Elephant and Female (Painting + Process)

The final for my painting class this semester was to create an oil painting using a grasaille technique in conjunction with an excessive amount of planning and preparation. I decided to paint the image below of a young woman and an elephant both reaching out to each other in some act of intamacy or embrace. The painting was created over the course of about four weeks and was done on a stretched cotton canvas that I built to a unique set of dimensions. I'll Briefely explain the process I went through in creating this piece. 

The image directly below on brown paper is the first rough sketch I had, this was the original hashing out of the idea using basic reference and some imagination to place the characters in their respective spots. (quick, dirty and unfinished)

The next step was to enlarge the original image with a photo copier to the size I wanted the painting to be, this way I could create a full fledged drawing that would be a 1:1 (match?) with the canvas itself. The two images below are on newsprint and were essentially traced from the photocopy. Using referense photos I rendered the various values and create a map for how my finished painting would more or less look. Take note that I cut out and moved the woman's head a number of times trying to find the appropriate, natural spot where it would rest on the shoulders. 

Once the final renderings were done I took a large sheet of tracing paper and traced the image again outlining the various shadow forms and values so they would be apparent later. Using a graphite transfer paper I essentially layed down this exact image on the canvas. From here I could begin actually painting and experimenting with color schemes and glazing techniques. 

Below are four test studies I did for the painting. The purpose of these fairly quick (ten minute) paintings are to establish a comfortability with the paint and an understanding of the values on the form, in this case the arm and body mass. In addition, these paintings were also used to experiment with different color palettes and colors, for example the painting on the right directly below is using an 'earth palette' consisting of only three colors and white. Some of these studies, particularly the black and white  one are simply to understand the values occurring in the form, others were to play with colored grounds (the background color) or even what color the dress might be. Purely experimentation.

Here is the finished piece. 31 1/4 x 12'' Oil on canvas. The painting itself took only about 6 hours but the planning process of course extened that to the roughly four weeks of class time. Overall I'm fairly happy with the painting, I find it breathes and has a wonderful glow. Both figures appear generally pretty comfortable and accurate and I think the overal dramatic impact of the image speaks strongly. 

Wednesday Night Art 21 Response

Last Wednesday night in our foundations class we were shown a screening of Art city in which they covered the life and works of three different artists. We were asked to comment on their process, my immediate reaction to that night is what follows . . .

            The best part about the process is that it can completely justify a piece. Often times today in art the process can be the piece; the final product has been slowly dissolved into the ether, substituting vomit on the canvas for a honed oil painting.

            The videos we just watched clearly showed the way in which artists think of their process as the end all be all. For them the process can be almost more important than the final product. The process is what they have to deal with while they’re wasting away their hours in front of a canvas. Some have a perfectionist attitude – careful, collected, and precise, others are freer, taking risks and not worrying about getting messy. Process is not always about what goes on physically though, often process involves the thought development before the work is started - the story or memory behind it. Usually that’s more fascinating than the actually piece itself.

            My arm is getting tired from writing this semi-rant so ill close with this: process is for the artists; it is about the enjoyment of it. Artists are selfish and most of that selfishness is reflected in the process, sacrifice process and you sacrifice your ability to make intriguing art. 

Response to Art & Fear

No one said being an artist was going to be easy. They tell you its all about perseverance, practice and following your vision, but rarely do people mention how much uncertainty and fear goes into the art making process. This point was no better driven home after reading David Bayles and Ted Orland's article titled Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking.

In the article one specific line caught my attention and hit a particularly tender note with me. The line in question explained how X-rays taken of famous paintings show a remarkable number of mistakes and mess-ups which are never seen in the finished piece. The point of this information is that even famous artists make mistakes and have to constantly experiment through the actual process of making art. This was important to me because I have a serious issue with revising and changing my work on the fly. When I make a mistake I often times throw away the entire project because I feel there can be no salvaging what I just created. The article puts into perspective the idea that screw-ups are something to be learned from and show up even in the most skilled of artists. Ultimately I now understand that learning from the process of the piece can be far more beneficial that creating a finished piece in one thought and one "wave." Art needs to be an experiment of constant change and manipulation and in the end this exploration of our own ability to fix mistakes is one of the most important principles we can learn.