Pills
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Inspiration: Zdzisław Beksiński
Untitled, 1975 (Known as "The Creature" or "The Crawling death")
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Zdzisław Beksiński was a polish painter known for his Dystopian Surrealistic art style. His work is full of grotesque and uncanny looking creatures set in very dark settings. His works are highly appreciated by many due to its uniqueness in the way he is able to create an otherworldly world as well as how detailed each one of his pieces are. Most if not all of his works are untitled and have no meaning, as he mentioned that he wanted his work to be interpreted solely by the observer. With this in mind, many believe his work is said to represent horror, decay, death and all the negative emotions possible. This particular piece, although untitled, is known as “The Creature” or “The Crawling Death”, said to represent the “Post-War” and the destruction that came with it, as we see much decay in the background. The creature is said to represent death hence the name “The Crawling Death” given by viewers. The reason people believe this and many of his other artworks are related to the war is due to his close relation with the war, as he was around during the time World War ll was taking place.
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Untitled by Zdzisław Beksiński
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For this particular piece, I was especially inspired by the way Zdzisław Beksiński draws hands. As seen on “The Creature” the figure seems to be crawling away and I wanted to have that same effect on my piece. For my piece, the hands represent wanting to crawl out of a bad situation, in this case, the person is drowning in a pile of pills and wants to get out. The way Zdzisław Beksiński draws hands can seem very uncanny, which is something I want to attempt to tackle. In this piece, the creature has very unnaturally long fingers.
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Planning:
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Going into the planning stage, I knew I wanted to do something regarding pills, it just had to be their, whether it was in the background or the main vocal point. Looking at my inspiration, I knew I wanted show the idea of someone crawling away or struggling to come out of a pile of pills. For my reference picture for my piece, I took about 10 pictures of both of my hands in various positions, all in a way where it looked like I was struggling and crawling away from something. Then I took the best two pictures and edited them, placing them together. A concern I had however, was that the pictures I took, none looked like someone was crawling or struggling, but I felt I could show this emotion later on in the painting process.
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Process:
Beginning my process, I started by doing 20 x 16 in grids and began following the digital version of my sketch. The overall grids were not exactly the same as the one on the photo therefore the sketch came out a bit different proportion wise, however this was later fixed during the painting process. After the sketch was done, I began painting both hands with a light brown color as the single base color.
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Afterwards I began adding both the dark and light values to the hands. For this I used a medium sized brush and just added colors where I felt needed. This process was only to add base colors therefore I avoided adding detailing of any sort, as these base colors would later be changed. Instead of just using brown, I tried to incorporate a bit of light blue to the colors when mixing. Light blue is a color very evident in many of Zdzisław Beksiński’s pieces. I had a lot of trouble here painting the knuckles, although I did not intend on adding much detail yet, I wanted each component to be visibly there, that’s when I began struggling with the part of the hand, which in turn made some of the fingers look abnormally long. Although, I tried not to focus too much on the proportions as Zdzisław Beksiński’s artworks tend to have very abnormal proportions.
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Then I moved onto adding detail to the piece. I first began by mixing a light gray/brown/blue color and adding it to the lighter parts of the hands. I avoided using any more brown for the highlights as I felt there was too much brown to the point where the piece was looking flat. I also began adding a bit of yellow undertones and dark green to the darker parts of the piece. I did this process for both hands and once they were both done, I noticed one of the hands looked much more detailed than the other, and they were almost clashing with each other. I also began adding a couple of pills to the background. I did blotches of multiple colors in the shape of a pill, this would act as an almost stencil for when I add the actual detailed pills. My goal is to have the whole background covered in pills. I also added a pill bottle in the corner of the pieces.
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The drawing of the pills was a very long process. I started off with a base of light gray with a bit of yellow and began shaping the pills, I then took a smaller brush and with black paint, I shaped the pills. Then I added shading with a darker gray, adding the thin blue line, and then lastly, added the white highlights. I repeated this process for the whole piece. After 4 days, I wasn't even halfway done with the pills. At this point I noticed that the pills were around the same shade, and you couldn't tell if they were piles, Therefore I added a light black wash to some pills to make them seem as if they were below the pile, I also added darker pills in between some of the pills to continue this effect throughout.
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At this point I was finally done with the pills, I couldn't tell you how many I painted, 100? 200? Who knows. I was happy with the overall results of it, however I still went back and fixed the shading, and highlights of some of them. Once I finished, I set my attention back to the hands. I didn’t like how the colors looked all together, therefore I went back and fixed the hand. The hand also looked different in style compared to the pills and they were both clashing with one another. I went in with more beige/peach tones on the hands, avoiding using too much dark shadows since I felt they got lost beside the piles of pills.
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Once I was done with the hands, I went back and changed them up a bit. I kept comparing them to the hands Zdzisław Beksiński paints and they didn't emit the same grotesque look I was going for. To be honest I wasn't sure how I would be able to recreate his style, I went in with dark shadows and focused on adding them onto the joints of the fingers, since that seemed to be the most evident part Zdzisław Beksiński focused on,
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Experimentation/Color Palette:
Most of my experimentation relied more on the colors I mixed during the painting process. For the hand, I stuck mostly with warm colors, mixing up variations of brown with the primary colors. However, as I painted, the colors looked almost flat next to each other, therefore I began mixing up other colors other than brown tones, like a dark green for the shading, and a light blue for undertones in the hand. Later into the process, I moved onto more cool toned colors because even with the green and blue, the hand was looking very flat and I was not liking it. I added more gray toned browns to the lighter part of my hands and built up the colors as I went. It looked a lot better but I was still not liking the colors of the hand. I ended up re-doing my whole color palette, trying to use only reds and yellows to make more peach toned colors.
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Compare and Contrast:
Focusing on the hands, both show the idea of crawling away from something, the something being danger. For my piece, the “danger” is the pills, while in Zdzisław Beksiński the danger is the chaos going on in the background. However I feel like my piece lacks in evoking that feeling. Although it's visible that one is crawling out from the pills, I feel as though not enough mood is created, which I feel is due to the colors. Zdzisław Beksiński’s color palette is a lot more dark and although it holds lots of bright oranges and yellows, they work well in creating the chaotic mood. My colors, although similarly are very bright, lack unison.
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Comparing the styles and how the hands are drawn, the way Zdzisław Beksiński draws hands are very distinct as he makes the proportions very uncanny and unnatural. This was something I tried to replicate however I feel as though I wasn't able to. While painting, whenever I made the proportions different, I felt as though they looked wrong, causing me to go back and making them proportional. If I were to back and fix it, I could just leave the hands proportionally correct, but instead add more harsh shading that is very evident in Zdzisław Beksiński’s style.
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Reflection:
Pills is the one piece that took me the longest time to complete due to the many components to it. I admit, doing hundreds of pills was not what I was aiming for with this piece, but in the end I felt it would really help in conveying the meaning better. If I were to go back and fix something, I would definitely fix the hands, maybe fix the position of it, since I wanted it to look like the person crawling out was struggling greatly, and I feel I failed in conveying that specific part of the painting. The thing I like the most about the piece are the pills, although I wished I would have made them less “shiny” and gray, I think it shows the amount of time and effort I put into it. Overall, compared to my other pieces, this one is one I am closely related to. While working on it, I had to take pauses as I was greatly reminded of this particular time in my life that I locked away in my mind. Due to this emotional reaction to it, I think is why I was able to produce something I am very proud of.
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?
Zdzisław Beksiński purpose for his pieces are to inflict discomfort and perhaps fear as well, for my piece I do want to at least evoque some form of discomfort, as drowning in a pile of pills isn't really an ideal situation you want yourself in. The piece I used in particular for inspiration, unofficially called “The Crawling Death” shows a creature crawling away from a destroyed city/town. That particular part of the piece had an effect on my artwork as I wanted to show someone crawling away or out the pile of pills.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Zdzisław Beksiński created a dystopian world that revolved around fear, anxiety, depression, and etc. The creatures he created were always in some way, suffering, and in an uncanny state.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Most of what I put into this piece is in regards to my experiences with pills. Although the pills were meant to help, they made things complicated for me, however this does not apply to everyone as at the end of the day, medicines can have different side effects for everyone, whether good or bad.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central idea revolves around the side effects of taking a prescribed medicine meant to help you, focused more greatly on the anxiety of things. For me, taking these pills were a change in routine, and something I never got used to. The idea of them gave me anxiety, however I forced myself to take them as I relied on them to move on through the day.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The side effects I went through with this particular medicine is in fact a rare occasion. However, these side effects do in fact just not as common as I thought it would be.
Citations (MLA FORMAT)
https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/the-dystopian-surrealism-of-zdzislaw-beksinski/
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/poland/articles/the-tragic-story-of-zdzislaw-beksinski-the-artist-who-inspired-guillermo-del-toro/
Zdzisław Beksiński purpose for his pieces are to inflict discomfort and perhaps fear as well, for my piece I do want to at least evoque some form of discomfort, as drowning in a pile of pills isn't really an ideal situation you want yourself in. The piece I used in particular for inspiration, unofficially called “The Crawling Death” shows a creature crawling away from a destroyed city/town. That particular part of the piece had an effect on my artwork as I wanted to show someone crawling away or out the pile of pills.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Zdzisław Beksiński created a dystopian world that revolved around fear, anxiety, depression, and etc. The creatures he created were always in some way, suffering, and in an uncanny state.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Most of what I put into this piece is in regards to my experiences with pills. Although the pills were meant to help, they made things complicated for me, however this does not apply to everyone as at the end of the day, medicines can have different side effects for everyone, whether good or bad.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central idea revolves around the side effects of taking a prescribed medicine meant to help you, focused more greatly on the anxiety of things. For me, taking these pills were a change in routine, and something I never got used to. The idea of them gave me anxiety, however I forced myself to take them as I relied on them to move on through the day.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
The side effects I went through with this particular medicine is in fact a rare occasion. However, these side effects do in fact just not as common as I thought it would be.
Citations (MLA FORMAT)
https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/the-dystopian-surrealism-of-zdzislaw-beksinski/
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/poland/articles/the-tragic-story-of-zdzislaw-beksinski-the-artist-who-inspired-guillermo-del-toro/