Painting Based on Photography
Title: Detached
Size: 9 x 9 inches
Medium: Gouache on illustration board
Completion: November 2020
Size: 9 x 9 inches
Medium: Gouache on illustration board
Completion: November 2020
Exhibition Text:
"Detached" is a gouache painting of my cropped photo "Nature Reclaimed" inspired by Claude Monet's impressionist pieces. This painting represents looking beyond what is primarily presented to us in order to discover beauty. It focuses on saturated, dreamy hues to emphasize an appreciation of the outdoors and discovering beauty in one's everyday lifestyle.
"Detached" is a gouache painting of my cropped photo "Nature Reclaimed" inspired by Claude Monet's impressionist pieces. This painting represents looking beyond what is primarily presented to us in order to discover beauty. It focuses on saturated, dreamy hues to emphasize an appreciation of the outdoors and discovering beauty in one's everyday lifestyle.
Inspiration:
My piece is inspired by works from the impressionist painter Claude Monet. Impressionism uses broken colors to create a painting, and light plays a great role in this technique. Monet portrayed his works with an emphasis on these hues and natural light at different points in the day. Since my photograph was captured at sunset, I wanted to replicate the warm colors seen in 'Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer)' and use the tones from the photo in the painting. Something that particularly stood out to me when surveying Monet's pieces was how he depicted nature, and that landscape settings were often his focal point. Additionally, I enjoyed being able to see so many short, individual brush strokes coming together to form a cohesive image. In my own painting I aimed to replicate these fast, small strokes.
Claude Monet is also notable for dissolving his subjects into light and atmosphere. What inspired me from Monet's impressionist style particularly in the pieces 'Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer)' and 'Vetheuil' was the optimal color mixing, where the eye fuses individual dabs of color together. My eye moves through both paintings gradually, sweeping the rolling hills and fields before coming back to the tree and wheat stacks respectively. The green hues in both paintings particularly drew me in because of the calm tones and incorporated use of shadow softly blending the colors together. In 'Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer)' what really drew me in were the dreamy, light colors of the sunset. Since my cropped photograph was also depicting a sunset, I wanted to imitate the expressive, loose brushstrokes as well as the rich hues of nature. Impressionists tried to capture the fleeting moments of light and color that surround us and I was inspired to try and incorporate this in my art. |
Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer)-1891
Vetheuil (1880)
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Planning:
Before I even began painting, I had to do preparation; including discovering what to paint. I split my original photograph into zoomed-in sections. After breaking the photo down into smaller components, I narrowed the potential options down to two ideas. the first image was more abstract, zoomed in on the silo and ivy. Additionally, I created a sample color palette for each of the ideas to get an image of how my theme would be best represented. My first idea had a color palette majorly composed of green and brown hues whereas the Idea 2 colors were more rich and vibrant. However, I really wanted to capture the colorful sunset in the background, so I went with Idea 2 as seen on my planning sheet.
Prior to selecting a specific image, I knew I wanted to do my painting in the style of impressionism but had to first narrow down an artist. The artist I ended up choosing was Claude Monet, largely due to his themes, color usage, and subject matter. After looking into his work, I selected two images with qualities I wished to replicate within my own painting. Therefore, I then made some observations about these pieces and key components I planned to include. I was unsure about how I wanted my final piece to look at first. After studying Monet's impressionist technique, I jotted down some notes as to how I could use the technique and evoke the feelings I wanted to. Moving forward, I planned to use warmer colors as Monet did to represent my theme of subtle beauty found in the everyday.
Prior to selecting a specific image, I knew I wanted to do my painting in the style of impressionism but had to first narrow down an artist. The artist I ended up choosing was Claude Monet, largely due to his themes, color usage, and subject matter. After looking into his work, I selected two images with qualities I wished to replicate within my own painting. Therefore, I then made some observations about these pieces and key components I planned to include. I was unsure about how I wanted my final piece to look at first. After studying Monet's impressionist technique, I jotted down some notes as to how I could use the technique and evoke the feelings I wanted to. Moving forward, I planned to use warmer colors as Monet did to represent my theme of subtle beauty found in the everyday.
Process:
Prior to putting any paint on the illustration board, I had to decide what part of my photo I was basing my painting on and cropped the image accordingly. Then, I decided to sketch out loose forms of the different components. This was done so If had a very rough outline to follow, and an idea on where to lay certain colors. To best replicate Claude Monet's unique color usage, I gave a general outline of components that stood out to me in the cropped photograph. By doing this, my goal was to try and create the proportions for the piece and designate sections.
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After that, I began to paint and fill in the board, starting with the field. I used different hues, imitating Monet's impressionist technique by using short, overlapping brush strokes. I did this by mixing the sap green, viridian, yellow ochre, white, and burnt sienna paint colors. At first I had some difficulty with all of the colors blending together so you couldn't see the overlap, and I fixed this by adding different light and dark hues for a distinction between the stalks. I also was having a hard time creating the light yet distinct strokes that Monet had, so I held my brushes slightly higher. Once I started doing this, I got more of a rhythm, particularly in my brush control that resulted in loose yet colorful strokes as seen in Monet's work.
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From there, I filled in the rest of the field using different green colors for light and shadow. I slowly filled in the board with vertical brushstrokes, to continue the field before making a switch to horizontal strokes. In Monet's works, the individual strokes can still be seen blended together while still having distinctive colors together. In my piece, I wanted to ensure there was no white negative space added. So, I waited until after the first layer of paint tried I added another layer using short lines added on top of each other until everything was filled in. This is shown in the brown dirt section on the bottom, which I originally painted first before adding grass on top, growing out of the ground. Also, I needed to include a particularly shaded section in the bottom right hand corner, so darker colors were used to contrast the otherwise light green seen throughout the piece. While painting this section, I went from bottom to top and emphasized color, shadow and light like Monet. I also incorporated different hues because in my inspiration pieces, Monet used varied shades and I wanted to include that in my painting.
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I also had to include the trees in the background of the photo, so to do this I shaded in the loose forms previously sketched with dark or light green tones. Due to the light hitting in certain areas, some trees were darker than others and this is represented in my painting. The forms of these trees are a lot less specific and less defined than a lot of other aspects of my painting. Monet often had shadowy, vague figures in the background of his art and this was something I aimed to go for and include in my piece.
Once it got to painting the sunset, the first thing I did was make a light layer of each hue and apply it to the designated section. Working from the top to bottom, I painted blue, purple, yellow, orange, pink, and purple colors as in my original photo. From there, I went back and layered over using a variety of shades. This part was really difficult for me to try and capture the dreaminess of the sunset while layering colors because it was tough to match the hues. |
Overall, it was hard to try and replicate the thick, fluffy clouds as in the original photograph, so I just tried to match the hues as best as I could. Additionally, I did not want to have the colors completely blended together, so I tried and do a variation of how the tones went together, but it ended up feeling very separated. This was the part of my painting with the greatest color variety, and I applied multiple hues next to each other to try and mimic Monet's multicolored sunsets.
I knew that I had to include numerous colors for the sunset, so it was at first a struggle for me to figure out the best way to layer the paint. My research on gouache paints instructed me to layer from dark to light to achieve the colors I was going for. Therefore, I did elongated, light strokes of the yellow, pink, and orange hues on top of the darker purple or blue strokes. |
To layer in the ivy, I also used the greens captured on the first palette in my process pictures. I really had to make sure I was accentuating the dark green shadows, in addition to the yellow, light brown and green hues that covered the silo. For the parts where the silo was exposed, I used a mixture of white, yellow ochre, crimson, lemon yellow, burnt sienna, and burnt umber. The parts where the silo was exposed have a watercolor look to them, as I added very thin layers on top of them because the colors were more uniform here.
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As I worked to bring this part of the painting together, I made sure my piece still reflected the inspiration by matching the strokes in Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer) which were very light and loose. I was inspired by how easily the differing colors seemed to make one cohesive shade together, and tried to implement this. Something that struck me from Monet's work was his technique to capture movement, and while painting the ivy, my goal was to replicate this technique. It was not easy, but I layered numerous hues of greens and overlapped them multiple directions for the piece to flow together. After filling in the basic forms of where light and shadow was cast, I was able to paint in the rest of the sections with strokes following similar directions to finish off the painting. This took me a really long time because I identified that there were lots of variations between hues in the photo due to light and shadow. So, to fix this in my painting I mixed multiple shades and went over to add another layer quite a few times because at first it was hard to overlap the ivy over the silo, but I still wanted to keep the brown hues shining through. I waited for the paint to dry before adding dark green hues, and later applied yellow-green brush strokes on top. This produced a final result that I was quite happy with, and the extra waiting and work from the process definitely paid off.
Experimentation:
Prior to this painting, I had never used gouache paints before, so I wanted to familiarize myself with using them and in the impressionist style. I did this with the colors in their pure form out of the bottle, as to simply get used to the material and technique I would be applying to my painting. First I did some simple swatches of the colors so I would have a reference point as to what the hues looked like against a white surface. I then practiced the small, thin brushstrokes seen in Monet's work first at the bottom of the paper before placing bits of color alongside each other.
Essentially, I started off with the darkest base color layered first because I found that it was easiest with these paints to go from darkest to lightest. Then, I experimented with the other two colors in their columns underneath prior to using the impressionist technique I practiced to put the varying hues together. This experimentation was repeated numerous times, as shown in the image with different color combinations for the purpose of me getting a good feel for the gouache paint and technique. |
From there, I had an idea of the basic colors and technique, so decided to further my exploration of the colors and materials by creating two sample palettes of possible hues that would be used in my painting. My purpose behind doing this is that I wanted to see how the gouache paint blended and how opaque the paints were mixed together. This was useful for me to have a foundational understanding of the pigments and also a vague idea of what colors I needed as well as how to create them. During this time, another concept I played with was brush size and familiarized myself with the different brushes.
As presented by the two images of colorful pallets, I took some time to experiment with colors in addition to more brushstrokes with the intent of me being prepared to transfer my skills from the experimental stage onto the real board. I ended up switching brushes to a slightly smaller one for thinner strokes, because I wanted the brushstrokes to look like lines rather than thick, oval-shaped plops. While painting my final image, I often returned to these practice pallets to try out new color concepts or do a couple of brushstrokes here and there. It was extremely helpful for me to do so because I believe this gave me a better understanding of the materials I was using because I was not completely comfortable with them before. |
Finally, the last part of the experimentation process was the formatting of my actual painting. Prior to painting it on the real board, I experimented with pages in my sketchbook to figure out the formatting and find a style that would work. As shown on the image to the furthest right, I also used my technique to practice a few things. One of the parts I worked on were the strokes for the leaves in the estimated allocated space I would have on the board. I wanted to get an understanding of how my skills practiced in the sketchbook could transfer to the final product and have the opportunity to make mistakes on a different surface.
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Critique:
Vetheuil
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My Painting
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Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer)
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"Detached" and "Vetheuil"
Similarities: Color-The green hues in "Detached", particularly on the ivy are very similar to the colors in Monet's work. The light and dark greens are replicated in my piece from the inspiration image. Balance- Both pieces have an asymmetrical balance, with the point of emphasis being to one side, although the sides differ between the two works. The focal point of both images is contrasted by the background landscape, creating a similar look. Technique- My impressionist style tends to mimic that of this painting as opposed to Monet's work "Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer)". This is because of the thinner, elongated brush strokes that can be seen individually in my piece and Monet's. Differences: Space- The space is utilized differently in this painting compared to mine. Unlike my piece, Monet's work fills in buildings and has more dimension in the background. The two compositions differ with the background and how it is painted. |
""Detached" and "Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer)"
Similarities: Subject Matter- A landscape image at sunset is depicted in both paintings. Additionally, there are similarities within the content of the paintings such as the trees and fields painted. Texture- Both paintings have implied rough texture which create contrast in the design composition. It is simulated by the movement in both pieces and how paint is applied on the canvas. Differences: Brushstrokes- It is shown in Monet's painting, the brushstrokes are thinner and smaller, less noticeable overall. They are more subdued than in my painting, and not as distinct. Line- In my piece, lines are more defined than in Monet's work, which has blurrier, softer lines. These lines are subtler in Monet's work and more visible in mine. |
Reflection:
This project truly helped me to grow as an artist, and particularly grow and refine my skills in painting. Prior to this experience, I had never worked with gouache paint before and had very little experience painting in general. It is not my most preferred art medium, so it was difficult for me to adjust at first. Overall, the process required slightly more planning and experimentation than other pieces due to my lack of familiarity with painting in general. From the start, I knew that I would pick the impressionist technique and I enjoyed using this method of painting. It was a great help to break the project down piece by piece and focus on one individual component at a time until the entire painting was complete. Something that was highly beneficial for me while working on this project is not being overly critical about my work along the way and going with the flow to improve my painting when I needed to. I will take what I learned from this painting process, such as how to use the impressionist technique with layering colors, and mixing different hues to move forward in other painting endeavors.
My inspiration for the project overall connects fairly well to my final painting. There were certainly similarities but differences as well between the two inspiration artworks by Monet and my final painting. The biggest challenge I encountered during this project was trying to replicate the colors of Monet's work. From the two inspiration pieces I selected, they both had very contrasting color palettes. Vetheuil used very cool colors, and the Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer) had extremely warm, dreamy, hues. I didn't really get all of the shades right on, but did my best to try and replicate some of the greens which turned out successful. However, I was unable to achieve the dreamy, light, sunset colors I had aspired to achieve during my planning process. Overall, this was a challenge for me because I was unfamiliar with the paints given, and the colors were also not exact primary colors either. I discovered that gouache is a very thin paint, so I need to add thicker layers in order to create the same impressionist feel that Claude Monet exhibited. Due to me being unfamiliar with how to capture certain tones, the light and shadows of my painting were not as spot on as I would have hoped. Moving forward, this is certainly something that I can improve on as I develop my skills further.
This project tied together previously learned concepts from MYP art, and the research done during Art History was helpful for me to get a basic knowledge of impressionism as well as Claude Monet before digging into further research for this specific project. Additionally, I learned the importance of planning with other projects I have done this year and made sure I had an emphasis on creating a detailed plan and preparing myself as best as I could. The part of my work I am the most proud of is the ivy and silo. I say this because it was the last part of the painting I finished, meaning I had a lot of experience already so my painting skills grew and I was able to apply what I learned to complete my work. The asymmetrical balance also connects back to Monet's painting, and I am particularly proud of the way I was able to layer paint on the canvas to create movement, motion, and dimension. Additionally, I enjoyed using the various hues in the painting, and believe the time I spent layering paint paid off in the end. My least favorite part of the painting is the field, because of how stiff the strokes look. In Monet's work, his strokes are consistently loose and light. I believe that it began alright, but as I progressed with painting in the rest of the field and forest, the strokes and colors seemed very rigid and did not create the motion and background I was looking for.
In conclusion, I hope that others view my work and reflect upon capturing the fleeting and ever-changing moments in their lives. The theme of my painting was noticing nature's beauty and discovering the wonders of the natural world. When others examine my piece, I want their takeaway to be a questioning of if they notice the small moments around them. Just like the sunset, time is a constant. As long as there is life on earth to observe it, the sun will go down and time will pass. If you don't stop and look around every so often, one could easily miss the fast passing moments that bring joy. All in all, my impressionist style painting inspired by the works of Claude Monet is meant to evoke thought and wonder in those who see it.
ACT Questions:
1) Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
I am able to identify that Claude Monet's work had an effect on my artwork with the technique I used and layering my brushstrokes throughout the painting process. I also was impacted by my inspiration pieces by the landscape image I chose to paint in addition to the warmer colors and green hues as seen in Monet's work incorporated into my painting.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Claude Monet made a huge impact on impressionism and art in general. He was willing to think outside of the box and try something new while facing backlash from others, which turned out positively for him as the community accepted and praised his pieces. Monet's unique style set him apart from other painters, most prominently because of his technique and approach on light and color.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While I researched my inspiration, I came to the conclusion that while a small group of people may have ideas that seem unheard of at the time, their willingness to try something new sets them apart to influence others. Every artist or even regular person has their own flair to what they do, but oftentimes it is part of something inspired by others. Humans are naturally social creatures, so collaboration can come up with great results and the ability for individual expression as well as creativity.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my inspirational research was colorful landscape images capturing the beauty of nature in a specific moment. I was searching for inspiration with vibrant hues, which I applied in my own painting to transfer some of the concepts I researched into my piece.
I wanted to find an artist that had a focus on scenery and appreciation of the natural world.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
One of the inferences I made while reading my research was that light and shadow played a large role in Monet's work. I believe from his series of paintings playing with the same scene at different times of the year that Monet captured the world around him as he saw it when he was there. All in all, I reached the conclusion that Monet's impressionist style was heavily influenced from the colors surrounding him.
1) Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
I am able to identify that Claude Monet's work had an effect on my artwork with the technique I used and layering my brushstrokes throughout the painting process. I also was impacted by my inspiration pieces by the landscape image I chose to paint in addition to the warmer colors and green hues as seen in Monet's work incorporated into my painting.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Claude Monet made a huge impact on impressionism and art in general. He was willing to think outside of the box and try something new while facing backlash from others, which turned out positively for him as the community accepted and praised his pieces. Monet's unique style set him apart from other painters, most prominently because of his technique and approach on light and color.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While I researched my inspiration, I came to the conclusion that while a small group of people may have ideas that seem unheard of at the time, their willingness to try something new sets them apart to influence others. Every artist or even regular person has their own flair to what they do, but oftentimes it is part of something inspired by others. Humans are naturally social creatures, so collaboration can come up with great results and the ability for individual expression as well as creativity.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my inspirational research was colorful landscape images capturing the beauty of nature in a specific moment. I was searching for inspiration with vibrant hues, which I applied in my own painting to transfer some of the concepts I researched into my piece.
I wanted to find an artist that had a focus on scenery and appreciation of the natural world.
5) What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
One of the inferences I made while reading my research was that light and shadow played a large role in Monet's work. I believe from his series of paintings playing with the same scene at different times of the year that Monet captured the world around him as he saw it when he was there. All in all, I reached the conclusion that Monet's impressionist style was heavily influenced from the colors surrounding him.
Bibliography:
Artble. (2017, July 19). Claude Monet Style and Technique. Retrieved October 30, 2020, from https://www.artble.com/artists/claude_monet/more_information/style_and_technique
ArtUk. (n.d.). Claude Monet. Retrieved October 30, 2020, from https://artuk.org/discover/artists/monet-claude-18401926
Artic. (n.d.). Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer). Retrieved October 30, 2020, from https://www.artic.edu/artworks/64818/stacks-of-wheat-end-of-summer
Biography. (2020, August 10). Claude Monet Biography. Retrieved October 30, 2020, from https://www.biography.com/artist/claude-monet#:~:text=Claude%20Monet%20was%20a%20famous,capturing%20light%20and%20natural%20forms.
Fussell, M. (2014, March 10). Optical Color Mixing. Retrieved October 31, 2020, from https://thevirtualinstructor.com/blog/optical-color-mixing
ArtUk. (n.d.). Claude Monet. Retrieved October 30, 2020, from https://artuk.org/discover/artists/monet-claude-18401926
Artic. (n.d.). Stacks of Wheat (End of Summer). Retrieved October 30, 2020, from https://www.artic.edu/artworks/64818/stacks-of-wheat-end-of-summer
Biography. (2020, August 10). Claude Monet Biography. Retrieved October 30, 2020, from https://www.biography.com/artist/claude-monet#:~:text=Claude%20Monet%20was%20a%20famous,capturing%20light%20and%20natural%20forms.
Fussell, M. (2014, March 10). Optical Color Mixing. Retrieved October 31, 2020, from https://thevirtualinstructor.com/blog/optical-color-mixing