It's All In Your Head
Medium: Illustration board, watercolor, colored pencil
Size: 10 in x 15 in
Completed: May 11, 2022
Exhibition Text:
Growing up is something many have to go through however it doesn't mean it is an easy process. Sometimes you are so stubborn and want to be stuck in time, just one stop in time so you can feel like a child again. Is it those youthful times you miss or the happiness you felt at the time? Using Thomas Wilmer Dewing's art as inspiration for my watercolor piece, mimicking his style and usage of colors.
Growing up is something many have to go through however it doesn't mean it is an easy process. Sometimes you are so stubborn and want to be stuck in time, just one stop in time so you can feel like a child again. Is it those youthful times you miss or the happiness you felt at the time? Using Thomas Wilmer Dewing's art as inspiration for my watercolor piece, mimicking his style and usage of colors.
Inspirations:
Before the Mirror by Thomas Wilmer Dewing
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My inspiration for my illustration piece was not a watercolor artist but instead a oil painting artist, The reason why I chose this artist was because I really liked the composition of the piece. I thought I could really play with the idea of what is real and what is fake with the help of the mirror. Thomas Wilmer works mostly with oil paints therefore this would be a bit of a challenge, I don't intend on mimicking his style but instead, using his composition and working with a similar color palette as his piece.
Besides choosing his artwork due to the composition, I like the colors he chose for this piece. They are very muted but still vibrant. There's also a lot of shadows that really bring the piece together and I really want to work with that. |
Idea:
My first idea evolved over the concept of growing up, childhood imagination and missing the past. One scene depicts a mother reading a book while her children play outside having the greatest time of their life. Running around imagining all sorts of things around them. Therefore I added planes, fairies, abnormal creatures, anything that could come from a child's imagination. The other side depicts that all is gone. No more fun, no more imagining creatures around us, we are grown up, no more time to think about anything but focus on our responsibilities. With this concept I really wanted to convey my own feelings. Sometimes I think back to my past when I was a kid and I go “wow I wish when we had no care in the world and just had fun”, I most of all miss playing with my siblings and neighborhood friends. We have all grown up and have a life to begin, we can't be kids anymore, and it's scary how things can change so fast. Sometimes I look back at my old childhood friends and see how much they’ve changed. We practically see each other as strangers now, as if we never knew one another. My biggest worry is seeing if me and my siblings will drift apart the more we grow up, we won't have to live together any more so I wonder, will we still talk to one another and laugh at old jokes? This is what I want to convey with my two illustrations. Change and how it affects us.
For this project, I really wanted to do a lot of details. I also wanted in some way to incorporate my bedroom and turn it into something else. With this in mind I though of turned my room into a magical place, full of color and liveliness. I wanted to do a piece that would represent the idea of growing up and how scary that can be, instead you want to stay a kid and see life the way it was before, happy and full of imagination. However, growth can't be stopped and its a scary thing. Will I be successful in this idea of growing up? Will I be proud of who I become?For this project, I really wanted to do a lot of details. I also wanted in some way to incorporate my bedroom and turn it into something else. With this in mind I though of turned my room into a magical place, full of color and liveliness. I wanted to do a piece that would represent the idea of growing up and how scary that can be, instead you want to stay a kid and see life the way it was before, happy and full of imagination. However, growth can't be stopped and its a scary thing. Will I be successful in this idea of growing up? Will I be proud of who I become?
For this project, I really wanted to do a lot of details. I also wanted in some way to incorporate my bedroom and turn it into something else. With this in mind I though of turned my room into a magical place, full of color and liveliness. I wanted to do a piece that would represent the idea of growing up and how scary that can be, instead you want to stay a kid and see life the way it was before, happy and full of imagination. However, growth can't be stopped and its a scary thing. Will I be successful in this idea of growing up? Will I be proud of who I become?For this project, I really wanted to do a lot of details. I also wanted in some way to incorporate my bedroom and turn it into something else. With this in mind I though of turned my room into a magical place, full of color and liveliness. I wanted to do a piece that would represent the idea of growing up and how scary that can be, instead you want to stay a kid and see life the way it was before, happy and full of imagination. However, growth can't be stopped and its a scary thing. Will I be successful in this idea of growing up? Will I be proud of who I become?
Re-reading my ideas days later, I changed it up a bit after coming up with the title, It's All In Your Head, the titled relating to things I heard when first began having symptoms of depression and anxiety. These words were in-graved in my head and every time I began having a panic attack, I would repeat these words over and over again hoping I'll snap out of it. During these moments, I imagined people looking at me and laughing, judging me, while walking through the halls of freshman year, I would hear whispers of me, but in reality it was me saying those things, no one said those things but me. Going of the positive and negative trope for this piece, I thought it was a good idea to play with the idea of Imagination. The positive side having a child (me when younger) in their room imagining all sorts of happy things. Flowers, butterflies, fairies all around my room. To give the idea of it being all part of the imagination, a mirror will be at the side, where we as the viewer will see that there is in fact, nothing there. The negative side is very similar except, it's a person going to a mental break-down, covering their ears imagining all sorts of bad things. As during depression, you really do think of every possible bad thing about yourself.
Experimentation:
I really want to emphasize on the idea of dark and lights. For the first piece, the positive side, I want to use very bright colors, like (artist) colors that make you happy when you see them. While for the second piece (the negative side) I want very gloomy and dark colors, those colors that make you uneasy like (artist). This project of mine really relies on the mood and the color choices, neither can be messed up.
I began by figuring out color palettes. As mentioned about, piece 1 should be bright colors while piece 2 should be gloomy colors. To figure out this I mixed lots of colors, putting them in groups of gloomy or bright, writing down each color combination as I go. Once I had enough colors, I circled the ones I liked while also keeping in mind John Singers color choices as to still benefit from what I gathered from my inspiration and interpret his style into my piece.
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Notes:
Process:
First I began by taking pictures of my room, I took a lot of shots but ultimately was a fan of these. I wanted to incorporate my mirror in the piece as I felt I could do something creative with it. After wards, I added a 10 by 15 grid to the picture, as the picture was too difficult to freehand. While sketching, I found myself confused, there were many details and so many boxes that i'll end up sketching a really good subject, just to erase it because it was in the wrong box. This is where I began doing a lot of modifying, if I drew something in the wrong box, i'll instead adapt. However, I also kept in mind that I would need to drawing this drawing two times, therefore not to follow the picture but instead follow my sketch when doing my second piece.
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Then after my sketches were done I began my painting process. I first added a light beige/blue wash to the whole board. Afterwards I went in were a light bright blue and added shading.
Starting off with one illustration board, I began painting the one depicting childhood memories and the imaginative mind of a child. With this piece, I wanted the colors to be very opaque and bright as the other painting will be more gloomy in contrast. To start off I began painting the skin, I used a lot of browns, purples, yellows and reds. Then I moved onto the clothing, I did a small sketch on the side, a replica of this painting sketch and put colors I thought would work. I opted for a blue shirt. Although, I wanted very bright colors, I also wanted to stay in the same color range as my inspiration as to not drift off too much from it.
For the background, at first I was going to do a lot of fantasy stuff, unicorns, fairies, mystical creatures etc but I instead did a outdoor scenery. I've always found more calmness in nature so I felt I should do that instead, it still kept the imagination aspect as I imagined myself in that place rather than actually being in it. |
The background process was a lot of trial and error. I made a mistake and added large amounts of watercolor paint, almost using it as thick paint because the colors were not blending as I wanted to. This caused the piece not to necessarily looked like a watercolor piece and I began getting frustrated. Not only that but the sky was not looking well either and in general the whole piece was looking bad.
That's when I decided to take a break from watercolor and instead use color pencils. I began with the clothes using light blue and white for them, still trying to stay in the same style as {} as to not strive too far from my inspiration. |
For the second part of the Illustration project, I had a feeling set in mind. Playing once again with the idea of imagination, I wanted this piece to feel sad, and almost emit a lonely feeling. Of course it'll be a piece you'll see as sad due to the subject being in a sad position however I also wanted the colors to feel like that. I followed the same colors used in the first piece but instead I added grey/black to the colors to make them dull.
I once again, started off with doing the skin. Trying to keep my colors within the grey scale, not too much that's its completely gray but a little bit |
I put my two pieces side to side as to make sure the colors were what I was going for, As you can see, the left illustration (positive side) is a lot brighter and has looks or rich colors compared to the left illustration (negative side) which has more muted colors, and stays within the brown/grey color scheme. |
After I was done, I felt the piece seemed very empty but I wasn't sure what to add to it. I looked at my art from first semester and I came up with the idea of adding elements from old pieces onto this illustrations.
For the second illustration I looked at my artwork Dyspnea, and added elements from that piece, in this case it was the hands. I wanted the hands to represent my anxiety and depression and all those feelings I bottled up inside of me, coming out to haunt me. I wanted them to look out of place, as that's the whole point of imagination, imagining something that isn't there. I wanted the hand to reach out to me, the person doesn't see it, but closes her eyes hoping it'll be gone. |
Compare & Contrast:
Similarities:
- Composition relies over the mirror. For both mine and the original, Before the Mirror, the whole piece relies on the mirror, as it is somewhat a very eye-catching part of the piece.
Differences:
- Color are drastically different from each other, Thomas uses more muted but rich colors while I used more bright, eye-catching colors. This especially prominent in the blue of the water on my piece, and the blue on the ladies dress by Thomas.
Similarities:
- Both pieces rely heavily on the person, as they are the main centerpiece of the whole artwork.
Differences:
- Although both me and Thomas use muted colors, his are a lot more rich and prominent. This may be due to the medium as I used watercolor and he used oil paint.
- The style is a lot different from each-other, although I focused more on composition (with a bit of changes), Thomas has a more realistic style while mine is my stylistic.
- Another difference is that Thomas Wilmer uses very harsh shading adding a nice contrast to the pieces elements, I didn't add much shading to my piece in comparison,
Reflection:
This piece was honestly one of the hardest pieces I've done. I thought going into it that it would be quite easy as watercolor is something I have and loved working with. However, when it came to actually doing to paintings, it was much more of a challenge. I noticed that the first part of the project was a lot harder, but when it came to doing the second painting, it came across more easy as I learned from my past mistakes with the first piece. This is probably why I feel they came out looking not unison with one another, one looks more clean and one more messy, they don't link very well. However, I feel the general meaning of it is what keeps it from being two separate pieces.
Connections to ACT:
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
My inspiration is the reason for the idea of my artwork. Looking at Thomas work, Before the Mirror, was very eye-catching to me as I could play around with the idea of mirrors and manipulate it to create a interesting artwork. In my case, my artwork relates on the idea of real and fake, showing a imaginative work, but in the reflection (the mirror) none of that is seen.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
There's not much on whether or not he engaged with the idea of mental health. As of now there is no artwork of his relating or having any monotones regarding mental health.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I had to do a lot of thinking when it came to the positive side of my piece, did I want it to seem very childlike, depicting fairies, and mythical creatures or not. The thing is I've always been a very calm child, my idea of a nice, calming place never had mythical creatures but instead it was just the nature. At the end I opted for that idea. Therefore, I had to do a lot of decision making and really dive into what I like.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
For my inspiration, I wanted to have a painting that I could manipulate, I already had a idea of doing something with mirrors, so that really acted as the central idea around finding my inspiration.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While doing research for my inspiration, I learned a lot about colors, in a sense that staying within one color range (let's say blue, light blue, dark blue) when it comes to adding contrast and shading to the piece can make it look very flat. It's good to experiment with other colors as well.
Citations (MLA FORMAT)
https://www.watercolor-classes.com/famous-watercolor-artists/
https://www.ba-bamail.com/content.aspx?emailid=35935
https://www.juliegilbertpollard.com/paintings/summer-path/
https://mymodernmet.com/famous-watercolor-artists/2/
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/thomas-wilmer-dewing-1247