Chuck Close

Chuck Close was born on July 5, 1940, in Monroe, Washington. Suffering from severe dyslexia, Close did poorly in school but found solace in making art. After earning his MFA from Yale in 1964, Close took his place atop the American art world by creating large-scale, photo-realist portraits that have creatively blurred the distinction between photography and painting. Close deepened his love for painting and art in general. At the age of 14, he saw an exhibition of Jackson Pollack paintings. Pollack's style and flair had a great impact on Close, and, as he later recounted, it made him determined to become an artist. The art movement he uses is Superrealism.

Chuck close begins his painting by firstly dividing his photograph which is going to paint from into a grid, he then creates a corresponding grid on the canvas. Then he transcribes the image onto the canvas square by square, proceeding from the top left to the bottom right. He then starts to paint each square. All of Chuck Closes work have been done by hand.

In my opinion i like/dislike his art work because in a way i like the way he uses bold colours on top of each other and always makes the circles on top of each square stand out, also the way he still manages to keep the facial features easy to spot. On the other hand i dislike his art work because when we had to do a task based on his art work i found it tricky due to the amount of colours we had to use and the style of his work which i find challenging. Whilst looking at the colour wheel i identified the primary colours, the complimentry colours( opposite a primary colour eg: yellow-purple, red-green, blue-orange) the spilt complimentry colours ( two colours that make up the complimentry colour so opposite red is green and two colours to each other will be blue and yellow. I used some parts of the colour wheel but didnt pay much attention to it.

Graphics Evaluation

Graphics Evaluation

 

In this project our theme was ‘street style’ meaning everyday clothes; we investigated different types of street style clothing from blogs and used drawing techniques such as outline, not taking the pencil of the paper, continuous line to copy a image. We then created a mood board of our everyday clothes such as shoes, jumpers, tops, jeans etc this was in a way to show the types of clothes/shoes I wear. Our next task was to choose four blogs; within them blogs we had to choose four images

We then had to choose four different set of images from Chictopia we had a choice on what images we wanted to choose but it had to have a category such as dresses, jeans, trainers etc. After we had to trace or draw the images straight in to our book these would be our thumbnail sketches. We then had to use a set of images that we chose and pick one image from there and do different technique samples such as ink, watercolour, colour pencils etc. This then helped me to choose which technique I liked the most; which was the colour pencils. I choose this technique in particular because I like the way the artist Agnes Decourchelle uses this art material in her work to show people it isn’t a dull/boring material to use. I really like the way she expresses the use of colour pencils like the direction of the way she colours/ the way she can also blends the colours.

After choosing to use colour pencils I then measured 13cm across and 18cm down I did this 3 times, this is where I traced my images on to from the tracing paper. I did have a problem well using colouring pencils due to the fact I wasn’t feeling well so my concentration wasn’t 100%. This then affected how my work looked in the end. If I were to change anything I would have either used colour pencils/watercolours or watercolours only because watercolours the colours are strong which will make the image look much brighter in a way.  Also the layout of the images I would have putted the two best ones I liked first.

 

 

De Stijl Evaluation

De Stijl Evaluation

After looking at the art movement ‘De Stijl’ and finding out about the Artist Gerrit Rietveld and his red and blue chair. We then were asked to make a copy of his chair. We had to decide we wanted to do a 1:3 or 1:4 chair. A 1:3 is one third of the actual size and 1:4 is a scale model. We had to be aware of the size/measurements otherwise the chair would look weird. I used a pencil and a ruler to measure out the different parts of the chair I had to be aware the legs and the arms to the chair has to be the same size. I did find this tricky because it did involve a lot of thinking and maths since it was a geometric chair. I’d say for the first lesson doing this I was finding it hard especially since we all had to do it independently. After I had drawn out my pieces I had to cut them out using a cutting knife I had to be aware of where I was cutting and how I was using the knife. I used a ruler to help me cut out the different pieces. I’d say measuring the seat and the top/back of the chair was easy because the top/back has to be a lot thinner than the seat cause the seat had to be thicker.

When it came to assembling the chair this was also another aspect I found tricky because this involved the hot glue gun. When I was gluing each part I was looking at the person sitting next me and how they were putting their chair together.  This then helped me put my chair together, the fiddly bits were putting the legs/arms together considering there was more than one of them and they all looked identical. Having said this it did cause a problem when I was gluing one of the legs to the chair I accidently spread the glue and it came onto my fingers now since the hot glue gone was really hot it did hurt my finger this made me a little paranoid. I then had the urge to just get it done.

When painting the chair I found this part the easiest/ in some way tricky because referring back to the artist Gerrit Rietveld he only used four colours (red, blue, black and yellow). I used two brushes to paint my chair a thick brush for the top/back and for the seat and a small brush for the legs. It was quite hard because the chair had so many parts to it so I had to be careful of where and what part of the chair I put the chair on. I did manage to paint my chair successfully however I didn’t put the yellow parts which were at the ends of the arms to the chair and the parts which made up the legs. I know myself if I took time/ more care when making this chair I could have made a better replica of the chair which had straight edges.

 

 

 

 

Art Nouveau Evaluation

Art Nouveau Chair

When I first received the assignment brief my thoughts were that it’s going to be tricky considering the many aspect we had to look into whilst making a chairs such as the measurements, ergonomics and the theme Art Nouveau. I first found out what it was about whilst looking at images from the internet I found out it consisted of stylised flowers, leaves, roots. I decided to look for Art Nouveau pattern especially looking at the flowers/curvy shapes and particularly the flower pattern which was a heart shape containing two daffodils combined together. In my mind I knew I wanted my chair to have a heart shape but I also thought I wouldn’t be able to make a complicated chair with too many tricky bits that I will have to cut out.

 

When I started making my chair it was hard to cut out the heart shapes especially to make sure I cut through the thick cardboard and not make my lines look rigid. After I cut one side of the heart I then traced it again on cardboard so it would look identical and cut it out. I then used a glue gun to fix the two pieces together I found this to be tricky because I had to be aware of where I was putting the glue. I then decided the heart needed support so I cut two strips of cardboard and glued it on to the back of the heart. I decided to use modrock because since it wasn’t my first time using it I knew it was a strong material to work with. I cut different strips of modrock dipped them into warm water one by one; took the excess water out making sure it wasn’t too soggy, then applied it to the heart. I knew I had to make this strong so I added two layers of modrock.

 

Next I made the seat this consisted of two piece of thick cardboard which I cut into rectangles and glued together I then wanted a rim around it so I cut two long pieces with fitted the width of the rectangle and two short pieces with fitted the length of the rectangle. I glued them onto the seat, in my mind I knew since the top part of my chair was heavy the seat has to be equally as heavy so I applied the mudrock in the same way as I did to the heart, combining the two strips supporting the heart to the seat. I decided to take my chair home so I could finish making the legs and modrocking it, then painting my chair. When it came to what colour I wanted to paint my chair I had a lot of colour ideas first I was thinking of doing my chair dark green/light green but then I thought most people will do this so I decided to paint my chair a dark pink with shades of pink. The next day I changed my mind again and decided to paint it a dark purple with a lighter purple on the heart to make it stand out. I was pleased with the way it looked but I felt the whole process of making my chair was rushed, if I took time making my chair then I know for sure I could have came up with a better design.

Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh was the chief symbol of expression, was born in Groot-Zundert, Holland on March 30, 1853. The son of a pastor bought up in a religious and culturedatmosphere. Vincent was highly emotional and lacked self-confidence, between 1860 and 1880 when he finally decided to become an artist.

My favourite painting is The Starry Night, Van Gogh painted Starry Night while in an Asylum at Saint-Remy in 1889.The reason why I like this painting is because it has so many different elements of art put in to one picture. The composition firstly the way it has 3 plans to it the cypress in the first plan, the village in the second plan and the sky in the 3rd plan. The use of swirls and lines used for the sky makes it look really moving. The shades of colours such as the blues merged together to represent spirit and the white/yellow used to slowly express the sun, considering the fact yellow is a hot colour so referring to temperature. Also if you refer to the colour wheel the colours create a sense of harmony between cold colours and a contrast between the complimentary colours. The focus on the light within the picture the moon and stars create light across the sky but it doesnt spread the light across the ground.

 

I found Vincent Van Gogh's portrait paintings interesting aswell espically this painting Self-Protrait in Front of the Easel (Paris early 1888.)The use of different brushstrokes and different shades of colour used to give the face a sense of feeling. The brushstrokes on the beard using different shades of brown/brown and painting in different directions really makes it look realistic.The tonal areas such as the eyelids, side bottom part of the nose, inner parts of his ear really made then stands out. The white highlight used on the lips, forhead and parts of his beard.

 



Gerrit Rietveid

Dutch architect and designer Gerrit Rietveld was a member of the De stijl movement, significant to his work he pared his design down to basic cubist elements. He often used primary colours to emphasise the different parts. Most of his furniture was designed and manufactured to accompany his architectural commissions. His first attempts in search of his own artistic line were influenced by the Amsterdam school. Rietveld re-invented the structure of chairs and of other objects, built them as constructivist sculptures.

 

In 1918 he designed an early version of his legendary Red and Blue Chair which was published in the De Stijl magazine, this helped him to become a memeber in 1919. This benefited him because it helped him to be in contact with various architects assosciated with the modern Dutch movement. Rietveld's reputation grew from being a local craftsmen to an architect being recongnised across Europe. Among his numerous furniture models, The Zig Zag Chair, The Red and Blue Chair, the Schelling and Military series still remain as eternal design icons.

 

The Red Blue chair is probably one of the most recognized pieces from the Modern Movement of De Stijl Design. Each piece of the chair is either square or rectangular and this is highlighted by the use of yellow on the piece ends. The Red Blue Chairs popularity tends to come from its sculptural appearance as a work of art, probably helped by the use of color Rietveld used from the painters of the De Stijl group; Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg who championed primary colours, as well as the fact that you could look through it. The fact that Gerrid Rietveid chose the chair to look good over whether it would be uncomfortble if a person actually sat on it.

 

 

 

Agnes Decourchelle

Agnes Decourchelle

This image shows household objects which you can wear or use; such as shoes, necklace, chair, perfume, hand bags etc. Also the way the some objects such as the necklace have small bits of detail which stands out using colours such as grey and white to go with the black.

The material/ techniques used are colouring pencils and the techniques are the way she colours in one direction and uses blocks of colours but to highlight a colour or to create shadow to uses white.

I really like her art  because i like the way she uses an art material such as colour pencil which people usually think is a "boring "material but the way she expresses her art work using this material. The colours she uses to create a feeling and make the pictures feeling alive which makes people want to create their own pieces of art work based on this technique. The blues can symbolises coldness whilst the yellows and oranges can create a autumn season feeling.