Edward Hopper Post

Similar to my process of researching and learning about artist Richard Diebenkorn, I am currently looking at work by Edward Hopper; my next painting will be based on his work. However this will be a transition in that Diebenkorn's work typically focuses on abstract arrangements and layers, while Hopper is generally associated with realist depictions of both urban and rural scenery. When I first came across paintings by Hopper, I noticed his strong emphasis on the shapes created by various structures and shadows, primarily in architecture such as city buildings, houses, etc. This is evident in his recognizable "Nighthawks" painting, in which he portrays the perspective of looking through a window into a diner, in the evening. Of his many paintings, I particularly like the one below. I love the way he evaluates the light on different faces of cubical shapes, such as the base of the lighthouse. Contrary to my initial perception of shadows as black, Hopper uses a blue-grey. For the areas of light, he uses a yellow/beige color. Another feature that caught my eye was the cylindrical walls of the lighthouse, which have a graduated shadow. It is interesting that he choses to show that shadow as a series of three values, with the middle line functioning as the transitional color. The angular composition of shadows and lights to construct the building itself is an approach I am currently using on a painting I am doing, which is based off a photo that was taken of the face of a school building. I will make a post of this photo and painting in the coming weeks. 

Word Sketch #3: "Sun"

For my final sketch in a series designed to illustrate the word "sun", I decided to photograph a pair of sunglasses. Originally, I had chosen two pairs and took sample photos of each, and came to the conclusion that because of the Ray Bans' reflecting yet extremely translucent lens, and the distinctive thin gold frame around the glasses, I would use it for my sketch. Some aspects I wanted to emphasize in this sketch include the tinted shading of the setting within the lenses and the darks and lights around them. In the photo I see an extremely bright foreground and dark background, and the glasses function as a bridge between the two. I am happy with the product, and how the shades of black correspond to different components. This picture contains what I would characterize as "irrelevant information" such as the the blurred sidewalk in the foreground and trees in the background; I decided that these components had little value and excluded them from the sketch. One element that was challenging to draw though was the "Ray Ban" insignia; writing letters in a half-inch space is harder than it looks! The photo and sketch are shown below: 

Richard Diebenkorn Post

The next artist that we will be studying is Richard Diebenkorn. Of all his art, I was really fascinated by the painting below. Firstly, I love his creative distortion of the table through the glass. He creates the idea of a tall vase by blending the shapes together, such as the rim of the table, to create the object, rather them simply outlining it. I also like the blood-red table color, which accentuates all components on top of it. This contrast between radiating warmth of the red table, and the deep blue/purple is noticeable. I am looking forward to working with paint/oil pastel to create a work inspired by this artist.

Thiebaud Inspired Print

This post is a continuation of the Thiebaud inspired assignment. After I completed my sketch of fortune cookies, I traced it, and carved the image into a linoleum board. I then did a collection of 15 prints with different paints on different colored papers, and the five images to the right are my favorite prints. Interestingly enough, three that ended up being my favorites were done on black paper. I think that this can be attributed to the fact that the original design included dark shadows on the fortune cookies, so correspondingly, the black paper accurately depicted these distinct shapes. Also, the bright and in some cases neon-like paints really stood out to me. On the other hand, I think the bottom two prints also turned out well because of the complementary colors in the case of the blue paper, and the dark yellow on black. In summary, I am happy with the prints, and think that the fortune cookies are recognizable while still avoiding unnecessary outlines; shadows and white lights merge.

  

Word Sketch #2: "Sun"

For the second sketch in my series designed to illustrate the word sun, I chose to depict sunflowers. After getting some from the store to photograph, I set them up at various locations and positions in my front yard. My favorite picture was one where they were against the blue background of the sky, (the color was great), but it was not nearly as interesting a composition in terms of shapes as the one below. I love the overlapping pedals and the details of each flower against the blurred background. The flourishing golden pedals and the orange inner core reminded my of the sun as the flower's name would indicate. The stems rising from the glass vase which stands on the front porch was also nice. I decided to omit the complex inner pattern of seeds because its complicated nature outweighed what it might offer to the sketch.

Thiebaud Print: Sketch

After deciding which Thiebaud-inspired small sketch I liked most, I did a full version of it (the photo below). It only included lights and darks, which will appear on the linoleum prints. I made sure the include the back table shadow, because it outlined the back fortune cookies. Tomorrow I will trace and carve this sketch onto the printing board.

Word Sketch #1: "Sun"

For my first sketch, to illustrate the word "sun", I took a picture of a sundial. I wanted to capture an interesting shadow, especially with the projection of the dial across the circle. Inadvertently I created an bizarre yet interesting shadow on the ground, which contributed to my decision to pick this photo out of the many I took.The following are the photo and my sketch based on it:

Wayne Thiebaud Print: Sketch

For my Wayne Thiebaud inspired sketch, I decided to take photos of patterns of fortune cookies next to each other, using a lamp to add interesting shadows. Here are three extremely basic, creditcard sized sketches of the photos, simply made to outline the general idea of the print I will make.  The top photo of the three I like best because of the dramatic close up view of the fortune cookie, and dark shadows on their sides. I think it relates closely to Thiebaud's work, especially the painting of the plates, because of the disorganized nature of similar objects. Later I will upload the full sized sketch with the prints made.

Wayne Thiebaud Post

The picture below is a Wayne Thiebaud painting, the artist that we are currently studying. Of all his work, this painting inspired me the most because if the interesting disorganized nature of the painted plates. The cluster pattern grabs my attention, as opposed to his other objects which are in uniform lines. Also, it intrigued me that he would choose such mundane objects for subject matter. When I eventually chose objects, I will try to mimic this pattern of clustering.

Word Sketch Brainstorming

My first assignment is to investigate ways to illustrate a word with art. Some of the words I considered were:

-sea

-light

-rain

-sun

-paper

The objective is to use various combination of the words as ideas for photos, and later drawings (ex: seagull, seashell, seaweed). After thinking about each word, I decided that the common word sun would be the most interesting and manageable for taking original photos. Some word combinations I might use are: sundial, sunglasses, sunset, and sunflower. I will upload my first photo in the coming days.

Hello! On this Blog I will document my process of making sketches and paintings for the IB Art SL class. Most days I will upload photos of my work. Our first two assignments are: 1. begin sketches of photos we take with a common "word" as a theme 2. do Thiebaud-inspired linoleum prints. Thanks for reading!