Artistic Statement

Artistic Statement

In the past few months I have not only discovered graphite is my preferred medium, but that my hands alone are my preferred tool. From just recently being introduces to charcoal I have realized I enjoy any form of medium in which I am not restricted from using my own two hands as a method of working with it. Since the focus in this creative journey was portraiture I found that the most challenging of all obstacles was never the process, but was to look at the finished product without picking out mistakes that were not actually there, to remember that it is not the end product that dictates the artist, but the process, the obstacles, the artists journey that is truly important. “To let go of the final product and focus on the process.” –Ms. Curtis

I enjoyed exploring different mediums and the freedom given with each. The open atmosphere of the studio allowed creativity to roam freely, to flow with minimal restrictions.  In reading this I hope you can also see just how important the journey is. I wanted to challenge people, but most importantly I wanted to challenge myself. 

Nur Al-Ebeid June, 2014

The Playful Portait in Charcoal

Art in Twenty Minutes
By The Painting and Drawing Channel

The terms we were given before watching his video were the following:
1) Making Note
2) Pushing
3) Modelling
4)Photocopy Mode
5) Describing
6) Not symbols

After watching the video I've come up withe the following meanings for each:
1) Making Note: Make note of the vales, from light to medium to dark. Don't look for details or features yet, just make note of darkness and lightness.
2) Pushing: You're only pushing lightly at first so you can build up that value, you're pushing for shadows and highlights not for details. Loosely pushing. 
3) Modelling: Always working general to specific, don't be too tight on how you draw, focus on your subject as a model of values and not details.
4)Photocopy Mode: View the subject as if they are a black and white photocopy so that you really see and focus on the value shifts and not the details.
5) Describing: You want to accurately map out the value, describe the form without using fine details.
6) Not symbols: Not looking for symbols like features or details, just lightness to darkness.

The Art of Fonts

Depending on your product and target audience a skilled graphic designer should be able to grasp both in a creative clever way. This is extremely important, it is the window to your business. The very first thing a consumer may judge your entire business on is the font used in the branding and the graphic design. It must appropriately fit whatever it is you are trying to sell, showcase, represent, or prove.

Famous Self Portaiture

This peice by Jean-Michelle Basquiat was inspired by multiple things,such as artists like Picasso or Pollock, jazz music, and even the herion abuse. Black, being the lack of colour, was used for the strange and quite teriffying figure. Shapes and lines were brilliantely used to create a disturbing portrait. The texture used for the background creates a shady sort of rough, ridged, bumpy background, giving a very upsetting kind of feeling to this particular peice.

After cutting off part of his left ear, wrapping it in newspaper and sending  it to a prostitue named Rachelm, Van Gogh was never seen by  Gauguin, who happened to be the man Vincent had threatened, again. Vincent Van Gogh's extremely well known portrait of himself shows through very monotonious colours the lack of emotion, he seems almost depressed or in a deep state of sadness. Using texture his hat looks fuzzy, while his coat looks wool and thicker. His eyes were painted looking away from the viewer, again showing that sense of distance and lonliness, lack of intimacy.

Space used in art

Giorgio De Chirico, a brilliant artist, truly undertood space and the importance and relevance it had to emotion. From looking at this particular peice I feel drawn towards the two little people off to the left side. Even though they take up such a small portion of the space their presence screams out to me, drawing my eyes towards them and firmly grasping my attention.I get a feeling of lonliness and isolation from these two, and I know that this is because of the space.



THE DUO
Another piece by Giorgio De Chirico. Despite the heart on one of the figure chests you can sense a form of intimacy between the two figures the duo, again not becuase of the heart, but because of the lack of space between the two. Girogio knew space, he knew how tro play with it and get the viewer to feel what he wanted the to feel without even having to use any facila expressions on the figures faces. All he had to do was use space properly and the rest fell into place.



Space

Space.
It has an impact on virtually anything. Functionality, emotions are the two main things that come to mind when I think of the artistic element of space. Different kinds of space are needed for different functions. To play soccer you need greater open (negative) space. Emotion is impacted by space as well. In an empty elevator I tend to feel like I'm being pulled outwards while in a crowded elevator I feel pushed inwards. Sitting alone in an open field looking up into the vast endless sky will give you a different feeling than sitting in a lecture filled with people staring at the same useless information scrawled onto a whiteboard by a tired, unpassionate teacher. Space represents emotion and functionality. Looking at a picture of a little girl standing in the middle of an empty street will give you a different idea and emotion of the story behind the photo than of a little girl standing next to who seem to be her parents at a crowded fair.

VALUE

VALUE

Value is everything.

Value is the cake itself while colour is the icing.

Value is the element using  darkness and lightness 

to reveal surface changes.

Value is not colour, everything can have colour but without value it will not look 3-D. One would not be able to tell the difference between a smooth shiny shape and a rough surface.

One can see that this image of a rose does not have any sharp edges, nor does it have glossy shiny surfaces. One can decipher this by observing the gradual change in value. A sudden shift would indicate a sudden surface change and that it is not a rounded surface and may also reveal a sharp edge.

The above image shows four of the five ways to render values in art. The five ways are cross hatching, parallel hatching, scribbling, shading and stippling.