Breadth #11

I felt like I needed a nice figure drawing for the portfolio, so I took a drawing I had done at Spoleto Study Abroad a couple of years ago and worked back into it..mostly defining the space around the figure and such. I tried to keep the original marks of the figure to keep the sense of motion in it. I like the position of the figure and the emotion that suggests, but this piece is weaker than some of my others.

Breadth #10

My first goal for this piece was to use a different surface and shape--so I bought a circular piece of wood at Lowe's. I wanted to do another good portrait, and since I've recently fallen in love with the art of John Singer Sargent, I studied the way that his portraits combined realism with loose, expressive brush strokes and drastic value ranges. I also wanted to do a sort of modern take on classical/Renaissance/ancient Roman styles--I thought the circular format, toga-looking shirt, and idealistic (as far as beauty) expression and position would reference that as well. I did this of my sister Elena and worked quickly in order to capture the expressiveness of the figure, doing many layers, using different color schemes and focusing mainly on shape. I am really pleased with the result!

Breadth #9

So..I can safely say that I worked for this one. Kristen, Hanna and I went out to Mrs. Helton's vineyard over our conference days and did some landscape oil painting. I felt that my breadth section needed a good landscape piece, and I decided to reference Impressionism as my style. I looked at Monet, Van Gogh, Hassam, and Sargent for inspiration. After an underpainting I slowly built up my big, medium, and small shapes, then finished with impressionistic mark-making. My focus is, of course, studying light--reflected off the top of the great old barn, the drastic shadows on the blue picnic table, and the ground speckled with shadows of trees. I loved working with oil paint and I felt that this is probably the best oil painting I've done. :D

Breadth #2

Sorry for the out-of-order posts...we hung an interesting still-life from the ceiling and the premise for this piece was to incorporate more than one perspective of the still life (we had to switch seats as we were working). I had a hard time at first finding out how to construct a successful composition and effectively abstract such a realistic subject..but I think the composition is successful. The part of this that may need work is just the development-I don't want to lose the loose quality, but the piece may need more contrast.

Breadth #1

This piece is actually the first breadth piece I did-the general premise was to do a self-portrait loosely based on the style of one of our concentration pieces (to ease us into breadth). I chose to do mine in the style of my Concentration #10 (expressive lines, charcoal). I also incorporated design, like my concentration pieces. For this piece I tried to capture the looseness and motion of a figure drawing-I tried to make an interesting expression and have the design structure kind of morph into the subject. I feel like this is one of the most successful portraits I've done. :D

Breadth #8

For this week, I decided to do another realistic work to balance out my abstract pieces. I was in orchestra one day, leaning on my cello and dozing, when I suddenly saw an awesome composition! So I took a picture of my cello from an interesting angle/viewpoint, showing a lot of reflection. The work is on canvas with black-and-white acrylic paint. I feel like I reached new levels of detail with this piece...I've always gotten to a level in painting where I'm too lazy/unwilling to really delve in and add intricate detail--but this time I made myself go to that level, and I think it paid off. I like the exploration of reflections/distortions in this piece, and I also like that you can see my hands, one of which is holding a bow (I think it adds content to the piece).

Breadth #7

I felt that my Breadth section needed a strictly abstract composition, so I decided to experiment with watercolors on clayboard this week. I researched mainly Frankenthaler for inspiration and began by pouring watercolored-water on the surface and seeing what shapes formed from it. Then I defined and layered on top of the shapes, using watercolor crayons. I also subtracted by using scratchboard tools in some areas. The main things I focused on during this project were color and color schemes, composition, and texture (through water stains, scratch-marks, etc.). As an imaginary landscape, I think of a mountain range or something when I see this. I like this one because it adds variety to my portfolio and I took a risk in doing it.