Working on textures!

Hi.

 Klee

 Klimt

Mondrian

Currently we're studying color and value in Design. We're working on concept boards and these are three of the images I'm using. I really love Klee's use of colors and how the yellow counterbalances the blue. I also love Klimt's piece for many reasons ( he's one of my favorite artists. ) I think the dark subtle tones in his work are visually stimulating yet calming at the same time. Mondrian's use of vivid reds and purples though, are almost annoying. I like the piece, but I feel like it's a little difficult to look at, at the same time.

There is nothing that special to see when looking at me. I'm a painter who paints day in day out, from morning till evening - figure pictures and landscapes, more rarely portraits.

- Gustav Klimt

Still working on my panel. I added a lot more to the wave and I think it helps balance the lines I don't like. The pointillism on the right though is taking forever.

Making progress on my panel! I'd have more done but I had the flu for about a week. I'm still really unhappy with the lines on the wave... I just feel like they look terrible. But the upside is that I think the drips came out really well.

Comparing two pieces from the Met

Frans Hals

Dutch, Antwerp 1582/83-1666 Haarlem

Portrait of a Man, possibly Nicolaes Pietersz Duyst van Voorhout

Oil on Canvas

Painted around 1636-38

Rembrandt

Dutch, Leiden 1606-1669 Amsterdam

Hendrickje Stoffels

Oil on Canvas

Painted at different intervals in the years 1655-60

Both of these pieces are Dutch in origin, and come from around the same time period, give or take 20 years. However, they both are extremely different in nature. The lighting, lines, and feeling emanating from both of these pantings differ extremely.

In the painting of Hendrickje Stoffels, you are looking at her, but she is not looking back. There is great use of psychic line and implied line here. The contour of her face and shoulders is very gentle and almost sweet. 

The painting by Frans Hals, however, is almost abrupt in nature compared to Rembrandt's. There is use of line as texture and pattern in his garments. This piece also is composed almost entirely of explicit lines. He is staring at you in an almost jovial fashion, which makes you feel a little bit happy, but a little uncomfortable as well.

Homework #3 pt.2

Yue MinJun, The Massacre at Chios

This piece has many interesting elements. It uses asymmetrical balance. The shapes are also interesting, being very distorted, rather than natural. The colors are very plain, but it still makes you curious. The piece is a massive self portrait of Yue MinJun laughing. The title makes it a little macabre, even, that he is laughing.

Eleanor Antin: Inventing Histories

Homework #3

Chapter 5/8

1. Describe the difference between balance and imbalanced work? Imbalanced work is often consciously done on purpose, and raises feelings of uneasiness and discomfort. Balanced work, however, often occurs subconsciously and feels much more unified.

2. What is horizontal and vertical placement? Horizontal balance generally refers to the right and left sides of an image. Vertical balance refers to the way an image is split from top to bottom.

3. What is symmetrical balance, and give an art historical example? Symmetrical balance occurs, shapes are repeated in the same positions on a vertical axis. Example: Hiroshi Sugimoto. U.A. Play House. 1978 

4. How can asymmetrical balance be achieved with value/color/ shape and texture? With asymmetrical balance, balance is gained through use of dissimilar objects which have equal visual weight.

5. What is radial balance? Radial balance is when all the elements of a piece radiate from a central point.

6. Give a good example of a piece of artwork? Josiah McElheny. An End to Modernity. 

7. What is a shape and how does it differ from volume and mass? A shape is an area perceived by either an enclosing line or color/value changes. It has nothing to do with the size or weight.

8. What is the difference between naturalism and distortion in art and design? Naturalism contains reasonable proportion o shapes and attention to features, and we believe the image. Distortion is made through stretched and altered shapes, we don't believe the image but it is recognizable.

Define abstraction: How is your fire and water panel abstract? What concepts are informing your work on this project? Abstraction implies simplifying natural shapes to their basic character. My fire and water panel is abstract because the images are taken from nature and photographs, but simplified.

Chapter 8

1. Non-objective – There is no subject matter, and the shapes make no reference.

2. Curvilinear – Rounded and curved forms imply flowing shapes.

3. Rectilinear – The image is composed of straight lines.

4. Positive and negative shapes – Positive shapes are distinguished from the background, negative shapes are defined within the ground that is defined by surrounding figures and boundaries.

Chapter 10

1. List three ways to depict illusion of depth – Size, overlapping, and vertical location are all devices used to show illusion of depth.

What is one point perspective? It is a system of spatial illusion in 2D art based on the gathering of parallel lines to a vanishing point.

2. Two point perspective? It is a scene that is viewed from an angle containing no objects that are parallel to the picture plane.

3. What is an isometric projection? It is the spatial illusion that happens when lines that are receding on the diagonal remain parallel instead of gathering at a vanishing point.

4. What is equivocal space? Equivocal space is an ambiguous space in which it is difficult to distinguish the foreground from the background. Example: Julie Mehretu, Black Ground