Illustration (Negative)
Title: The Blood Waterfall
Size: 28cm x 36cm
Medium: Illustration
Completion: March 2019
Size: 28cm x 36cm
Medium: Illustration
Completion: March 2019
Exhibition Text
This artwork, "The Blood Waterfall" was inspired by Van Gogh's "Farmhouse in Wheat Field" and "Yellowstone Falls" by Albert Bierstadt. This illustration shows the pollution and damage that humans are causing to the environment through modernization. The water is no longer water, and all the trees have been cut down, while on the other side resides a metropolitan like city contrasting nature, against what we have done to it.
"Farmhouse in Wheat Field" (1888) by Vicent van Gogh retrieved from https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/farmhouse-in-a-wheatfield/bQE-6vIUHp9jGQ
"Yellowstone Falls" (1881) by Albert Bierstadt retrieved from https://www.albertbierstadt.org/Yellowstone-Falls.html
Experimentation During the process of creating this piece, I ran into problems. The impressionist style needed to be blended because of the aspect of death to nature equals death to beauty. I experimented with bright colors at first, however they did not portray the negative feel that this piece was to have. The single tree was also not the original plan, however without this, the left side would have seemed unbalanced with the busyness of the right. I also had to use many different colors in a specific pattern, other wise the waterfall would have not had the proper aspects of a waterfall.
Technique One-point perspective is a way to portray a single perspective in an artwork. This is done with the use of a horizon line, and a vanishing point. In my illustration i used this to portray the peace and beauty of farmland in the most realistic way possible. However, I used a impressionist style with color pencils to show color and movement which adds balance to the piece.
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Inspiration/Research Vincent van Gogh created many different pieces that combined aspects from all kinds of artistic movements in his work: Realism, Pointillism, Post-Impressionism, Impressionism are just some of the movements that Van Gogh explored. Impressionism is the movement I chose to focus on, while adding the aspect of one-point perspective. This painting, "Farmhouse in Wheat Field" portrays the style at which I am attempting to imitate. The placement of a horizon line creates a realistic feel to the piece. This is how the eye of a person would see this landscape, and that's what I attempted to portray as well. The one point perceptive landscape uses the same horizon line and additionally uses a single dot. This dot simulates what you see when you look directly down a straight area (like a street of river) with buildings along the street line.
Albert Bierstadt is a German-American painter who focused on the beauty of West American landscapes. He was widely known around America for his graphic detail and precision to the actual landscapes he was painting (which only voyagers and people who helped in expansion could see.). Bierstadt has done many landscapes, from "Yellowstone Falls" to "The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak" even paintings like "Valley of the Yosemite". He uses many different colors, textures, and lines to create a landscape similar to how each landscape would actually look. Very high detail is achieved through painting, and it is astonishing. In his painting, "Yellowstone Falls" the waterfall is the center piece, grasping attention. Waterfalls are known to show beauty, and create a feeling of piece. I used this idea, and contrasted it using blood. Instead of beauty, the blood is crude and creates unease in the artwork, which allows the true meaning of the painting to show. Planning I decided that I wanted to create an illustration that showed the harm being caused to the environment. One-point perspective seemed to be the best style to portray this do to the realistic image it creates, and the landscape it allows the artist to work with. It allows the artist to explore with color and position while still creating the realism.
After figuring out that I wanted to use the one-point perspective style, but intergrate it with the environment. My first idea was a waterfall which would be the center. It would be a blood river that not only represents the harm of plants and animals, but also become a tainted barrier from the trees that were on the left, and the city on the right. Each side of the river represents a type of environment, a system. The left represented the natural environment while the right represents the cities. The left can be seen as a dying environment, trees are cut down, and no animals are present. This is due to the advancements humans make, and the speed at which they feel they have to. Rivers and waterfalls symbolize beauty and peace, so I flipped that idea, showing a waterfall and river of blood. This combats the idea of peace and beauty and brings forth harsh reality, a reality that not enough know about. The small details are important especially in a city landscape in order to capture reality. These details such as the bricks on the building, the size of the trees as they go back into the horizon, or even the colors used for each side. The right side is very plain with the grays, tans, beige, while the left side contains a wider variety of plain colors, signifying the dying of the environments beauty. |
Process
The process of creating this negative illustration was very similar to the positive illustration. First, I had to measure the illustration board in order to find the right place for my horizon line, and then to find the middle of the horizon line for my vanishing point. I then measured another line to find out where my river/waterfall would be located. After that area was located, I erased that line, and free handed a new jagged line to create the path of a cliff.
Creating this cliffside was complicated until I understood what a cliffside is. It's made up of straight line and triangles and so I experimented with it. Adding and taking away line was the process, and after the shading was done, the cliffside looked nice. As for the buildings, all sides go back to the vanishing point, except for one. I used a triangle-square and a T-square to get the straight lines nessesary to keep the realistic image of the piece.
I used very bland colors for the buildings like, tan, silver, and dark grey, along with beige, brown, and a deep blue. The colors allowed for the city to be portrayed as boring, regardless of the amount of stuff in those buildings. As for the left side, I decided to use a furest green and lime green for the leaves, a walnut brown for the tree, with an additional tan for the tree stumps. The grass was a blend between pear green, olive green, and chartreuse green which represent alive, dead, and dying grass. The river was a small bit more complicated. I used a ruby red, apple red, and red to create the river. Closer to the waterfall was a ruby red, which was follwed down the waterfall with a blush red.
Creating this cliffside was complicated until I understood what a cliffside is. It's made up of straight line and triangles and so I experimented with it. Adding and taking away line was the process, and after the shading was done, the cliffside looked nice. As for the buildings, all sides go back to the vanishing point, except for one. I used a triangle-square and a T-square to get the straight lines nessesary to keep the realistic image of the piece.
I used very bland colors for the buildings like, tan, silver, and dark grey, along with beige, brown, and a deep blue. The colors allowed for the city to be portrayed as boring, regardless of the amount of stuff in those buildings. As for the left side, I decided to use a furest green and lime green for the leaves, a walnut brown for the tree, with an additional tan for the tree stumps. The grass was a blend between pear green, olive green, and chartreuse green which represent alive, dead, and dying grass. The river was a small bit more complicated. I used a ruby red, apple red, and red to create the river. Closer to the waterfall was a ruby red, which was follwed down the waterfall with a blush red.
Reflection
My work on "The Blood Waterfall" was decently executed. There are more mixtures of solid color and impressionist style of color than I wanted, however I see now that what I was attempting improved upon my idea. Beauty and realism is provided throughout this piece, yet at the same time the crude image of modernization that I was depicting. However, I also believe that the shading in the mountain could have been better executed, and the grass needed a better color mixture than it was given. I think this piece is a decent piece, and the process of creating it took a loot of time, but it expanded my knowledge of the impressionist style.
ACT Questions
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Van Gogh's "Farmhouse In Wheat Field" was a piece that focused on creating beauty in a one-point perspective impressionist piece. I decided to focus on the same thing, except the conception of beauty would be changed in order to capture true reality. Albert Bierstadt's "Yellowstone Falls" uses a landscape to capture the beauty and peacefulness of nature. My piece uses reality and bloodshed to portray how landscapes look now.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Both Van Gogh and Albert Bierstadt were amazing painters who used their abilities to show beauty. Both used landscapes as a way to express the purity that nature has.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Anything in nature can be ugly if you are not willing to put the effort in to help. People often overlook the environment and this is the reason plants and animals suffer.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
Besides the style of one-point perspective, I would say that beauty and unity are strong aspects of my inspiration pieces.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I assumed that the reason Albert Bierstadt imitated "Yellowstone Falls" was because of the beauty that was shown in the landscape. I assumed that he also believed that waterfalls are beautiful and establish peace in a scene.
Van Gogh's "Farmhouse In Wheat Field" was a piece that focused on creating beauty in a one-point perspective impressionist piece. I decided to focus on the same thing, except the conception of beauty would be changed in order to capture true reality. Albert Bierstadt's "Yellowstone Falls" uses a landscape to capture the beauty and peacefulness of nature. My piece uses reality and bloodshed to portray how landscapes look now.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Both Van Gogh and Albert Bierstadt were amazing painters who used their abilities to show beauty. Both used landscapes as a way to express the purity that nature has.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Anything in nature can be ugly if you are not willing to put the effort in to help. People often overlook the environment and this is the reason plants and animals suffer.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
Besides the style of one-point perspective, I would say that beauty and unity are strong aspects of my inspiration pieces.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I assumed that the reason Albert Bierstadt imitated "Yellowstone Falls" was because of the beauty that was shown in the landscape. I assumed that he also believed that waterfalls are beautiful and establish peace in a scene.
Reference Page
"Farmhouse in a Wheatfield - Vincent Van Gogh - Google Arts & Culture." Google. Accessed March 18, 2019. https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/farmhouse-in-a-wheatfield/bQE-6vIUHp9jGQ.
"The Complete Works." Albert Bierstadt - The Complete Works - Page 24. Accessed March 18, 2019. https://www.albertbierstadt.org/the-complete-works.html?pageno=24.