For my first panel, I was inspired by Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel. This painting is interesting to me because of the amount of emotion in the man's face. I wanted that intense anger and sadness on the face of the women in my tryptic. However I wanted the face to be more exposed so it's visible that the girl is hurt. Therefore I didn't paint her arm in front of her face hiding her. I wanted her shame to be on full display. However, I knew since the person I was painting is very pale I wanted the redness from the eyes to extend to the cheeks. The man in the painting very much has a warm tone in his skin, therefore redness is a little harder to show. Lastly, in my inspiration the man looks like he is struggling to keep his emotions back, however I didn't want that in my painting. I wanted the girl in my painting to express those deep emotions she experiences often.
My second inspiration is William Bouguereau and his painting "The Remorse of Orestes". Both of my inspirations convey heavy emotion and close attention to detail. What I really want to focus on is the middle of the painting where the arms are. The way they point puts it clear where to look. It truly depicts this anger and resentment and I really wanted that in my piece. The colors were also something specific I wanted to carry over to my piece. One arm is very cool tones and almost green and another one is very red based and warmer. I wanted those three contrasting skin colors to give my piece dynamic and interesting visuals. |
My first sketch consists of notes taken from class and my first preliminary sketch. A tryptic consists of three meanings. It's how you see yourself, how you see yourself in your everyday environment and lastly how others see you. I wanted to talk mostly about my self acceptance and my journey to being able to. My first sketch I wanted to be solely based off of "Fallen Angel". The intense look I wanted in face I was painting, so I positioned her head facing in a downward angle. Intense hatred is something I wanted associated when looking at the painting.
My second and third panels are a bit different. I used the very expressive hands from Bourgeureau. I wanted intense, very theatrical art to be depicted in my middle piece. Therefore it would signify how society feels about me, rather than I see myself. Or perhaps I saw myself pointed at and ridiculed in modern society. Lastly, I used my face at an angle, while crying. I wanted to show the emotional release that I try not to show often. Then I'm surrounded by people that I struggle with. Showing love and affection is always difficult, however even more so in public. It is easily noticeable when I do, so others often highlight it when I do. I don't like it though. |
Firstly, I started with my first panel. I sketched out all of the faces and started with a base skin tone. Then I added in the blues and browns for shadows. For highlights I added yellows and pinks. With this painting I didn't really want to blend because I see myself as "messy". Then to determine where the hair will go I added a purple down because my hair use to be that purple.
After adding the eyes, my painting had much more intense emotion and meaning. I made her eyes red so it was obvious she was recently crying. Then to not make it look weird I added red all around her cheeks and her nose. White was the most textured thing in the painting and I really like it. It adds dimension. I added makeup to her too because I always used it because it made me feel put together. Lastly, I went in with a purple brown and added definition to her eyes creating a deep, tired look. My second panel was a bit easier to deal with. I originally wasn't going to put anything at the bottom, but I thought the composition was off so I added a table in the foreground with things that meant a lot to me. Last year I cut off all my hair and stepped back on the amount of makeup I was putting on because I wanted change. I needed to break free of what was seemingly tying me down. Then the arms are coming from the background pointing intensely at the girl in the first panel. I love the sheen and texture these paintings have. My second panel was the transitioning panel. It shows the hands pointing furiously and full of blame. I wanted the strong hatred to be visible. At first I was just going to do the three hands, but it seemed very empty so I added a table with things that represent the transition I went through. Cutting the hair and putting down my makeup. More symbolically it shows how I went through the transition to accepting myself and making those changes to find myself. I started out with the table and then I painted the bundle of hair. Slowly, I added color and texture to my paintings. Then I made the arms and used a different method from the face in the previous panel. I used blending that Bourgoureau used in his paintings. He was very meticulous about such things. I used the skin tones he used too in his paintings and I loved the contrast and dynamic they provide to the painting. For my third panel I started with the girl again. I wanted the strong emotions to be carried on to the third panel because nothing truly changed with the image of myself. I changed a few things like the color of my hair and me not being alone anymore. After I added the red to the face and the tears, it started to come together. I wanted the third panel to be the release of the emotions and not remain a contained thing. I think the release of those emotions have many meanings, such as acceptance. Then there is a girl kissing me in my neck for added symbolic meaning. |
For the arms, I would say they are pretty similar. They have the same emotion packed movements. In addition, they have the same skin tones, which I tried so hard to match. However, the positioning is totally different in the sense of some of the arms aren't the same length apart. This was due to the fact that the panel I had was only a foot large, therefore giving me little space to work with.
For the facial expressions with this piece, I did have the intense gaze, but I added redness because I tend to be a very red person in the face. I wanted her to seem as if she was crying and she was hurt. The person in this painting was crying, however he just started crying. In my painting I wanted it to look like she just stopped crying and was over what she was just emotional about. |
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