“Humanly Complex” is meant to shed light on the human phenomenon that is the feeling of melancholy sadness. This piece was inspired by various artists’ works, such as “The Scream” by Edvard Munch and Van Gogh’s “Self Portrait as a Painter”. I intended to incorporate Gogh’s self portraiture in my piece, as well as Munch’s particular blending technique. The acrylic paints and brushes used to create this painting have been purchased, while the canvas is self-made.
Inspiration
The Scream by Edvard Munch
The Scream by Edvard Munch depicts a man with his hands clutching his face with his mouth open, standing on what appears to be a boardwalk. The painting was an extremely influential piece, created during the modern expressionist movement. When analyzing this artwork, the first thing that stood out to me as a viewer was the blend of colors that makes up the background. The colors Munch used are primarily consistent with a sunset-like palette. Munch created rhythm and depth in his piece by utilizing his own unique blending technique, which added a sense of cohesiveness to the piece. Through the use of rhythm and natural shape in the background, the boardwalk and the man screaming are emphasized in the piece; as the man and the boardwalk are composed of geometric shape, they are in contrast to the rest of the piece, and therefore are emphasized. I plan to utilize Munch's technique of natural shape in my piece, for the purpose of emphasizing a specific aspect of the piece, similarly to Munch. I believe 'The Scream' was created for the purpose of highlighting the distress that humans can feel internally, despite being externally safe. In this piece, the man is surrounded only by the boardwalk, the sunset, and a few stragglers in the background of the piece. From the outer eye, the man appears to be completely physically safe, despite the fact that he's screaming. Therefore, I believe that the purpose of this artwork was to emphasize feelings of anxiety and fear that can occur in humans despite safe surroundings.
Self Portrait as a Painter by Van Gogh
Van Gogh's self portrait depicts himself sitting in front of a canvas, holding several brushes and a palette. While the actual intention of the artwork was to practice painting people, I believe Van Gogh designed this portrait with the intention of portraying his self-image as an artist. When I look at this self-portrait, it's very easy to perceive the feelings of sadness, melancholy, and insecurity. I want to be able to create a painting that is able to translate emotions through the canvas, as Van Gogh did. Additionally, Van Gogh used the artistic element of color to juxtapose the emotions that are depicted in the piece, and the actual composition of the piece. Van Gogh used fairly bright colors, which deeply contrasted the look of indifference that is pictured on Van Gogh's face. I believe this technique was used in order to draw attention to, and emphasize, the internal battle that Van Gogh was experiencing between his depression and his will to live. Similarly, I would like to use bright and dark colors to draw contrast between feelings of sadness and happiness in my painting.
Planning
My first planning page detailed the basic ideas that I had for the painting. I laid out any basic ideas I had- most of them revolving around various aspects of my identity, due to the nature of the prompt (perceptions of identity). Laying out my ideas on the side of the page really helped me narrow down what I wanted to do for this project. I wrote a paragraph on the upper right detailing what I wanted to be the main focus of my painting: my face, or various drawings of my face. I referenced the technique I wanted to use from Edvard Munch (the blending technique), and I also wrote about how I wanted to carry out my plan. I planned on using Photopea, a photoshop application, to create a photo collage with two pictures of me, mainly featuring my upper body and face. I had previous experience with Photopea from a previous assignment, namely the digital collage project.
On my second page, I began with a detailed sketch of what I envisioned my digital collage, turned reference photo, to look like. I drew two of my faces, one sad and one happy, to describe the feeling of melancholy sadness, or sadness with no specific reasoning or point of origin. Once I had finished the face, I added the blending that I planned on including in my painting: one of Edvard Munch's famous techniques. I recounted my idea in a paragraph underneath the sketch. The paragraph referenced what I planned on doing for the actual painting, such as brainstorming on what painting tools I could use to carry out the intricate blending of the two faces. Additionally, at the bottom of my second planning page, I described what the two heads were supposed to represent. The first head was supposed to represent life without any internalized conflict, or happiness, and the second head represents internalized conflict, or sadness.
My final planning page was a description of my actual reference photo. Using Photopea, I was able to take two images of myself and crop them together, so that they give off the appearance of being one cohesive image. I printed out my reference photo, and made multiple copies, so I could include one in my planning pages. Underneath the image, I included a paragraph about my success with the application, and how I created the reference photo. Overall, I am very happy with my planning process, simply because I was able to hash out all the ideas that I wanted to brainstorm about.
Process
After finishing the first face and hair, I started painting the shirts and body. I used the colors black, dark green, blue and white to get the gray-green shade that was pictured in the original image. The hardest point of this stage in the process was the need to create an excessive amount of that particular shade, because the area of the shirt was so expansive. Once I finished with the base layer of the first shirt, I began to add shadows and other details. I outlined the words and then created a darker shade for the shadows. I created shadows and wrinkes where they were located in the reference image. Once I had finished creating the shadows and outlining the words, I created a silver-blue shade of paint for the actual color of the text. Overall, I was happy with this step of the process.
Afterwards, I painted the arms, which were involved in my experimentation. I then moved on to the second shirt. I created a light green-gray shade for the second shirt, both because it related to my message behind the painting and because in the reference photo, the second shirt is significantly lighter than the first. I wanted to remain as accurate to the reference photo as possible. I used green, black, white and blue paints in order to create the shade. I felt as thought the lighter shade related to my message more, because the second face was supposed to signify sadness despite other people believing you're happy; therefore, I felt as though a lighter color would make sense, because lighter colors generally signify happiness. After painting the words, I created a darker gray shade, for the shadows. I was particularly happy with how the shadows for the second shirt came out, simply because I felt as though I really captured the shape of the wrinkles, and the natural dark areas. I also created creases in the fabric while using the same shade. After I had painted the second face, I created the blending of the heads using a Edvard Munch technique, and lastly, I painted the black spikes in the background.
Experimentation
One of the main experimental parts of this piece was the creation of my canvas. It was required that we make our own canvas using the materials given to us (wooden planks, a stapler, and canvas), as opposed to buying one from the store. I had never made a canvas before, therefore, this was a completely new process for me. I had to experiment with the size of my canvas, because we had the option to make it larger than 2x2. However, after experimenting with the wooden planks and readjusting them to how I like, I decided to create a 2x2 canvas. I had to fit the canvas sheet around my canvas the way I needed, so that it was tight enough to not sag, and it was large enough to cover all the edges. Overall, I would say this was the most experimental aspect of my piece.
I also experimented quite a bit with the mixing of skin tones. I had never painted skin with acrylic paint before, so this was a very new process for me. Initially, I struggled with the pigment of the paints; I kept making the shades too dark for my complexion. I had been using white, blue, yellow, and red acrylic paint in order to create the shade; only later on in the process of my painting did I realize that it was the paints I was using that were affecting my efficiency. I eventually tried to mix the skin tone without using the white paint, but rather a light off-white, yellower paint. This made a huge improvement, and I was able to accurately mix the skin tones without it being too dark or uneven. This part of the experimental process really taught me a lot about painting skin, and I used the method throughout the rest of my painting process, when painting the arms and second face.
Additionally, one of the first parts of my experimental process was creating the reference photo for my painting. I used Photopea, a photoshop application that had been used for previous projects, to crop two images of myself together in order to create the two bodies blending together that I used for my painting. This was one of the more experimental processes of my piece, simply due to the fact that I had to relearn how to use Photopea, because it had been months since I last used it.
Critique
Similarities The main similarity between all three pieces is the medium. All three pieces are paintings, made on canvas. There is a similarity in the color palette, as my painting and Van Gogh's and Munch's paintings all used various skin tones. Additionally, I used Munch's blending technique, seen in the background of "Scream", in order to blend the two heads in my painting together. I was inspired by the cohesiveness of Munch's background, and decided to utilize that technique to further my meaning behind my painting. One similarity between my painting and Van Gogh's painting is the fact that both of them are self portraits. I was mainly inspired by that particular aspect of Van Gogh's piece, which partially led to my painting being a dual self-portrait, not taking into account the prompt of the piece. Finally, my painting, Van Gogh's painting, and Munch's painting all use a darker color palette for the clothing in our works.
Differences One of the key differences between my piece, and Van Gogh's and Munch's pieces, is the type of paint. I used acrylic paint, while Van Gogh and Munch used oil paint. This is a largely important difference in the paintings. Additionally, another difference between the paintings is the use of geometric shapes to create spikes in my painting. Neither Van Gogh nor Munch use geometric spikes in their piece, or anything not resembling a regular everyday object. Another difference is the content of the paintings; my painting is a self portrait, but it contains two faces. Alternatively, Van Gogh's painting is also a self portrait, but there is only one face. Munch's painting simply isn't a self portrait at all. While it is speculated that it may be a self-portait, it isn't confirmed. Additionally. Munch uses a warm color palette in his piece, while my painting consists of a cool color palette. Munch's painting is also formatted differently; his painting has a foreground and a background, while mine doesn't have a foreground, and only a very small background, if anything at all.
Reflection
The entire semester, I've been anticipating a painting project. As a young artist, even younger than I am now, I primarily worked with painting mediums. While my primary medium was watercolor paint, I occasionally dabbled in acrylic paint and very rarely, oil paints. However, I hadn't worked with acrylic paint enough to be extremely familiar with the painting process as it pertains to acrylics. They're very quick drying, occasionally hard to blend, and have a thick texture unlike watercolor. I struggled initially with the mixing of paint, as well as the blending, and I had to experiment quite a bit before I could call myself even remotely comfortable with the medium. Therefore, I would say that this project was extremely successful to my development as an artist. My favorite part of the process was definitely being able to have complete creative control over my painting. I really liked being able to come up with my own ideas regarding my identity, as well as having control over the paint I used. We had the option to use either acrylic paints or oil paints, and I chose acrylic. In conclusion, I hope the viewers of my piece see my painting as what I detailed in my exhibition text; a representation of the human phenomenon that is melancholy.
ACT Questions
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork? I integrated several aspects of my inspiration into my final artwork, which significantly impacted the final product; I was inspired by Van Gogh's interesting take on self-portraiture in "Self-Portrait as a Painter", as well as Munch's unique blending technique that was utilized in the background of "Scream". 2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration? Melancholy sadness, or the feeling of sadness without any apparent reason, can significantly affect the way an individual presents themselves to others, especially during times of extreme stress due to the lack of understanding of the way they feel. I was able to find pieces that embodied that sense of melancholy (Scream and Self-Portrait as a Painter) from my research.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration? I've discovered that many people use art as a way of dealing with things that they experience in everyday life; my inspiration, Van Gogh, is one of the most renowned artists in the world, and he famously struggled with depression.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research? Melancholy is a phenomenon of human existence, that has persisted throughout the ages and has made itself most prevalent in the young generation.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research? Cohesiveness in a painting can make a significant difference in the overall feel of an artwork. Depending on how you relate specific aspects of a piece to each other can determine the success of an idea.
Citations (MLA Format)
EdvardMunch.org. “The Scream, 1893 by Edvard Munch.” Https://Www.edvardmunch.org, 2012, www.edvardmunch.org/the-scream.jsp. “Self-Portrait as a Painter - Vincent van Gogh.” Van Gogh Museum, www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/collection/s0022V1962.