Watercolor Painting
The subject of this watercolor painting is myself and my sister, Taylor. I chose to paint a picture of the two of us because I wanted to frame it in my room to remember, as she is getting ready to leave for college, the fun memories we shared in Aruba this past summer. The warm colors (red, orange, yellow, etc.) were used to make the skin, clothes, and part of the background. Cool colors were used in the hair, background, and eyes. By adding small amounts of warm colors to the background, mostly composed of greens and blues, the subjects of the painting seem to pop off the page. Because the subjects seem to have a three-dimensional appearance, they are the focal point of the piece. After looking at the subjects, the viewers eye moves toward the background. I believe that the most successful parts of the composition are the hair and background. If I were to have spent more time on this watercolor painting, I would have been much more careful with my brushstrokes, have mixed the paint with more water, and mixed a larger variety of colors. Although there are things I would have changed, this watercolor painting came out very well. |
John French Sloan, Self-Portrait Replica
Final Project
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Sketches
Research Paper, Images, and Works Cited
When I began researching for my final project, I tried finding different techniques that interested me. The first thing that caught my eye was a splattered background. I then looked into this and discovered an artist named Tilen Ti. I also came across Olga Shvartsur, who also used the splattering technique in some of her works. Finally, I had to figure out what the subject of my piece would be. I decided my main focus would be animals, so, the last artists that I was able to find inspiration from were Luke and Slavi. The work of all the artists is so popular that it is sold online as prints, mugs, coasters, t-shirts, and even cards.
Tilen Ti, from Malaysia, is a graphic designer turned painter working in Singapore. (Rief) Ti’s paintings are mainly oil and watercolor based. Many of his watercolor paintings feature tropical birds, and splattered backgrounds. One of his most eye-catching watercolor paintings is titled “Kingfisher.” This painting is very eye-catching because of the contrast between the bright blue and vivid orange. One aspect of the painting is not as successful as others is the darkness of the branch and beak. This is not a great part of the composition because it looks odd surrounded by the blue and orange. Ti could have improved this by not making such a drastic change in tones. After looking at “Kingfisher,” I felt that using bright colors and splattering the background of my painting with watercolor would make for an interesting project. The second artist that I found inspiration from was Olga Shvartsur. Shvartsur, whose work is published under Olechka Design, is from Seattle, Washington. (Shvartsur) Quite a few of her paintings feature memoirs of Seattle, such as paintings inspired by the local football team, the Seattle Seahawks. In the early years of her career, and in her youth, Shvartsur mainly used graphite to make portraits and sketches, however, she now uses watercolor. (Shvartsur) Many of Shvartsur’s watercolors feature brightly painted animals. Her painting “Ode to Fruit Stripes” features the head and neck of a zebra, hence the “stripes” in the name. The stripes, however, in this watercolor painting are not regular black and white. Rather, Shvartsur used all the colors in the rainbow to create a very interesting looking painting. This particular painting is eye-catching because of the bright array of colors, and how glide down to the end of the page. Similar to Tilen Ti, this painting has a splattered watercolor background. One part of the painting that does not fit well is the change from bright colors on the neck to dark colors on the head and nose. This could have been improved if Shvartsur used brighter colors towards the head of the zebra. This painting inspired me to feature African animals in my project, and use multiple colors. The last artists that I used for inspiration for my final project were Luke and Slavi. Luke and Slavi are a photographer-artist duo who have been working together for eleven years. (“Labrador”) The two make very similar pieces of art: animal silhouettes, mainly dogs, filled with warm colors, cool colors, and even a mix of the two. Despite not seeing the features and textures of the animals, their silhouettes get the image across easily. My favorite of their pieces is “Labrador.” In this watercolor painting, Luke and Slavi use a mix of warm and cool colors. The eye-catching factor of this painting is the sharpness of the silhouette, something that Luke and Slavi are very successful with creating. One part of the watercolor painting that is could have been different is the black and red splatters of paint throughout the subject. This part of the painting could have improved if Luke and Slavi used different tones of pinks, purples, or yellows instead. After looking at this painting, I felt that I could accomplish something similar to their ability to change colors through the subject. After having a basic understanding of what I wanted my final project to be, I did research and came across Tilen Ti, Olga Shvartsur, and Luke and Slavi. All of the artists influenced me from their different techniques and styles. Tilen Ti’s works are mainly oil and watercolor paintings, Shvartsur’s paintings are mostly watercolors, although she used to draw with graphite pencils, and Luke and Slavi incorporate photography and painting together. Their work is even popular enough to be sold in multiple mediums. All of the researching of the artists played a key role in the development of my project. |
Works Cited Luke and Slavi. “Labrador.” Painting. Fine Art America. Fine Art America, 2016. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. Rief, Cassie. "Tilen Ti: Palette Knives and Portraits." Tilen Ti: Palette Knives and Portraits. Empty Easel, 27 Apr. 2011. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. Shvartsur, Olga. "FAQ/About." RSS. Olechka Design, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. Shvartsur, Olga. “Ode to Fruit Stripes.” Painting. Olechka Design. Olechka Design, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. "Splashed Watercolor Paintings by Tilen Ti." Colorful Animal Watercolor Paintings. Bored Panda, 5 Sept. 2015. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. Ti, Tilen. “Kingfisher.” Painting. Bored Panda. Bored Panda, 2016. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. |
Artwork
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Artist's Statment
Before revising my project, I was going to paint a watercolor duo of an elephant head and a giraffe head. The elephant head would have faded from a blue into a blue-green, and the giraffe head would have faded from blue-green to green. The background of my painting was going to be splatters of watercolor, which were also going to fade. However, the colors were going to be pink to magenta, and magenta to purple. The gradual change in colors would have added a nice flow to the artwork. I came to the conclusion, however, that this was not going to be a good painting. This is because there would not have been much to the art. The next idea was to make the elephant head and giraffe three-dimensional. I was not a big fan of this particular project, so I tweaked it. The final conclusion that I came to was that I was going to make a three-dimensional cube of three elephant head paintings and three giraffe head paintings. To successfully do this, I purchased a styrofoam cube, then measured out six pieces of watercolor paper to cover all the sides. To make the piece seem uniform, I decided to make a stencil for both the elephant head and giraffe head. In my opinion, this helped keep the piece seem clean and neat. My next edit to the painting was that the two different heads were not going to connect. The elephant head would be blue, with different shaded designs, and the giraffe head would be green, with similarly shaped designs. I decided that I was still going to splatter watercolor as the background because it would add an interesting "pop" to the piece. The splatter behind the elephant is magenta and magenta-purple, and the splatter behind the giraffe is purple and magenta-purple. After the paintings were done, I used floral foam glue to adhere the paintings and the styrofoam together. I think that my final product is very interesting and combines two-dimensional paintings and three-dimensional shaping successfully.