Things are in full swing now, and I'm as busy as ever! I have been getting a lot of stuff done, I've been drawing a lot, painting, and printmaking (Not to mention other school and life stuff like reading books, doing chores and homework). It has been an exhausting semester and Spring Break cannot get here soon enough, I need a break.
But that's enough complaining, on to the art! Printmaking has been real slow going, but I just printed my first color! It's official, once you reach this phase it's basically smooth sailing from here. I'm getting this done by the end of the week gosh darn it! I need to finish it in order to send it to off to an art contest too, and the deadline is getting close.
One print is done on official BFK paper, and the darker one is done butcher paper, which I use for test prints.
For painting I have my first major assignment to complete, which is a portrait done in the same color palette as a master artist. It doesn't have to be in the style of said artist, but the spirit of the color palette should be conveyed.
For my master artist I chose Gabriele Munter, a German expressionist painter who worked in the early 1900's. You might have caught her Google Doodle back in February 19, 2014 for her 137th birthday. I chose her not only for her interesting and weird color palettes--which I enjoy because skin color is nearly impossible to paint--but also as a way to learn about a cool female artist at a time when women were still not really allowed to be much more than wives and mothers.
I found out that her family actually supported her desire to become an artist and sent her to a women's art school. As her career took off she rubbed elbows with big names like Kandinsky and Matisse. She helped create an impressionist group, and was one of the very few women who really participated in the movement. We know big names in impressionism like van Gogh, Monet, and Toulouse-Lautrec, but forget the women who probably didn't even get to reach their full potential since they were not allowed in the big art schools.
As a way to remember this amazing woman, I am honoring the color palette in this groovy portrait she did. I printed out this horrible picture that does not do the real thing justice and practiced the colors with a simple recreation.
But I'm also doing a real painting, which I just started today. My lovely friend A posed for me.
I decided to sort of keep the background, but abstract it a little, and also painted my friend sideways, because it'll have a creepy feel to it that way--which is a very different feel from Munter's lovely landscapes, but I have to use her color palette, not her aesthetics. Also, art school: do whatever you want while you still can!
Lastly, before this post gets too long I'd like to share a prototype for my next illustration project. It'll be a magazine spread for an article about a local vegan restaurant, and this is a cartoon I made of the owner there. Eventually I will have 2 full page spreads, one will be a 2 page illustration with the title of the article and an intro, and the other spread is the actual article with spot illustration. There will not be a real article, as that takes journalism skills I do not have, so it'll just be placeholder text--lorem ipsum or something--but it'll look like a real magazine article!
The owner is this super nice older woman who just wants the world to enjoy vegan food.
Until next week!
