Summer Assignment & Self Review

By Ava Shacklady

Portrait Painting: Initial source

When visiting the National Portrait Gallery, I started at the top with the Tudors and wondered around. I didn’t choose the one I thought I would look best but the one that inspired me the most. As I wondered throughout the gallery, I kept with this approach while picking one portrait from each floor.

The composition of Queen Elizabeth shows her central in the frame, taking up the majority of the space. This makes it more intense emphasizing her authority the colours are primarily gold's and blacks. This suggests wealth as a propaganda to re-ensure England’s economy status in the 1500’s. The median used seems to be oiled bases to portray the Queen in a realistic view. The interpretation on the Queen’s portrait shows many symbolic jesters, such as the excessive amount of pearls representing the virginity. This emphasizes and strengthens her position of the virgin Queen. Also her face has been painted a un realist white, while not letting the arts develop in her reign. She portrayed her self with the “mask of youth” to reinsure the aging queen with out a successor is still young.

The composition of this piece shows the man central in the frame. However, as the shoulders are half drawn so it makes all the weight anchor to his head, instead of being evenly distributed. The mark making shows brush marks that build up his face while his shoulders are roughly marked out. With the man gazing in the distance, the childish feel of the shoulders suggest that the mans memory has reached a more simpler time. The medium of oils that have been used to exploit the work by the textures by a dry brush and layering up the face with marks. The artist has interpretive the figure of a military chief officer in WW2 to be presented with authority, while also suggesting isolation and loneliness.

This piece really attracted me to it, with the old man looking into the gallery with lost eyes is portrayed to me a sad emotion. The man is standing central in the frame that gives him authority but is all nearly lost by the isolated emotion to be presented. The map behind gives the man a place and a personal reference, however it is to broad to directly indicate any location to place him. All these factors suggest that he is suffering with Alzheimer's which makes you feel sorry for this piece and brings a connection to it. The sense of the map behind also gives the audience a lost sense as they don’t know where the man is meant to be in London, as much as the man himself does. The smart clothes indicate that he was once an important figure which the man is still believing in. The artist has used watercolors that give a delicate sense to the piece to correspond with the delicate subject and atmosphere.

This piece is of the artists son looking over the banister that was quickly jotted down. The empty space around the boy isolates him, especially with the clothing fading off the page. This gives it a sense of freedom but also loneness. The obvious vertical pencil marks drag the piece downward which emphasizes the boys authority as he looms over. The composition places the subject to the right of the frame which makes the overall look unbalanced. The diagonal line follows the rule of the golden triangle. This makes it aesthetically pleasing and draws the attention to the boys face. This causes the piece to be more unsettling. The mark making becomes more obvious on the clothing while the face is more delicate and realistic.

Portrait Painting

o  The drawings I sketched allowed me to develop my ideas as I could experiment with angles, compositions and facial expressions without having to commit to painting all of them. This allowed me to correct sections, abandon pieces or merge two together.

o  After drawing the average head and shoulder angles, I quickly realized that the angle portrays much more than I thought. I did compositions of me looming over, however I didn’t think that it really portrayed my personality. This lead me the evolve the angle to be in line with me on an equal line and also from above me.

o  As well as sketching ideas before painting on the canvas my final outcome, I also painted a selection of compositions. This allowed me to explore with the medium but also the colours. The painting of an equal level to me I thought I would go on to paint on my canvas. However, it was at this point that I started to question it more that lead me in changing my decision. Even still, the composition I chose I still altered a bit after experimenting it through painting it

o  The acrylic paint is bold and good to layer and go over to create highlights and shadows to create more depth. This medium stayed the same through out. The final composition I zoomed out to capture the whole body, changed some of the colours to make it brighter and made sure I was smiling more.

Portrait Painting: Final Outcome

o  The process of developing a final piece I did showed me that the initial ideas are the first sketches for a reason. As once you come up with the initial compositions, there is so much to question before the final outcome such as the colour, altering the angle, medium, canvas size.

o  I have learnt by looking at artists portraits in the galleries through the eras, seeing the self portraits of my peers and completing it myself, that your personality is reflected in the visual language. By the composition, colours, scale etc, it all represents something about yourself. Throughout the development of the portraits, you need to almost control the information that is portrayed to make sure it is correct (so I would do a dark, intense, sad portrait) but also how you want to be seen.

o  The final outcome of my piece I feel is soft, with a light pink background. Also, it has an element of being chilled and not too in your face due to my position being laid back and not zoomed in. The angle is from above which suggests that I am not dominate, but laid back, but still optimistic as I am looking up at the angle of the painting.

Reflecting On Year 1 o  Looking back across the year from last September, I feel that the equivalence

project allowed me to do and experiment with what ever I wanted which set me up for the year of experimenting. The projects allowed me to to develop a broader range of skilled in different forms of art, such as print making, model making, fine art and graphics. This has also importantly allowed me to have an opinion on the different mediums for me to like or dislike something, or merge one medium when using another.

o  My understanding has developed for me to realize the difficulties of each medium and art genre for me to start watching out for and developing the next time I use it.

o  My strengths have become more clear throughout the year, directing me in to what form of art I will develop with. I seem to practically work fast while still showing all my working outs in my sketchbook, communication my mistakes and successes in my book. My favorite sections of art and design this year were graphics and printmaking which I feel will take me on to illustration. In this I will use printmaking to support my ideas.

o  In the second year, I know I need to work on my written analysis and question to ideas. Also my sculptures I need to take more care and development in. Also, I need to make sure that I include a broad range of pieces to add to my portfolio.

Plan For The Future o  Over the year, I have developed my own personal ideas of what I like and dislike. I know now that

my strengths are not in model making but more in the 2D arts of illustration. Without the experimenting, successes and mistakes I have made through the first year, I would not be able to eliminate the art medium. At the start of the year, I thought I would fall in to graphics and fashion, however, now I have evolved my ideas and understanding.

o  My current progression aim is to go on to working in children’s illustrations. However, I am keeping an open mind for any medium in art for me to fall into instead or merge with illustration. I see myself taking this progression route as I love telling a story through characters and colours. However, my next year of education, I wish to do a foundation for me to continue experimenting.

o  The qualities of a good illustrator is to be able to transmit messages across to the target audience. The skills you would need would be pencil work but also on a computer such as Photoshop. Also life drawing is a valuable skill that would be used.

o  In the 2nd year I need to work on creating mock up children's book to the best of my ability, this will give me a feel of telling a story and making sure that the words correspond with the text. Also, I need to develop my understanding of Photoshop.