Blog Entry #5

Last class we had a critique of our studio response artwork. We had to create a piece of art inspired by our artist that we researched. I researched Chuck Close who was known for his large-scale portraits that were done from photographs. I did a large-scale portrait, though not as big as his pieces, of my nephew in fingerprints. I used grids to transfer what I saw in the photograph to the larger image. In the critique, I learned how I could have manipulated the composition a bit more rather than follow what was shown in the photograph. Though I did change the orientation of the image so that it was vertical rather than horizontal so that it would read more like a portrait. Some feedback that I got was that I could have left more space at the top rather than cut it off at the top of his head. Then the radiating background could have been continued on top of his head. There are still some improvements that I plan to make after being able to really step back and look at the portrait. I want to make the background more consistent in it’s fading from dark to light. I also want to create a better range of values to create more depth in the face. I don’t think that there was enough value in the face and from a distance it looks flat. Something else that I could have improved on is my own voice in my piece of art. I didn’t really stray too much from Close’s style and technique because I worked in black and white fingerprints, I did it large scale and I did a portrait of someone close to me. For the most part, everyone seemed to have their own interpretation of their researched artist’s work and I thought it was interesting to see how they developed their own ideas.

Also, from looking at other people’s work, I learned a lot about what one should consider in their piece through everyone’s different though processes. I learned how the positioning of multiple pieces is important. Different effects can be created by the orientation of images. For example, placing two images next to each other or on top of one another can create two different effects. Also, choosing which images should go next to each other can be important. Also, the choice to work in color or black and white is an important one and can change the meaning of a piece. The type of colors used can evoke different feelings. I also didn’t know how much though goes into photography and the composition of a photograph, with the direction of the image that the eye follows. Another thing that I found interesting was some people’s choice to work in 3D even though the artist did not. The though behind a piece of art can be just as important as the content of the piece of art. I’ve realized that these are some important things to take into consideration.