Creating work digitally because of lockdown:
I had almost given up hope when it was announced that lockdown would be implemented. I’d left the studio with all of my supplies in my locker, and when I say all, I mean ALL of them. I was worried because I hadn’t brought any supplies with me to use from home. Was it possible that I’d fail? It was a terrifying feeling, and it made me avoid doing any kind of creative work. “Surely they’ll understand,” I reasoned, but I didn’t want to give up because that’s not what this course is teaching me. I strived and remembered that I was quite proficient with digital art.
After having this epiphany, I emailed Amber and asked if I could paint digitally, and she said yes. I was overjoyed, so I started creating artwork on my iPad with the software application, “procreate”. Picking up where I left off, I chose John Everett Millais’ “Ophelia” as my starting point.
I got a lot of inspiration from Rita Ackermann’s, Elizabeth Peyton’s, and Holly Warburton’s work when I was making these. Their work was something to be admired, I loved how their art was imperfect, unrefined, and expressive, so I tried to emulate that in my own work.
Starting with Figure 1:
For figure 1, I wanted it to be bright while simultaneously keeping some of the source image’s visual elements. A number of textures were used to create this piece. If you looked closely, you could see every stroke of various mediums such as oil paints, acrylic paints, watercolour, and raw pencil strokes. Similar to Ackermann’s work, I wanted movement and depth to be apparent. As shown in how I painted the hair and a section of the outfit; I drew inspiration from Peyton’s imperfection without going into great detail. To add depth and shadows, I used sketchy lines and vivid colours, akin to Warburton’s work.
Depth and dimension:
I wanted to go way back from the first week of drawing for the second piece. I painted another version of Taylor Swift’s January 2018 Vogue cover. All of my artist research had influenced me in some way. With this painting, I attempted to emulate Ackermann’s fluidity and depth even further. I positioned the skeletal art nouveau painting behind it to lend a layer of complexity. Then layered layers on top of that to give it a sense of depth and dimension. Similar to the first one, I utilized sketchy lines to add more texture and colour to the work; especially where I needed harsher and more abrasive shadows. This painting is one of my favourites, and I’m thrilled with how it turned out.
Layering:
Finally, I chose to revisit “Ophelia” by John Everett Millais. In terms of how I wanted it to look, I believe this one was the most underwhelming and unsuccessful. It’s not my favourite, but I believe it’s still a good piece. This is a closeup of Ophelia’s face, which I find unsettling in the nicest way possible. She appears to look dead and emotionless. It’s ironic, because my inspiration for this work is Warburton, an artist who evokes emotion through her poignant and well-made art, whereas mine elicits no emotion because it’s so still. I really like how obvious each layer is; it adds the much-needed depth and dimension that I was looking for. I I adore the sight of flaws. It gives an emotionless work the much-needed appeal, in my opinion.