14. light green covering all leaves area 15. add shadows, lines, and blend the shadows 16. stipple white highlight as the final layer paints, this layer is thicker to giving more depth to the object ** I don’t know how to draw the white cabbage, there are so much details, grains on its leaves. I found out one solution to paint such vegetable---- use strong brush movement to demonstrate the flow of the leaves. Such effect was achieved by firstly layering a basic colour covering full leaves area -- then, add the second layer of darker green, on top, the important part is to use the hair of the brush, to show the hair texture while painting to create effect -- finally, paint the highlight- the white, I used stippling and rotating the brush on edges of the leaves to achieve movement
page 47
final trail alla prima
page 48
Alla Prima Final 1
I have change the orientation of the image when drawing the thumbnail. Because the white cabbage and bottle are vertical, plus I set them up close to each other, which makes the composition seems really thin. The light and dark are really strong contrast in this image.
I like this composition. The bottle and the cabbage seems in a curved motion. The painting would be fun because these two objects themselves all need to be painted with linear vertical brush strokes. The brush strokes combine with this motive composition should be interesting.
page 49
It really looks like an “L“ shape, especially the proportion of the bottle is wrong on my sketching......
I don’t like this proportion. The composition just seems unbalance. The left side has a really tall bottle. And the level suddenly down to the bottom on the right hand side where apple and cabbge are placed.
I like this composition. They are not showing different in vertical level like the previous one. Instead, it allows more deepth to demonstrate when setting the bottle horizontally on the surface. The changes then becomes layers from front to back-- foreground, middleground and background.
page 50
Following the same process, this time I added some white to the burnt umber, with the help of linseed oil, I successfully painted the backgrond colour as shown in image no.3. It is quite transparent, the outline that was drawn by pencil is still visible. I clearly feel difference between canvas board and paper that I used during the trail. This canvas board allows the brush paint smoothly, where as the paper is a little bit rough, hard to rub using a rag. Whereas it is clearl shown in this final image, the shape of objects and highlight are all successfully rubbed off. page 51
The canvas board keeps much wetter than the paper, which you could even see the light reflection on the oil paints, which giving more issues while painting wet on wet. The colours are more easily to mix together under this situation. page 52
These are the process to finish painting the background. I feel some improvements when comparing this painting to the fist trail. The drape shows more depth and shadow gradient. The highlight on the horizontal surface also adding a deeper value to the background, and to better serve the focal objects. page 53
The apple here is the same as the one in the trail painting. I have noticed that there are some patterns on its surface, which I didn’t draw in my trail. Therefore, I tried to add these linear patterns using red+umber and yellow+white. At first, they are hard lines and I feel strange like they are not part of the apple (image no.1). So I tried to blend them a little with the apple ground colour to make them more integrated. I am really satisfy the final result, even the pattern is not that obvious in reality, my painting has exaggerated it, but I still got a good experience. Then I painted the bottle. It is obviously different to all fruits’ surface, the highlight is really straight, hard, bright and obvious, feels like it is shining. I have tried to add several layers of white, but still difficult to achieve a shining effect on my painitng. page 54
I have asked my parents about their thought to my previous cabbage painting. They said that it feels like the cabbage is really dirty, like it is not been washed. It might be my shadows were added to much umber. So this time I want to fix this problem. I tried to add light green to grey to mix up a shadow colour, and avoiding using too much umber. The final outcome has a better visual effect than the trail one. The final process on stippling the white highlight are not that success as the trail one. The previous paint layers on the canvas board are too wet, which is a much different experience from the trail paper. The white is easily to become grey while rotating the brushes , especially painting on the edge between background and the cabbage. I have to use thicker white paints, layering on top again and again to get the colour right. page 55
page 56
Trail sketching&painting 2
**I choose this position as my final trail
- too dark on the pepper head - not enough shadow changes on the peppr and knife surface
- the shadow on pepper’s body is interestomh - I want to draw portriat orientation
- the shadow and lights are all good - structrue and form of pepper is clear
page 57
This second alla prima I want to try a portrait oriented painting. The processes are basically same, - burnt umber background - dark shadows on both background and objects - paint basic ground colour for green pepper - adding more tone and highlight to the background - paint highlights and shadows on the pepper to make it more 3d like - repeating the process to painting the knife. **The final carving on knife was created using small size brush to stipple on its surface page 58
Before starting this trail, I discussed about the shadows with my parents, they propose what we actually see in reality might not be the real shadow colour. They believe the shadow should reflect the objects’ colour. For example, what I did in this painting, even in reality the head of this pepper seems in black shadow, but to differentiate it with the background, I decided to paint it in dark green, which I think is quite effective
Main difficulties for this painting might be the texture of both green pepper and the porcelain knife. Different from previous works on painting fruits with un-reflective surfaces, the pepper and knife are highly reflecting the light because of their glabrous surfaces. Therefore, strong blending shouldn’t be used on painting these two objects. Instead, try to mix a series of colours which don’t have strong contrast. I think what I’ve done well in this trail project, is that even I didn’t really blend too much on the pepper’s surface, the colour gradient are still transformed really well. Also, I like the ultramarine carving on the knife handle, I think it makes the white knife alive. But I am actually not really satisfy with the background, You could recognize there is a drape behind the objects, there is shadow and highlight, but you cannot really understand how it is folded from the painting itself. My painting is not well showing the structure of drape overall. page 59
page 60
Alla Prima Final 2
I like the distribution in this image. It seems to have clear foreground, middleground and background, and the objects are set up like layers laying on each other, one set behind another, one on higher level than another. The folding drape is also different from what I did in previous alla prima paintings, which I think it would be quite challenging. **Thats also my reason to choose this one as my final
The image here is interesting. The elder seems to look at something, which is the touching point between the red pen and the plate. But I think the whole image is quite flat, lack of hierarchy,
page 61
The objects here in this image is too dark I suppose. It would be hard to differentiate objects from the dark background.
The uniqueness of this objects distribution might be both the elder and the red pen are casting shadows on the plate, giving a good deepth of the whole image.
The foloded shape of drape is interesting, but the composition seems too flat.
page 62
These are basic preperation process on adding undertone for the alla prima painting. While covering burnt umber to the canvas board, I found out there were paints becoming solidity on the surface of the canvas:
The reason to have such thing occur might because there are residues left on the brushes--brushes not well cleaned and the paints become solid on the brush. Or the burnt umber which left on the palette start to solidifying, when I applied some linseed oil on top, the paint still works, but those dregs would just be attached with the paints at the same time. Different from previous process, I decide to paint the ground colour for all objects before starting painting the background. The reason is simple, Both plate and the toy are in a white ground colour, and also the pen is in primary colour of red. Which all these colours could be got directly from the tube. Therefore, to speed up the whole process, I decided too paint them all. page 63
I think I have well improved on painting the folded drape. This time it is a t-shirt with pink band. I feel especially the foldings on the pink band is well painted. The blending here is successful, which make cloth seems so smooth and soft. The objects are all have high reflective surface because of their material characterstics, which means the highlight should be small and strong, unlike the previous paintings on fruits. page 64
The main difficulties on painting several final step shown on this page might be the details on the red pen. The pen is in a really small scale, which means the highlight and details are all tiny (as shown in the circle). It is hard to control using the brush hair to get such thin lines as highlight on the inside surface of the cap. Especially when it is wet on wet, the white is easily mixing with silver colour. It is important to get really thick opaque paints on the brush, once painted, you have to clean the brush with rags at once, then add another layer of thick, opaque paints, then clean it, again and again. It is to make sure all layers of white are pure white. page 65
page 66
PROJECT 5
Appropriation
The first impression of this painting for me is empty. It always feels like there must be someting behind the window which is not demonstrated in this painting, and that makes me to keep questioning on what kind of person owns this appartment, what kind of life he/she spends inside the room, then what kind of thing they could see through this window, thus----why they open this window? In praise of dialectics, René MAGRITTE, 19371
Then I saw these two artworks, which both about a painter‘s portrait. Plus the window shape from above painting looks really like a frame for portrait. Therefore, I decide to combine one of these two paintings with the apartment, so that the owner of this apartment will be an oil painter.
Pondering the landscape2
Considering current situation with COVID-19, I think this new appropriation will also reflect a painter’s life during lock down. He would not be happy and could just open the window to find things outside that he can paint.
Self-portrait3
This appropriation wilil also be like a mirror. Imagine what he is starring at, it might be another painter who paints this artpiece. It then might beome a story which two painters painting each other through windows. 1 Magritte, René. 1937. “In Praise Of Dialectics”. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/4157/. 2 Litherland, Victor, 1942. “Pondering the landscape”. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/5856/. 3 Rowell, William, 1940. “Self-portrait”. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/5856/. page 68
Collage 1_Artists during lock down
page 69
This is oil painting of White horse by John Frederick Herring senior. When first time seeing this artwork, I feel like the horse is trapped in a small space, and only one small window allowing few light goes in. The halter on its neck, mouth and back implied that it is under fully control from human. I would wnder, after seeing this painting, if such creature have longings or dream to the freedom when staying in this environment. White Horse, John Frederick Herring senior, 18341
Then I saw this painting by Duncan Grant. It is a lanscape view of a place next to the sea. This location is called Newhaven cliff. In several lieratures, the sea is symbolizing vitality and freedom. So I suddenly have an idea on letting the horse leave that space, move it to an open natural envrionment. Also, I wonder if the horse as a terrestrial animal, would have dream to swim in the sea. Newhaven Cliff, Duncan Grant, 19332
** I finally choose this one because I like the theme on freedom, and I want to discover painting about animal body.
1 Herring (senior), John. F. 1834. “White Horse”. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/4037/. 2 Grant, Duncan. 1933. “Newhaven Cliff”. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/3995/. page 70
Collage 2_White horse’s dream of the sea
page 71
I really like this style of painting. Only using colour to outline people, rather than adding any shadows to make it 3-d.
The accident, Jon Cattapan, 19901
This painting is a girl kissing a boy, but she is holding a knife. Does she gonna hurt the boy? I think the title of the painting has already told the answer.
She must looking at something..... I thought. Therefore, an idea of combining the previous painting and this one together justa came out. It would be a really great contrast between a loney woman and a kissing couple, which encourages audiences to wonder what the old lady thinks when she see the couple...... is she sad because she is alone? is it reminding her happiness life when she was at the couples’ age? Have she saw the knife in the girls’ hand? If she saw it, what action she will take? Old woman, Opoul, Noel Counihan, 19812
1 Cattapan, Jon. 1990. “The accident”. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/120871/. 2 Counihan, Noel. 1981. “Old woman, Opoul”. Ngv.Vic.Gov.Au. https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/5394/. page 72
Collage 3_Lonely old women and kissing couple
page 73
Analyse_ Colours pink +white +grey
ultramarine +grey white +blue ochre +red +white
ochre +umber +black
ochre +white
ochre +umber +black
white +purple
white as highlight
white
blue +red
white +yellow +ochre
ochre blue +white +yellow
ochre +grey
black
Overall, this image is in a yellowish tone. All colour are not bright. page 74
umber +yellow +white
Analyse_ Brush techniques the brush movement should be shown clearly to demonstrate sea waves, it might be achieved by adding thick layer of blue on top, and brush moves in a curved ilne. ie.
large or medium size brush, I might choose to use large brush firstly cover the hill with one layer of undercolour, then use medium brush to add brush movement effect and other colour layers in this area
Vertical brush movement is obvious on the whole hill (mountain?) or rock
brush movement rigger or smallest size flat/round brush (soft)
medium size flat brush large size flat brush
From first observing this artwork, the background sea and other environmental elements seems be painted in a wet on wet (Alla prima) technique. The brush movement and thickness of each paints layer are clear. Also, the edges are not fine painted, not hard and sharp, they are rough but enough to show the mood of surroundings. It could be finished quickly in one day. The White horse might need more time. There are lots of small details on the horse body. The main difficulties for me might be to control stabilizing my hand while using the head of small brush to achieve such sharp and refined shadows to form up muscles. page 75
These four stages are the preperation process before painting. - edit and print out the final selected appropriation image in black and white, mine one is printed on A3 paper (depends on the canvas size you have) because I got a 40*30cm canvas board - use a pencil (I have 2B) to sketch the back of A3 print out until it is all covered with black (picture no.3) - using masking tape to stick the print out on canvas board page 76
These four stages are about creating outline and colour mixing. - use a pencil (I have HB because it is harder than 2B or 4B, make sure the head of pencil is sharp) to trace the ouline of objects on the print out **Basic about pencil: H and B stand for Hard and Black relatively, pencil which label as 2B,4B,6B etc. meaning they are black, and as number increases, more deep the black would be draw by pencil, ie, 6B is darker than 4B. Same as pencil labelled as H, 2H, 4H etc. The reason that I choose to use 2B sketching at the back and seperatly using a different hardness pencil to trace, are all aiming to get a clear image on canvas as possible. - after taking off the print out and masking tape, the image will occur on canvas - mixing several colours and comparing them with the original colour on the screen, the third image shows a set of blue, some are simple blue+white, some are added little yellow to make the sea colour greenish page 77
- I choose to paint the black part of halter on the horse first, because I want iit to dry before starting paint the horse - then I finished all the sea and sand parts on the same day during this process I find out due to the limitation of colours, my colour might be to bright after painting Also it is hard to get same colour when trying to imitate the original work. Which result as my paintng will in a similar tone as the original work, but all colours are not realy accurate. page 78
**The thing that I want to particularly point out is these little errors when painting around the horse’s body. Sometimes it would easily accidently paint the colour on the horse body, or cover edges of black halter. My solution is to leave them to half dry (leaving for like a day or over night). Then they will be fixed by layering another layer of oil paints on top to cover the wrong colour.
**It would be hard to cover if the under layer is wet
These processes are basically adding more details to the surronding environment, and repeating mixing colours, comparing and painting new area with Alla prima method. All Alla prima part were finished in two days. This page is showing the second day work. Also, the ground colour for the horse need to be done before the second day ends. I need it to dry before painting its muscles. page 79
This is the third day. - finish painting the background hill? cliff? it is important to paint it several layers vertically to create clear brush movement - then added simple secondary shadow on the horse body, the horse should be at least half dried this day because the fist layer is thin **Note don’t worry too much if accidently paint out of the edges of the horse - final picture shows the beginning of painting the details for horse, starting from its head
page 80
I basially divided the horse’s body into several blocks based on the distribution of the halter. These following series of pictures are showing the process to finish painting each block of the body. Also I have highlighted certain area that works on at each stage in the circle. - the main strategy to paint clear muscle is to not blend too much, paint clear, hard curves and lines, which will finally result in a strong body form , visually speaking. page 81
During this process, I found out: - hard to control the brush to draw thin line, especially the shadows on the legs
- there was an accident, the colour once run out, and it is hard to get the same colour as the original mixture. So as the first circle detail on this page shown, the colour on the left are more like yellowish like sand colour, and the on on rght is more white and grey. It would be ok if looking at this horse far away from the painting. But it will be funny if you zoom in to have a look. It feels like the horse body has been disassembled. - ** I’ve added some shadows under the horse to make it seems more realistic, more integrated to the surrounding environment at the final stage. page 82
photograph at night under diffused lamp
HOW LIGHT SOURCE AND CAMERA POSITION INFLUENCE THE PAINTING DIGITALLY...... :(
photograph during the day under sunlight (not directly, should be diffused)
page 83
TIPS
** The white were used really fast. It almost run out at the end of this course, whereas all other colours seems saved a lot.
** Keeping the brush clean is important, or otherwise, it will soon start hardening, and the hair will be out of its original shape. ** Maintenance of the brushes - often rub off oil paints with rags when using the brushes - clean the brush with water at least everyday before sleep - swipping the hair of the brush on a soap - use fingers to squeeze the hair several times until all paints inside the brush are out - put the brushes in warm water for an hour - take them out and use paper or rag to absorb water away from the brush - leave brush in a space where has good ventilation
page 84
Glossary
page 86
page 87
page 88
Chiaroscuro1
Triptych2
Diptych3
Sfumato4
Grisaille5 page 89
page 90
Emboss6
Relief7
Gesture8 page 91
page 92
page 93
References 1 Merisi De Caravaggio, Michelangelo. 1607. “Saint Jerome Writing”. Draw Paint Academy. https:// drawpaintacademy.com/chiaroscuro/. 2 Campin, Robert. 2021. “The Mérode Altarpiece”. En.Wikipedia.Org. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Triptych. 3 Salle, David. 1982. “Calm Down In A Diary (Diptych)”. Tate. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/d/ diptych. 4 Da Vinci, Leonardo. 1517. “Mona Lisa”. En.Wikipedia.Org. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa. 5 Bruegel, Pieter. 1565. “Christ And The Woman Taken In Adultery (Bruegel)”. En.Wikipedia.Org. https:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_and_the_Woman_Taken_in_Adultery_(Bruegel). 6 Adams, Robert. 1971. “Whiteprint”. Tate. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/e/embossed. 7 Ghiberti, Lorenzo. 1424. “Gates Of Paradise”. En.Wikipedia.Org. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relief. 8 Steely, Rachel. 2012. “Kathy In Blue: Gesture Paintings”. https://www.rachelsteely.com/blog/kathy-inblue-gesture-paintings/.
page 94
REFLECTION From this subject, I get knowledge about basics on oil painting and acrylic painting. I get to know their differeces and able to compare their properties and features in real life practices. Overall after all experiences, I feel more fond of the oil painting. The brush stroke and thickness of paints create really good visual effect, which other kind of paints such as acrylic or watercolour cannot achieev that. The texture of oil colour is such attractive. Also, I am able to recognize the colour wheel, to know some basics on collocation of colours, which it will be really helpful for my future studies in my architecture studio projects. I am really happy to choose this subject this summer (start of 2021). It is enjoyable and interesting. It actually also enriched my life during lock down.
page 95