Mini Series (2)

For my second piece in the Mini Series, I decided to continue working with oil pastel, but this time I would use a miniature wine glass as the subject. The glass provided many interesting dynamics ranging from the two challenging elipses it formed at the given angle, to the distortion of color that occurred just above the stem. Staying in theme with my last work, I decided to use a warm, rich orange for the backdrop, but in order to create an intense contrast, chose its complimentary color of blue for the floor. This contrast occurs in various sections such as the clear line in the background, the curved distortion within the glass, and a more subtle one at the glass's base. It was also important for me to represent a variety of shades: the transition from yellow orange to orange, and from turquoise to sky blue. What I am most pleased about for this piece was the base of the glass, which I believe contains a more or less realistic orange glow with circular blue and white light around it. Also, I was satisfied with the subtlety with which the base's rim's circular shadow appears, a product of a grey overlay. The details within the glass were greatly simplified in an attempt to avoid small and irrelevant lines which would not be apparent with such an imprecise medium. On thing which I would change however, would be to portray the symmetry of the distortion a bit more accurately. In its current state, the glass as a fairly asymmetrical system of shapes and effects, as opposed to the picture. Also, I would strengthen the top rim, and have it be less faded. Otherwise, I believe that so far this image best represents transparency of the ones that I have done.

Mini Series (1)

This is the first of my three-work Mini Series about transparency, an element which I felt complimented my style in past sketches. The one immediately noticeable change which this composition contains is a warm color palette. I normally gravitate towards cool colors, as shown by the sketch of the dolphin, but this picture seemed to need a more exciting and perhaps jarring sense of color. Two salt shakers were set up on red paper with a yellow backdrop to be photographed. What I loved about the photo was that it allowed areas of color to spill into one another, such as in the container's inner volume, and the surrounding paper. The red seemed to me to be a good way of tying to tie the whole piece together through its widespread inclusion on the caps, rims, and surfaces. Another aspect of my final product which I found interesting was the white glow formed at various sections on the containers. While done in oil pastel, this piece was not nearly as challenging as I had expected it to be in terms of specificity of the transparency. This was partially due to my overall strategy: to show light as being blocks and shapes. Though one could say this is more simplistic in nature, I think it effectively gives the suggestion without being impossibly complex. On aspect that I would try to improve would be layering the orange and yellow segments such that they have dimension, rather than being add-ons on the rim and lid. This first work will aid me in my use of color foundation and layering for the next piece in the Mini Series.

Transparency 2: Colored Pencil

For my first sketch on transparency, I chose an easily recognizable object (the lightbulb). However, for my second piece I aimed for a more abstract representation which might not create immediate associations for the viewer; the photo is a closeup of the fin of a glass dolphin. In this sketch, I made the details and minor shading the main focus, which is shown in the complexity of patterns throughout the dolphin's body. The first notable aspect of this sketch was the wide range of shades of blue used. I found that this made it have much more vibrancy, and eliminated any dullness. Also, I rarely use black with oil paints or pastels because of its tendency to attract too much focus to its emptiness, but in the case of colored pencils, it settled nicely surrounded by the deep blues. Throughout this sketch I wanted fairly rounded shapes, and avoided angular line intersections to create more fluidity. The white glaze on the inside of the torse was created by using white colored pencil extensively as the first layer. An element which I personally enjoyed installing to create variation in color was the purple region on the dolphin's side, which I exaggerated from the photo. One challenging problem with colored pencils is that they must be used with heavy coloring, or a patchiness appears. I tried to avoid this to give the sketch a glossy, pristine, cool atmosphere to it. This is one of my few abstract works, and I was pleased to see that even without the surrounding context of the picture, the transparency of the object was still evident.

Transparency 2: Photo

After completing my image which adressed the idea of transparency using the lightbulb, I felt that the topic could be explored further by using a denser material which would manipulate and reflect colors in a more dramatic way. For this photo, I used a glass dolphin with a blue filling within it, similar to the material which marbles are composed of. By waiting until sunset, and placing the objet on a table which still had faint sunlight on it, a collection of beautiful blue and white lights appeared. Not only was there distortion of colors, but the object showed a great variety in levels of transparency  For example, while the tail nearly blends in completely to the blue paper below it, the dolphin's head creates a strong contrast. While this was a great photograph showing transparency, it was clearly too complex to be depicted in a reasonable amount of time. As a result, I decided to crop a small portion of the photo which had the fin and the blue light, which shows transparency in an abstract and interesting way by appearing on its own. There are many interesting fine lines of color and and generally glossy texture. On the inside of the dolphin there is a white faded highlight which will be challenging to represent. The collection of blues, whites, and grey will provide a fascinating composition, which I plan to depict using colored pencils.

Transparency: Charcoal Sketch

This is my final image which I created using pencil for the rough sketch, and charcoal for the majority of the shading. This was only the second time I had used charcoal, but I was excited to revisit it as a means of showing a wide variety of values as I saw fit based on the photograph. There are many aspects to the sketch which reflect what I intended to depict. Firstly, I made a very deliberate choice to rarely use the darkest black value, because there were many intermediary values which were more specific and appropriate based on their distance and positioning from the light bulb. While the photo had very thin lines scattered throughout the shadow, I was more concerned with the transparency, and therefore generalized those lines with blending. On the right half of the bulb, the shadow is distorted to give a bending effect. I am happy with how I was able to show this using charcoal application direction, going upward and downward with the charcoal piece. Also, I avoided the use of strong outlines especially on the lower left and top right, to the point where the object almost blends into the paper, an element I saw used by Janet Fish frequently. Lastly, highlights were added on at the base, and in the middle of the bulb, and at the tip, to give the image a sense of realism. Looking back I wish I had exaggerated a bit more the shape of the shadow, because it lacks the fantastical visual effect it had in the photo. Also, I think that by using more similar values with the light bulb itself I could have allowed it to "settle" on the paper figuratively, as opposed to appearing as if it were standing upward. However, overall I feel that elements I saw in Janet Fish's work were utilized, and I am happy with how I expressed the idea of transparency.

Transparency: Photo

For my first work addressing the effect of transparency, I took a series of photos using objects such as a coke bottle, candlestick, and lightbulb. To the right is my final image of a lightbulb and its shadow, lying on two pieces of paper. Firstly, this image was originally taken in color, but after analyzing it I decided that the color was less significant to the image than the values of lights and darks, and how they comprised the transparent object; black and white allowed the effect to be more directly adressed. This image stood out to me immediately for an obvious reason: the dramatic and somewhat bizarre shadow that the lightbulb casts. It in some ways resembles an insect, and differs greatly from the object, being much larger and rounder in shape. Also, this image was interesting because it created the optical illusion that the lightbulb was floating. Perhaps this is a result of there being no true point where it meets the paper; the transparency is consistent throughout the object. I think that the glare and streaks of light several places on the bulb give it an interesting dimension. There are many clear darks, such as on the base of the bulb, and many lights where the object nearly blends into the paper, such as on the left side of the bulb. Overall, I think that this image is not overly complex, while still presenting the idea of transparency  and the challenge of defining rigid lines only when appropriate. I will later consider what material will best enhance a sketch of this image.

Transparency: Master Artist

The next element which we will be exploring with is the idea transparency and how to depict it in a realistic and creative manner. In searching online for paintings which depicted this visual effect, I came across work by an artist named Janet Fish. Of all the paintings of glass, plastic, liquids, and other materials which distort light, her work stood out in particular for a few reasons, which I think are best reflected by the two paintings to the left. Firstly, Fish's painting have a great sense of depth to them which she creates through the lighting cast by transparent objects. This is done through painting dull shadows in combination with vibrant colors. For example, in examining the first painting, it is clear that the light is coming from the upper-left of the image, and it casts and enlarged and bright red shadow, emanating from the light which passes through the liquid. What is fascinating in observing her paintings is seeing how she is able to construct these complex objects such as glass and plastic in a realistic way by purposefully not using strong lines and borders. People often instinctually want to define objects with lines, but Fish views transparency as just collections of colors and distorted shapes. We are only able to understand the idea of "glass" from her painting because she rejects the idea of painting a container, but rather a large group of varied colors. Fish depicts these objects, especially the plastic, by also considering the background and how it is projected onto the object. In this painting we see the orange, white light from the sun or some artificial light, which is found below the piece of plastic. The second painting I have chosen shows many of the same elements, but on a much more intensely realist scale. Again, the idea of grooves on what to appear to be salad dressing bottles, is not represented with defined lines of boxes and circles, but instead shades of yellow and green. The way Fish can create a golden-yellow liquid in the containers with a glossy texture, but also maintain the projection of other objects onto it with reds and greens, is astounding. Both of these paintings show techniques of transparency which I hope to use in my upcoming work.