Summer Art Experiments

Alexa Meade

 

 

 Sheila Vand I

 This is a image taken from series of photographs taken of women who had been body painted and placed in a pool of milk.




In my first experiment I tried to recreate this image on paper using my own photography, acrylic paint and water colour paint.


I began by taking a picture of someone as a base to paint on, as she painted on faces I wanted to follow her style as much as possible even when transferring it to paper.

  

 To create the same effect of paint floating in milk I decided to use water colour paint as it flows well over the paper. Before I used paint I wet the surrounding paper so that when I applied paint it would spread like it does in the original. On this side on his face I used red.

Here I did the same process with blue, however I used more water on this side as I wanted the paint to flow more and look like the pigment was floating on the paper similar to the way the paint flows in the original image.

I began painting his face with a slightly off white (I added a small amount of orange to match the colour Meade painted on her models face). I used two layer to create a thick base as I was painting on printer paper rather than thick paper from my sketchbook, this also stopped any of the printer colour showing through the paint.



I added blue, red, and some black to the areas which Meade defined on her image. I especially added emphasis to the jaw line, neck and hairline.

The ears and nose only have a lighter shade of red as these areas had less detail in the original image than other parts of the face.

In the final image I have painted on the eyebrows and added more detail to the nose and lips.
With the hair i painted a red base and used black paint to define it, following the natural way the hair falls.


I feel that this piece was overall successful such as the way the hair stands out, however to improve I would plan ahead more such as with the order I apply paint, which colour to use first and which part of the face to paint first.

Milk Experiments

I wanted to see how different paint reacted in milk and water so using body paint and water colour paint I carried out number of experiments to see their results.

As well, I used brightly coloured sweets to see how their colours would mix with the water and milk as I have seen videos before and the pigments seem to float on the surface of water and I wanted to recreate this.

Below is a video of the results:

Art Experiments

I found that the sweets in milk had little effect at first look, but once I used a straw and mixed it around then I discovered that the colours had mixed below the surface and created a purple-brown colour. I really like how it originally seemed like there was nothing happening, to the point where I was feeling disappointed, then once I change perspective then the whole atmosphere changed with the pigments mixing and creating swirling patterns. Once it had calmed down I had some washing up liquid as this makes the colours separate, it instantly made vein like edges appear and again changed the way I was perceiving the experiment.

However in water it was a completely different. As the water was clear the colours could be seen and stayed crisp against each other. Using a straw a mixed the layers together in lines and watch the colours in different layers spread in the bowl. I then blow air through the straw to see the swirls of colour mix together.

The paints reacted completely differently to each other: the water colour didn't mix in the milk at all whereas in water in just changed the colour of the liquid, however in water the body paint didnt move off of my finger whereas on milk it floated gently on the surface, creating rings of pigment where I could add another colour and it still not mix.

Overall I found these experiments useful as I can see the advantages and disadvantages of both mediums and how it reacts on different substances.

René Magritte

 

Son of Man

This is an oil painting by Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte and shows that everything we see hides something else and we always want to see what is hidden.

I wanted to recreate the piece by using photography and different editing techniques such as photoshop and papercutting.

Photoshop Experiment

Here I used Photoshop to edit 3 different images together to create my own version of the original piece.

This is the cutout image of the person and below is the finished piece.

I did think this piece turned out well as the lines are more accurate than I could do with scissors, as well the process itself was much quicker and didn't involve as many resources as it would using paper.

However, as this is an image it isn't as organic as it would be on paper, I feel little connection to the piece due to the quickness of the process and the lack of effort I had to personally put it compared to paper.

But overall this piece was successful and I will use it in my further experimentation.

Paper Cut Experiment

I did four different version with a combination of backgrounds and fruit but all with the same person in the image, here are the results of my experiments.

I preferred this to the original version as there was much more variation and the actual creation process was more enjoyable and therefore they look better to me.

To further improve these I will carry out experiments involving layering the images using transfer methods, as well as other techniques to distort the images and change the way we perceive them.

One improvement I would make is that the edges a roughly in places, especially the gaps between the arms and his body, as I only has scissors rather than a scalpel and cutting mat therefore in the future I will use those instead.

The Accident

While editing on Photoshop I tried to delete the background around an apple, but  I mistyped and created this instead:

I instead typed a shortcut for fill and the apple skin became the background. I like how interesting this looks as you can still clearly see the original apple without it blending into the background which is an expanded version.

I continued with this technique on the other images I took creating this series of photographs.

Each of the images is unique in its own way with a variety of colours and clear differences in texture. I would like to try and recreate these on different media or experiment further with this technique using other objects.

Perspective and Perception

Perspective

Dictionary Definition

"the state of one's ideas, the facts known to one, etc., in having a meaningful interrelationship"

"a mental view or prospect"

Perspective is the way objects appear based on their dimensions or spatial aspects. There are two primary meanings to it: linear perspective or aerial perspective.

Linear Perspective

This is used in graphics arts to show roughly how something 3D would appear on a flat surface, such as paper, as it would look to the human eye. The two main are features in linear perspective are objects further away appearing smaller and foreshortening shows on the objects - thisis where the objects appears closer in the representation than it actually is.

 

Here you can see the train track fade into the distance, labelling exactly where the track vanishes along the horizon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aerial Perspective

This is the effect the atmosphere has on an object that is a distance away. The further away an object is the less contrast there is between it and the background. As well, the details on the object become less apparent, such as the colours becoming less saturated and blending into the background

 You can see aerial perspetive here as the mountains further away become more and more blue, blending into the blue sky, when we can see that their are actually many colours which we see on the closest mountain face.

 Perception

Dictionary Definition

"the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses."

"the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted." 

Perception is the way we organize, interpret and identify sensory information so that we can understand the world around us.

The way each person percieves the world around them is different to the next, therefore leading to ambiguity.

The Necker Cube 

Here is an example of perception taking place, this cube has no debth cues therefore leaving it to the viewer to decide with face is closer and in which direction it is facing.

Optical illusions like this prove the subjectivity of perception, but also how easy it is to change it.

Rubin Vase

Created by Danish pyschologist Edgar Rubin, the vase can be interpreted in two ways either the vase or two faces.

 In both images you can see the two different angles, however it is easier to see the vase in the image with detail and easier to see the faces in the contrasting tones of the other.

Alexa Meade

"Alexa Meade demonstrates her innovative approach to painting portraits directly onto the bodies of her subjects, transforming her in-the-flesh, three-dimensional subjects into two-dimensional photographs."

"The Son of Man"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Son_of_Man

 

René Magritte -     "At least it hides the face partly well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It's something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present."