Mixed Media
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Inspiration
The inspiration for my project was Vicent Van Gogh’s Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette. Van Gogh began he art career when he became an art dealer. He later became depressed, and when he became ill he started painting. His early works, mostly still lives and depictions of peasant laborers, that showed a few signs of the vivid color that distinguished his later work. As his work developed he created a new approach to still life and landscape. His paintings grew brighter and he developed a style that became fully realized during his stay in Arles in the South of France in 1888. This is an oil painting that was done in the Post- Impressionist style along with Realism. I was inspired by this piece because of the realistic body parts. The way the layers were added to give the bones depth inspired me with how I wanted my heart to turn out for my piece. I was also inspired by how realistic the skeleton looked. When looking for different inspirations I came across a lot of painting that weren’t as realistic. |
Planning
I started out by sketching how I wanted this piece to turn out. I wanted a realistic heart in the middle of the mixed media piece. I also wanted to make sure to tie in my inspiration of Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette by Vincent Van Gogh by using the realistic style he painted with for this project. I knew that adding layers and making the heart as realistic as possible would tie in the pieces altogether. I thought about making the heart be in black and white but realized it would not have the same affect it would have if it were in color. Once I got a good idea of what I wanted to paint I needed to find a book that could be used for the background. I went to a resale book store to hopefully find medically books on the heart. I knew I didn’t want graphs or outlines for the heart I just wanted a book that talked about the medically discoveries of the heart. After awhile I finally found a book I thought would be perfect for the project. It had different historical discoveries along with stories of people going through the process of being diagnosed with heart conditions.
I started out by sketching how I wanted this piece to turn out. I wanted a realistic heart in the middle of the mixed media piece. I also wanted to make sure to tie in my inspiration of Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette by Vincent Van Gogh by using the realistic style he painted with for this project. I knew that adding layers and making the heart as realistic as possible would tie in the pieces altogether. I thought about making the heart be in black and white but realized it would not have the same affect it would have if it were in color. Once I got a good idea of what I wanted to paint I needed to find a book that could be used for the background. I went to a resale book store to hopefully find medically books on the heart. I knew I didn’t want graphs or outlines for the heart I just wanted a book that talked about the medically discoveries of the heart. After awhile I finally found a book I thought would be perfect for the project. It had different historical discoveries along with stories of people going through the process of being diagnosed with heart conditions.
Process
I started my process by going through the book Heart A History by Sandeep Jauhar and finding pages that could relate to my dads hear conditions. I looked for similar heart conditions along with similar heart diagnostic processes that my dad went through. Once I found enough where I could cover my canvas with, I cut them all out and just laid them on the canvas, placing them to wear I think would look best. Once I knew that I had enough I started to modge podge them down. I add different layers from the book by creating an overlapping layer first then adding in more pages to make it look more collage style. During this process I felt like I was using to much modge podge and the pages were started to have bubbles and wrinkle up. At first this bothered me because I knew that I would have to go back in and fix it but after looking at them more they started to look like vines of capillaries in a heart. I decided to keep the bubbles and not fix them because I thought it would tie in the overall theme relating to hearts. I let the pages dry over night to make sure that when I started painting they would not move around or get messed up. |
Once the pages were hard enough to paint over I started planning out the size of the heart I wanted to paint. I knew I wanted it in the center I just didn’t know what size to paint it, I didn’t want it to cover certain words or phrases I specifically put on top with nothing covering them. I started the process my finding the center of the canvas and putting dot so I remembered. I then found a outline sketch of a heart and traced it with regular copy paper. I decided to trace instead of hand draw because it would be easier since I could not place a grid underneath my painting. I cut out the heart and retraced it on my canvas. I then started to paint, I did a base layer of a light red-ish pink the bottom of the heart, I then wanted to go in with darker reds or whites to add the details and give it dimension but because I was painting on modge podge the oil paint was not absorbing like how it would on normal canvas making everything I painted to add detail muddy. This is when I decided to wait and do a base layer of the heart and let that dry overnight and come back the next day to add the detail.
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Once I let the base dry over night, I started on the heart by added all the details to the veins and the chambers. I would go in this a darker color on the outer area I was painting and dab the paint on. This was to insure that the paint would not smear or get all muddy making me restart the process. I would start with a darker color on the outer part I was painting then go in with the lighter color to to help the shading and help make it realistic. To blend the colors out I would dab the darker color over the outer edge again to make it look finished. By doing this style it helped look more like my inspiration Vicent Van Gogh’s Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette. The layers on the bones were very similar to the layers I added to my heart.
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Once I was done adding all the details to the heart, I finished up by added the black details to the end of the cava, arteries, veins, and aorta. This part was my favorite I think because it really brought the piece together to make it look like a realistic heart. I next wanted to clean up the edges of the heart. My first idea was to have a black shadow cast around to tie in my inspiration. I started by paining black sections around the bottom left part of the heart and then blending it out but I could not make it look good. I then took paint thinner to try to remove the paint that I had added, for the most part some got removed but there was still black patches around the heart. This is when I decided to cut out more pages from the book in the shape of the heart and modge podge it down. I liked the way this turned out because it created the clean lines I wanted along with giving it extra shading details.
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Reflection
Overall I really liked this project and I am happy with the way it turned out. I felt like this piece really pushed me to challenge myself. This was the first time in a few paintings I did not use the Impressionist style and switched it to realism. I also used a media that I never had used before. The modge podge was a challenge because of the drying time along with using oil paints which take forever to dry. I had a plan on how I wanted to paint the heart but because of the drying time and having to go slow, I had to switch the idea I had. This means I started to dab the paint on instead of blending like how I normally would. I also wanted to do something different with the edge of the heart like adding a shadow but that never turned out how I liked it so I just added extra paper. Another thing that was not planned but I liked how it turned out was the crease’s in the book pages that made it look like little veins were across my art piece.
Overall I really liked this project and I am happy with the way it turned out. I felt like this piece really pushed me to challenge myself. This was the first time in a few paintings I did not use the Impressionist style and switched it to realism. I also used a media that I never had used before. The modge podge was a challenge because of the drying time along with using oil paints which take forever to dry. I had a plan on how I wanted to paint the heart but because of the drying time and having to go slow, I had to switch the idea I had. This means I started to dab the paint on instead of blending like how I normally would. I also wanted to do something different with the edge of the heart like adding a shadow but that never turned out how I liked it so I just added extra paper. Another thing that was not planned but I liked how it turned out was the crease’s in the book pages that made it look like little veins were across my art piece.
Compare and Contrast
Similarities
Differences
Critique
Overall I really happy with how this piece turned out and this is exactly what I had in mind when I came up with this idea. I think my favorite part was how the collage came together. At first I was nervous because of all the air bubbles or creases in them but later I realized it looked like veins so I kept them because it fit with the theme. I also liked the way the heart came out, I was surprised it got to look that realistic especially after I found out it was almost impossible to paint on modge podge. This is because the paint would not set into the modge podge and it was oil paint to it also never drys, but after finding new techniques and letting it set in front of a fan for long periods of time I figured out a way to make it work. I think if I were to do something like this again I would use acrylic paint instead of oil. Another thing I would of done different was adding the black shadow to tie in my inspiration. I tried to do that but I could not get it to look good.
Similarities
- The realistic style- I wanted to keep the style of paintings the same. I did this be making sure to add all the details and not to use little brush stroke and accidentally turn it into a Impressionist piece.
- Another similarity was the hues of the colors used. In the Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette dark cream and black colors were used. The painted were mixed with blacks to darken the colors. In my piece I did the same thing to insure that bright colors were not used to also keep the realism.
Differences
- The background- One of the main differences was how the inspiration of the Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette had a black background where my piece had a background of different pages from a book to give the history and more information about the heart.
- Another difference between the two pieces was the size of the main focus point. In the Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette the skull takes up most of the focus point with started at the bottom and basically going all the way up, it also meets the sides of the canvas to not make the background a focus point. My heart is in the center of the painting but it is small enough where the background can still be seen as a focus point for the audiences eyes.
Critique
Overall I really happy with how this piece turned out and this is exactly what I had in mind when I came up with this idea. I think my favorite part was how the collage came together. At first I was nervous because of all the air bubbles or creases in them but later I realized it looked like veins so I kept them because it fit with the theme. I also liked the way the heart came out, I was surprised it got to look that realistic especially after I found out it was almost impossible to paint on modge podge. This is because the paint would not set into the modge podge and it was oil paint to it also never drys, but after finding new techniques and letting it set in front of a fan for long periods of time I figured out a way to make it work. I think if I were to do something like this again I would use acrylic paint instead of oil. Another thing I would of done different was adding the black shadow to tie in my inspiration. I tried to do that but I could not get it to look good.
ACT Questions
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
The cause and effect relationship between my inspiration and my piece was the realistic way the main parts were painted. Both of the body parts were as realistic as possible while adding different layers.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The theme is self expression and how many family members struggle and get drawn into the different research once a family member gets diagnosed with a condition.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
The conclusion I came across is that many family members struggle and get drawn into the different research once a family member gets diagnosed with a condition.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
The theme around my piece is self expression, I wanted to show the story of what my dad went through during his medical diagnostic and how it affected my family.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The inference I made while doing research was that Van Gogh used lots of bright colors but when it was a serious topic it had darker colors.
Bibliography
Vincent van Gogh: 300 Paintings Analysis & Complete Works. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.vincentvangogh.org/
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
The cause and effect relationship between my inspiration and my piece was the realistic way the main parts were painted. Both of the body parts were as realistic as possible while adding different layers.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The theme is self expression and how many family members struggle and get drawn into the different research once a family member gets diagnosed with a condition.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
The conclusion I came across is that many family members struggle and get drawn into the different research once a family member gets diagnosed with a condition.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
The theme around my piece is self expression, I wanted to show the story of what my dad went through during his medical diagnostic and how it affected my family.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The inference I made while doing research was that Van Gogh used lots of bright colors but when it was a serious topic it had darker colors.
Bibliography
Vincent van Gogh: 300 Paintings Analysis & Complete Works. (n.d.). Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://www.vincentvangogh.org/