"Untitled 1"
Size: 60.96cm by 91.44cm
Acrylic on Canvas September, 2017 Exhibition text: Untitled 1 is a painting about beauty of the small things can be the things that pull you out of the hard times. That in the darkest of time there is always that bright shinny memory that will keep us positive and give us hope to keep fighting through. It was inspired by Vincent van Gogh’s starry night and a sunflower patch. |
Inspiration |
Inspiration photos
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When researching for this project I started by looking up pictures of starry night recreations. While searching through google images I came across a painting that has a similar sky to starry night with a large sunflower in the corner. This let me to wanting to paint a sunflower patch with the sky. The two picture to the right are what I used as inspiration while drawing my sketches. The artist I connected this piece to was Van Gogh. I chose Van Gogh as my artist inspiration because he uses an impasto technique as he paints. I wanted to replicate this a I my painting. He also used balance between the objects in his painting but also in the color choices.
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Planning
I wanted to paint flowers. I started out my sketches by making different designs of flowers. In my first sketch I just have flower heads lining the bottom of the painting. At first I just wanted the bottom corner to have the flowers but that left a lot of empty space. So I extended the flower across the bottom to take up more space. To fill the space in the sky I was inspired by van Gogh's starry night. Instead of using the blued in the sky like van Gogh did u would used the blues from the sky in the flowers and the sky, and us more of unripe colors for the sky. As I liked the way it look in the planning sketch I found that it could be harder to connect it to my artist inspiration.
I liked the way for the sky in my first sketch so I continued it in my second sketch. Instead of just flower lining the bottom of the canvas I thought about putting a sunflower patch at the bottom not only connections Van Gogh starry night but also his sunflowers. I keep ed all the original colors with the yellow and oranges in the flowers and the blues in the sky, trying to make the strongest connections to my inspiration. As Van Gogh did not paint fields of sunflowers. For the third planning I continued with the flower theme. I picked dandelion will seeds flying away. I continued to use the start night as inspiration for the sky. I wanted to have some dead flying away I felt like the seed would not stand out with the background I picked. |
Process
There were many steps and a lot of experimentation to help create the final product. I started by stretching and gessoing a 3 by 4 canvas. The canvas size is about the same size as starry night from Van Gogh. Then using 60% blue and 40% white made a light blue to use as a base coat before I start creating the movement in the sky. I then took a white color pencil and sketched out my plan on to the canvas. For the sky I drew the way I wanted the paint to move. I started painting the sky first because I knew how I wanted it to look. I started off with two different shades of blue and added from there. I had dark blue and a light blue. Using the light blue I out lined where I wanted the lighter colors to be. I did the the same for the dark colors. Through research I learned that Van Gogh used sort controlled brush strokes. I experimented with different brushes to find the best fit to make the same brush strokes. I sound that using a median flat brush worked the best to get the looked that I wanted. Then mixed yellow and white to change the tone of the yellow for the stairs and the moon. After applying two layers of the dull yellow did not look right. I looked back to my inspiration after closer inspection I saw that there was a tint of orange in the stars and the moon. I added a small amount of orange to the yellow I had mixed earlier. The new color resembled the inspiration better than before. I mixed many different shades of blues and yellows I also added some metallic silver. I used these colors in the sky. The yellows were mainly used around the moon and the stars. I started to add layer by layer until the back color could not be seen through the paint strokes. The layering took a long process as the colors where to overlap not mix on the canvas. So I could only work on one part at a time then had to go back to continue to work on the other. I continued to add layers throughout the whole sky. I had to pay attention to detail and make sure that all the paint was precisely places to not only layer but to make sure that the paint was flowing in the proper direction. While painting the sky I can to the conclusion that to get the best results I needed little presser in on the brush. This gives a more relaxed flow to the paint and helped to create the choppy brush strokes. After the sky was complete I compared it to the inspiration, I saw that my stars and moon was a flat color where Van Gogh used the same sort brush strokes in his stars and moon. I then when back and corrected that by adding layers of yellow to create the same effect. Before working on the sky that woulds be seen between the flowers on the bottom I painted the flowers. I planned out the size of the flowers and the amount of them. From there I painted them is a similar style to the way Van Gogh painted his sunflowers. The sunflowers were the hardest part of the painting in my perspective. Van Gogh used two different styles in his sunflowers. Trying to recreate it was difficult. In a sunflower patch most of the flowers all look the same with different sized. I liked the idea of having two different styles of sunflowers. Van Gogh only used yellow to paint his sunflowers, I did not like the way that looks so i added orange to the mix. I used different shades of yellow and orange. I used the same skill that I gained painting the sky I painted the sunflowers. Once the flowers were done I added in the streams making then a dark green. Each steam was a different thickness dependent on the size of the flower it was attached to. So steams did not get attached to a flower to give the illusion that there were layers of flowers. I then using the same colors as the sky filled in the empty spaces to have the sky look like it came all the way down to the edge of the canvas.
Process/Experimentation photos
Comparison
Reflection
I think that this project turned out good. I would have liked to finish the detail of sky throughout the whole painting, as I originally planned to do. I loved the way that sky turned out. The multiply layers of different shades of blues helped not only give it dimension but created a similar movement within the sky as van gogh’s starry night. I could have had some improvement in my planning for the flowers. While painting the flowers I was more focused on the color and the shades of the flowers then the shape of the pedals. I also didn't know how I wanted the pedals to look if I wanted them to be defined with a black line or if I wanted them to look as natural as possible. Seen through the process photos I had trial and error ultimately deciding on as natural as I could. Another area of improvement that I could have made was managing my time wisely. There were many opportunities while the current layer in the sky was drying that I could have been working on the sunflowers. This caused me to fall behind making some of the sunflowers looked rushed and not letting fully completing the project to what I had planed.
Act connection
- “Untitled 1” is similar to starry night and Van Gogh's sunflowers through similar painting styles/ techniques and through the colors.
- My inspiration, inspired me to create an acrylic painting that was a twist between a sunflower patch and a starry night.
- When researching my inspiration I came to the conclusion that Van Gogh painted what he saw and the colors reflected his feelings. That his paintings are made for made so people can question the meaning of it.
- The central idea around my inspiration research was to learn how Van Gogh painted. To learn the style and color schemes that he used and why he used them.
- The inferences that were made when reading my research was that Van Gogh that his paintings were dream like with a realistic twist. That his work was reality versus fantasy.