Reflective Summary

My honours project shows a transition from the depiction of pure realism to the integration of abstraction in which the personal focus is about creating engaging, challenging and emotive artwork.

Developed Skills and filled Knowledge Gaps

• Mastering colour and lighting (theory & craftsmanship)
• Traditional and digital painting techniques
• Compositional awareness
• Use of spotlight effect
• Glossary of art terms

Change of Mindset

• Change from focus on pure visually stunning/realistic images to engaging, challenging and emotive   artwork.
• Atmospheric painting
• Influencing elements from art history research such as impressionists’ view on lighting, Turner’s use of bold colour and atmospheric art, and the tonalists mystical, dreamlike, atmospheric and expressive painting approaches.

Observation and Visualisation

• Change of perception
• Improved craftsmanship knowledge and new mindset guide the observation, therefore one pays attention to new insights and different themes than before
• Development of aesthetic vision

Heterogeneous Project Result

• Though the main goal of the project was to identify one’s aesthetic vision as well as define a personal art style, the more knowledgeable I became the more experimental my next stages turned out.
• Covers realistic digital painting, aesthetic photography, surrealist photo manipulations and different levels of abstract art to complete non object related abstract art.

Overall Project Development Reflection

Since the project was quite open and broad, especially in the first stages but even now

towards the end due to the heterogeneous project outcome, it was sometimes difficult to

maintain an overview and chose the next topic or idea to look into as there are so many

options.

Retrospectively though I feel like I have come a far way since the beginning of the project as my

aesthetic vision has clearly evolved over time, just like my craftsmanship skills. And as

mentioned in the previous paragraphs there were a few major revelations leading to my

momentary perception of art, which I am sure will continue to change in future.

King of Gold

Personal Thoughts

• Symbolism:
• The glowing light source from the centre of the image placed over the mouth of the king stands for the power and strength of his word. 
• The golden crown further supports the idea of the kings power and wealth.
• I chose small eyes as the king does not necessarily see all, or maybe he just doesn't want to see some things.
• Overall strong emotive piece of art.
• The impression and mood of this art piece is threatening and hostile, despite yellow as a base tone for the image.
• This is due to the low saturated background and the implementation of the two complementary colours red and green which turn the images yellow into muddy tones creating a completely different atmosphere than the yellow tones would on their own.
• Rough textures and shapes
• As well as the small high saturated eyes starring right back at the viewer.

Further Reflection & Development Process

The first version of this artwork had a cold blue colour scheme. The general composition is already the same as in the "King of Gold" final version, but I started to make some alterations appearance of the image. First of all I changed the colour scheme to a orange/yellow-green. Then I darkened the corners to emphasize the viewers focus on the centre of the image as the light edges would distract the viewer and lead the eyes away from the main subject and to the corners. 

I further added light affects to achieve the bright yellow/orange golden glow coming from the mouth, eyes and crown above. 

In able to maintain an evil and dark atmosphere despite the warm coloured light source I chose an olivetone for the background which is essentially a muddy green to contrast the orange/red in the centre of the image.

Cold Blue - Abstract Art with Lighting Effects

For this artwork I tried to make use of the digital medium's advantages in terms of tools, such as the many layer options, applicable filters and the high definition digital software offers.

Though the image is abstract I am still applying learned craftsmanship skills as well as integrating my aesthetic vision through compositional, colour and lighting elements to produce challenging and expressive artwork.

Creating the Image in Photoshop

I started the image by abstracting photographs of textures I took a while back (same ones as for the "Solar System" series) and used different filters to speed up and simplify the work flow in combination with different layer settings and masking, as well as experimentation with levels, darkness/brightness, vibrance and saturation.

Layers

• Multiply
• "Colour"
• For lighting:
• Overlay
• Soft light, hard light, vivid light

Filters

• Smart sharpening
• Artistic filters: 
• Paint daubs 
• Palette knife

Reflection & Analysis

• Composition: Abstract Symmetry
• Creates balance through a recognizable pattern
• mirroring half's
• Central spotlight
• Highest colour saturation and lightest value in the centre
• Darkened image borders
• Cool light source with glow effect (as in colour temperature, but yes also kind of cool^^) 
• Monochrome image with cool blue tones
• Cool colours and the images abstract forms (often rounded but still hard edges and high contrast in the centre) create a fairly dark and dangerous mood

Cons

• The two vertical "bars" at the top (on the thirds, dividing the image into 3 parts) might be too distracting
• as they draw the viewers eye away from the main focus

Area Glow

Beneath is a version with a larger area glow. I personally prefer the top image as the central light source appears more crisp and brighter, despite being less bright (colour saturation and value), due to the darker surroundings.

Misty Dawn

Reflection and Analysis

As in my recent painting "Harmony in Blue and Grey - Soft Tides" I chose a very soft lighting for the image.  This image lives form its lighting and is dominated by greys, which are toned by the two complementary colours blue and orange to make the "colourless" painting more interesting and aesthetic. As also I added some textures of traditional brushes in the sunlit areas (top right) to support the painterly feel of the whole image, but only slightly to add some variation to the painting. The soft brush must still outweigh to keep the soft feel.

• Dreamlike atmosphere
• Soft lighting
• "Beautiful Grey"
• Monochrome image with a teinte of orange
• Low value and colour contrast
• Soft transitions from light (top) to dark (bottom)

Painting Process

Used some photos of a seagull beginning its flight I took a while back and cropped them together. The shortly before dusk lighting when I took the photos lights up the wings nicely which inspired me to make this the focal point of the image. 

After layering the birds close to each other I cropped the image to landscape view as it fit the composition better. Now I begun to soften up the background as I wanted to create a very soft painting with the bird furthest to the left hardly visible and the closer they get to the light source (to the top right out side of the picture somewhere), the more visible they become. I therefore also overlayed a gradient from light to dark over the whole image to emphasize the lighting and help unify and further soften up the image. 

Purple Beach - Colour and Texture Experimentation

Reflection & Analysis

• Two sets of complementary colours:
• Yellow versus Purple
• Red versus Green
• The colours create tension and produce an interesting image
• Composition:
• Simple composition with clear horizon 
• Main subject (rock) supports the rule of thirds
• Top third controlled and balanced with straight lines versus bottom 2/3 which is dynamic with lots of curves and has higher value contrast.

Purple Beach Symmetry

In the version beneath, "Purple Beach Symmetry", I wanted to achieve a more balanced  feel. The removal of the yellowish rocks, which were working against the purple, reinforces the more balanced and calmer impression of the image. Not only due to the removal of the yellow but also because of the created symmetry with a recognizable repetitive pattern. Now solely the complementary colours green and some tones of red are working against each other which works nicely in this piece. 

Development Process

Surreal Textures

Coastal Tension

Reflection

• Surreal atmosphere through colour experimentation
• The unnatural colours play the main role in achieving the surreal feel of this image
• Inverted value of the sky adds to surreal mood and atmosphere
• Normally light to dark (bottom to top); in this case it's the opposite -> dark to light
• Also leads to high value contrast against the sea
• Darkest sky value against lightest sea value on the horizon 
• Colour contrast through complementary colours
• Low saturation in the blues to not overpower the tension between the top and bottom half
• High saturation of the sky
• Composition: Division into two half's
• Top versus bottom half
• Simple composition creates balance
• Controlled shapes
• Higher value contrast in the foreground to create depth   

Original Photograph & Development Process

(+ Analysis)

The original photograph was taken on a day trip to the coast near Arbroath on a nice sunny, yet windy day creating nice waves to capture in some of the photographs. The first thing that captured my eye in this picture was the oval form/shape the waves formed in the focal point of the image. This photo manipulation however will deal with the horizon and sky.

In the first stages I cropped and changed the hue to a very surreal looking atmosphere. At this point everything is very monochrome. The dark foreground in the bottom corner creates depth in the image.

Then I chose to remove the foreground though and focus on the mood and atmosphere of the piece rather than on creating depth and 3 dimensionality. The flattening of the image and reduction of saturation created unity in the image. The crop also led to more balance between the top and bottom half by shifting the horizon towards the centre, which is the horizontal division line between the two dominating spaces.

Finally to add tension to the final image I created colour contrast by implementing the sky's complementary colour into the bottom half by changing the reddish/pinkish hue of the water to a cool blue (working against the orange sky). The blue's saturation is very low though which maintains a pleasant and comfortable viewing as it the colour contrast does not overpower the whole scene this way.

Dundee Promenade - Photo Editing Practice

For these two images I edited some photos I took a while back and turned them into an advertising campaign for Dundee's waterfront. One as a day version and one as a night version with aesthetic simple compositions.

Night Version

Though the night version has quite cool colours, it still has a friendly atmosphere due to controlled shapes and space, like the repetitive street lights pattern on the right and the large plain surfaces on the left to thirds. The colour scheme is very monochrome and helps unify the picture. To prevent the image from being to calm I chose a tilted camera angle to capture the horizon slightly diagonal, which helps create a more interesting and dynamic image.

 Day Version

For the day version I edited two photographs together to avoid something too generic. The right third being lighter than the two left thirds. This was both as compositional choice as well as a lighting choice, as I wanted to tone down the light source (the sun).

By previously flipping one of the images horizontally (as both photos were taken in the same direction) the seaside walking path surrounds the scene and creates a 360 degree panoramic effect.

Colour wise the sun and its orange light dominates the image creating warm colours and a welcoming mood. 

Aesthetic Scenery

Ocean View

 Mountain Panorama

Original Photo

 Frigid View & a Hint of Warmth

Original Photo

 At the Top

Original Photo

Cool White

Reflection & Analysis

• Surreal atmosphere
• Abstract landscape with seemingly inverted colours for ground and sky
• Simple composition 
• Focus on grand scale of the piece
• Balance through horizontal lines, simple forms and space division
• High value contrast at the border between ground and sky 
• Low saturation
• Colour Contrast through complementary colours (blue and orange) as well as warm versus cool colour, though cool colours dominate the piece (basically bottom 2/3 with cool colour against top third with some warm colour). 

Original Photograph & Development Process

Honours Workshop Diary 20 - Discussing the Dissertation

This weeks agenda is to define my final dissertation discussion points and create an overview by answering the key questions established in the introduction of my dissertation to confirm their relevance. So far I have mainly notes and separate word documents. It will be a challenge to create the fluent transitions between the different arguments and topics as well as staying focused and in depth.

On the other hand I pretty much finished my practical work. The organizing and grouping of this artwork will be the main task for the upcoming submission. Though I already have a fairly clear idea on how the "Honours Project Portfolio" will be structured.