Title: Behind Closed WallsSize
Medium: Ink and Color Pencils on Paper Completed: Exhibition Text: MIAD Project called “Altering Landscapes” in which I did it regarding the issues evident in my neighborhood, from gun violence to drug usage. To touch into the effect it has on those who live in the neighborhood, and the lack of safeness people feel. |
Inspiration:
I was inspired by Vincent Van Gogh’s Boulevard de Clichy artwork made with oil on canvas. This piece was created in 18887 during the time of impressionism and pointillism, in which Van Gogh used a variety of lighter colors. What inspired me the most about this piece was the amount of colors implemented into the piece. In general the piece is very light but there's still so many colors visible like the greens, and blues on the concrete floor. Seeing this, I wanted to emit that same style, and atmosphere, as the whole piece is very calming. I liked the idea of contrasting a calming scenery with a darker meaning which is why I chose this piece.
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Planning:
I began my planning by first taking pictures of things I could potentially draw. I went to parks and took pictures of things I found interesting. However, I wasn’t really digging the picture I took. I didn't necessarily want to draw just the scenery and call it a day. Therefore, I began thinking about things I could do that could have meaning. That’s when I thought about how I could instead do a drawing of my neighborhood, and tie it into the gun violence and drug usage problem that is very much evident. I went around and took pictures of my neighborhood from a couple different angles.
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Once I finished taking my pictures, I began coming up with the concept of it and how I could make the meaning visible. I sketched out a couple variations of my neighborhood and just added whatever came to mind. To some I added barbed wire, to other barricaded windows and doors. I also began doing a planning page on objects I could potentially add around the area. For dramatic effect, I thought I could add guns, blood, and syringes on the alley floor. Although realistically, guns haven't been found on the ground in our area, syringes, blood and bullets have. I felt adding guns could potentially add a shock factor to the piece, and make the whole meaning make sense to the viewer.
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Process:
Once I had my pictures set, I began the drawing process. The picture I took had a lot of perspective involved. Instead of using grids, I watched tutorial videos on how to begin a perspective drawing to get a fresh mind of how it works. Once I got down to what to do, I began drawing lines and measuring them accordingly. I also kept in mind that my house is not necessarily straight, as it is set on uneven ground, it is a bit tilted. The hardest part of starting the initial sketch was the stairs to my porch, a lot of my calculations were incorrect, therefore, some things came out shorten in length and width. I had to accommodate the stairs to what I had already drawn which came with a lot of trial and error. Eventually I was able to get the stairs to perfectly fit with what was already drawn.
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After being done with both houses, I began adding more detail to them. To the first house, I added a lot more detailing to the roof area. I wanted both sides of the roof to be symmetrical to each other therefore tried to copy each detail exactly as seen to the other. I also began drawing the window in the middle of the roof. I added indents to them in order to make them look 3D and show that they were at a different angle than the overall house. I then moved onto the little roof on top of the porch. I first started by measuring a horizontal line with an even number, just about the door, then I added a vertical line in the middle of the horizontal line. I made a simple triangle from those lines and then began adding indents to make it look two-dimensional. Following this same format, I began adding detail to the second house.
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Once this one was done, I began drawing the trees visible in the picture, as well as the other plants involved. I also began drawing the alley way, adding smaller houses, trash cans, and the electricity posts. This was the easiest process of the drawing however, I do believe that some of the perspective got lost during this part of the project, therefore I began fixing a couple of the components till I got something I was satisfied with. When the sketch was completed, I went in with an ink pen and went over all the lines. This was a very slow process as I wanted to get the lines as straight as possible while following the already drawn lines. There were a couple times where I didn't have a steady hand and ended up messing up a couple lines, however I felt I covered these mistakes up later with color.
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After a while, I was finally done with the tracing process. While doing the line art, I made sure to follow the sketch exactly how it was drawn, however I did end up doing some things without sketching them first. I added a bit of shading with the pens wherever I felt needed and I also added the lines visible on the houses. When doing these lines, I left a couple empty spaces instead of it being a straight black line, this was more of a stylistic choice, however I feel as though it makes the piece look a lot better. I began coloring the piece by first setting in the base colors.
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After the colors were set in I went in and shaded the areas. I used a combination of brown and red to the shading of the house so it doesn't look too dull. While shading, I also made sure to fix any areas I messed up while doing the line art. For the windows, I debated drawing human figures on them, but ultimately I decided to just make them jet black as I had another idea come up later on. Once I was done with the house, I moved on to the other houses. The other houses were more cool toned compared to the main house, I used a variety of grays, blues and purples to shade them.
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Once my piece was finished, I ended up doing some revisions. I went back and made some colors sharper and added a bit more shading. I also ended up adding another component to the piece. As mentioned before, I decided to do the windows jet black because I had something else in mind which was made of wooden planks, and tape them onto the windows to show a barricaded feel. It also liked the illusion it gave, as the planks were popping out from the paper.
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Experimentation:
Going into this piece, I hadn't worked with color pencils in a while. I did a couple color swatches before starting the piece. I wanted to see what colors worked well with each other and blended well together as well. This was when I decided I wanted to use red to shade the house with brown as the colors worked and complemented each other really well.
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Compare & Contrast:
My approach to this piece wasnt to entirely try out Van Gogh's style, however I did want to use colors the way he does. His piece does a better job of using just lighter colors while in my piece, I tend to have a lot more harsher colors. Not only that but the colors he uses are light but bright compared to mine, my colors seem a tad bit more muted compared to his colors, most notable in the blues used in both pieces. The blue in his piece is very eye-catching and bright, while mind is almost unnoticeable. Both pieces however, work well in showing a calming scenery due to the colors chosen
Reflection:
This was a piece I was very nervous about presenting. When looking at the prompts we were given, I was drawing to the “Altering Landscapes” project. Originally, my plan was to dive into the littering problem evident everywhere, and incorporate trash into it as materials. However, while doing that drawing, I wasn't really all into it. The more I thought about it, I thought I could talk about my neighborhood, however, this was something out of my comfort zone. Turns out, I am happy with how the drawing came out. I especially like the whole look of it, how it looks like just a normal neighborhood but when you look closer, you notice these unsettling details. There's many things I would fix about it. While presenting my artwork at MIAD, we had to critique each other's work. During the critique of my work. I was told my piece lacked shading and detailing on the grass, as well as the perspective being off in some areas. These were things I did somewhat notice during the making of it and also did not notice. Keeping this in mind, I’ll be sure to fix these things when I come back to this piece. Overall, the critique helped me alot in noticing small mistakes and even got ideas to add to it to make it much more dynamic.
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?
Vincent Van Gogh’s purpose for this specific piece was to just paint a landscape of a street he saw most of his life. One can assume it holds a meaningful value to him. My purpose for this piece was not only to do a drawing of my neighborhood, but tie in meaning to it. His style played a big role in the decisions I took with this piece.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
My general topics revolves around the impact violence in my neighborhood has had on me. While reading about Van Gogh, I could not find anything relating to a situation like this.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Rather than do research, I had to dive into the memory lane to evoke my feelings correctly into my piece. When I talk about the situations that happen in my neighborhood, I tend to be very comedic with my friends. Since they have similar experiences where they live, we joke around about it a lot because it has become almost like a normal occurrence. Researching about it, this is just a way people cope with situations like this. It’s not essentially funny, but the idea of it and acknowledge it can be uncomfortable that the best thing to do is laugh it off.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
While searching for a inspiration for this piece. I wanted to find an artist who is able to captivate the likeness of city, town, neighborhood, etc. The general calm atmosphere was what I was looking for, as I felt that style, could make the meaning of my piece pop out more, or come off as shocking.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Violence in neighrborhoods can have a great effect on children , whether it is emotional, and psychological problems. Personally, I was effected more emotionally as a kid, I became more cautious of my surroundings, making sure to double check doors, turn off the lights when any popping sound is heard, etc. However, reading about many situations, I saw the variety of effects it can have on people.
Citations (MLA FORMAT)
https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0094V1962https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/types/community_violence_child.asp#:~:text=What%20Are%20the%20Effects%20of,young%20to%20understand%20or%20remember.
Vincent Van Gogh’s purpose for this specific piece was to just paint a landscape of a street he saw most of his life. One can assume it holds a meaningful value to him. My purpose for this piece was not only to do a drawing of my neighborhood, but tie in meaning to it. His style played a big role in the decisions I took with this piece.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
My general topics revolves around the impact violence in my neighborhood has had on me. While reading about Van Gogh, I could not find anything relating to a situation like this.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Rather than do research, I had to dive into the memory lane to evoke my feelings correctly into my piece. When I talk about the situations that happen in my neighborhood, I tend to be very comedic with my friends. Since they have similar experiences where they live, we joke around about it a lot because it has become almost like a normal occurrence. Researching about it, this is just a way people cope with situations like this. It’s not essentially funny, but the idea of it and acknowledge it can be uncomfortable that the best thing to do is laugh it off.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
While searching for a inspiration for this piece. I wanted to find an artist who is able to captivate the likeness of city, town, neighborhood, etc. The general calm atmosphere was what I was looking for, as I felt that style, could make the meaning of my piece pop out more, or come off as shocking.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Violence in neighrborhoods can have a great effect on children , whether it is emotional, and psychological problems. Personally, I was effected more emotionally as a kid, I became more cautious of my surroundings, making sure to double check doors, turn off the lights when any popping sound is heard, etc. However, reading about many situations, I saw the variety of effects it can have on people.
Citations (MLA FORMAT)
https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0094V1962https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/types/community_violence_child.asp#:~:text=What%20Are%20the%20Effects%20of,young%20to%20understand%20or%20remember.