"Lilac Evening"
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Inspiration & Research
I had two main inspirations for this piece. One was the concepts of Monet's Haystacks series. He purposefully did paintings of haystacks, one of the more boring things to be found around, but made it very interesting to me. I like the concept of portraying a similar thing multiple times not only at different times of day, but times of the year. This concept is immediately what came to mind when I experience the moment in time that I now recreated. I wanted to use those colors from that moment and create that moment again, to the best of my ability, especially without any way to recreate in reality.
I also took inspiration from the Japanese animated motion picture, Akira. The opening chase scene, where the main characters are all on their motorcycles are my main inspiration point. I love the way that neo-Tokyo is portrayed in this scene, with a mainly dark pallet but numerous highlights in various electric colors. The lights of the city are a range of cool colors, from an almost lime green to a solid medium purple. Contrasting to those colors is the tail lights in the motorcycles, a blazing orange with some adjacent streaks of red. I wanted to create something similarly contrasting, just on a less grand scale, choosing to focus on a very specific perspective the way Monet did with his paintings.
I also took inspiration from the Japanese animated motion picture, Akira. The opening chase scene, where the main characters are all on their motorcycles are my main inspiration point. I love the way that neo-Tokyo is portrayed in this scene, with a mainly dark pallet but numerous highlights in various electric colors. The lights of the city are a range of cool colors, from an almost lime green to a solid medium purple. Contrasting to those colors is the tail lights in the motorcycles, a blazing orange with some adjacent streaks of red. I wanted to create something similarly contrasting, just on a less grand scale, choosing to focus on a very specific perspective the way Monet did with his paintings.
Planning
In my effort to capture a moment in time which took place in the past, I took some reference photos while in the car. It was raining, and the reflections of the lights on the road is exactly what I needed. Obviously, it's not exactly the same. The specific moment I recreated was at an earlier time of day, where everything was a soft purple tint, and it took place after the rain had finished. However, the way the different colors and shapes of light always reflect in a similar manner, which was what I needed to see specifically. The first two images (from the left) are particularly helpful because they show how the reflective road signs shine in the water on the road. The third has a nice shot of taillights and their long reflections in the water. The third and fourth both have nice examples of reflections of streetlamps, and the fifth is a good example of lights in the distance and their reflections on the road. They all are the colors of reflections and light that I needed, considering they're either similar or identical to the signs and lights in my piece.
Process
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The first step to recreating my moment was finding a picture of the place I was. This is an image from Google Street View, because it is coming off of an entrance ramp. I couldn't exactly go out there with a camera or I'd get hit by a car or something. I considered using a different spot in my area, but I especially loved this spot and it's strange mildly asymmetrical balance.
Most of this piece was put together with a custom flat brush tool. It was nice because I liked the base shape, and then there are different settings in this program that allows me to change how it works. For example, there was a blending slider. When I felt it wasn't blending enough, I'd crank that up more, and the dilution slider sometimes too. However, those settings also tended to push the paint around, and if I had that issue, I'd take them down more. Another issue I tended to have while I worked was that I would try to layer a light color on top of a darker color, and the color just wouldn't show up. This was when I would turn the density setting up to maximum, and lower the dilution and blending. |
All through the piece, I used a lot of color layering and blending within the sections. Each major section had its own layer, and some had clipping layers that were used for details and shadows. Others had just shading within it's own layer to be more painterly and less of a concept art feeling. Everything except for the objects in the way way far back background had many tones mixed in, not just directly darker and lighter tones, but some completely separate hues. One big example would be the grassy areas, where purple was mixed in to create the purplish hue I wanted. In fact, nearly every large section has a bit of purple mixed in, or it was a color expressly mixed with purple in the color mixer tool to get my desired effect.
After putting together all of the major forms in the piece, I realized that I didn't do a great job of making it look dark, the way a cloudy evening actually looks. Which is when I decided to flatten all of the layers which are a part of the piece and save a new file. Then, I opened up the different filtering tools. I used both the "Hue and Saturation" and the "Brightness and Contrast" windows. Unfortunately, flattening them all together was the only way I could edit all of the parts at once. So I messed around with it, taking the hue in a bit more of a purply direction, bringing up the saturation a tad, etc. I also made it a point to bring up the color depth and bring out the hiding lilac. I brought down the luminescence to bring in the more drab feeling brought by gray clouds.
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The last major detail to this piece was, of course, the lights and reflections in the wet road. I purposely left this for last so the lights could stand out more, being a bit more electric than the colors of the landscape and not be affected by the color balancing. I first went over bit of color already there with a brighter hue, then turned down the density up brought up the dilution to make it wispier. Then the reflections of the light in the street were made, with the density up a bit higher, and the colors softened with the eraser tool at a lower density.
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Experimentation
My biggest point of experimentation with this piece was in using the different color balancing tools. For example, I considered bringing the luminescence down really far, creating something even darker, but I didn't feel like it fit as something taking place in the evening rather than the night time. I had to remind myself that it was even supposed to be in the evening to begin with, since there aren't much of the traditional "evening" sky colors due to the cloud cover.
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I also considered bringing the color deepen setting up higher than I did to bring out even more of the lilac I remembered from that evening. However, this caused an orange color to be drawn out of the grassy parts that's pretty ugly. Unfortunately, unless I wanted to meticulously go through every layer and clipping layer, I wasn't quite going to be able to get out the purple I wished for.
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Reflection
I'm generally satisfied with this piece. I feel like the whole thing is very cohesive, with a pretty color pallet for being sort of drab colors. However, I feel like the colors of the lights could've been more bright and stand out more. The color of the street lamp lights really are kind of boring, just an off white that is accurate to the actual setting. I should've taken some artistic liberties and picked something more electric, like more of a yellow or something. I also regret not adding more opportunities for lights. In the beginning, I planned to have a car or two in frame, with the tail lights of the cars reflecting in the water on the street. However, I didn't feel confident enough in drawing cars, and I was unsure if I should use a specific one or what, and it got to the point that I had overthought it for so long that I just had to not do it.
In Monet's Haystacks series, there is a relatively boring object used as the forefront of the pieces. Similarly, my piece focuses on an ordinary view from the exit ramp of a local freeway. However, we both make it a bit more interesting by capturing a specific moment in time, and his were often times more interesting times of day as well. In comparison, his pieces tend to focus more on a brighter day, using brighter hues in his pieces. But I'd like to believe that if Monet lived in a time with widespread lighting at night, he would've done pieces in the dark too. My piece is similar to the opening chase scene of Akira by having a contrast between darker tones and lighter, brighter hues. It also has the urban concept going with both pieces. However, Akira has a much more extreme contrast, as opposed to the softer feeling of my piece.
In Monet's Haystacks series, there is a relatively boring object used as the forefront of the pieces. Similarly, my piece focuses on an ordinary view from the exit ramp of a local freeway. However, we both make it a bit more interesting by capturing a specific moment in time, and his were often times more interesting times of day as well. In comparison, his pieces tend to focus more on a brighter day, using brighter hues in his pieces. But I'd like to believe that if Monet lived in a time with widespread lighting at night, he would've done pieces in the dark too. My piece is similar to the opening chase scene of Akira by having a contrast between darker tones and lighter, brighter hues. It also has the urban concept going with both pieces. However, Akira has a much more extreme contrast, as opposed to the softer feeling of my piece.
ACT Responses
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect on upon your artwork.
Akira has the urban setting and contrast between dark and light tones. Monet's Haystacks have the concept of capturing a specific moment of the day in a painting.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author felt that the Haystacks series was based around the nuances of different times of day and year, and that it was integral to these pieces.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc while you researched your inspiration?
People are very inclined to enjoy representations of specific points in time. People also really like interesting color themes.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The aspect of capturing a specific moment that felt particularly special.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I felt like the varieties of colors used in my inspirations were deliberate but not necessarily tactical.
Akira has the urban setting and contrast between dark and light tones. Monet's Haystacks have the concept of capturing a specific moment of the day in a painting.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author felt that the Haystacks series was based around the nuances of different times of day and year, and that it was integral to these pieces.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc while you researched your inspiration?
People are very inclined to enjoy representations of specific points in time. People also really like interesting color themes.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The aspect of capturing a specific moment that felt particularly special.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I felt like the varieties of colors used in my inspirations were deliberate but not necessarily tactical.
Sources
Haystacks, by Claude Monet. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.claude-monet.com/haystacks.jsp
Otomo, K. (Director). (1988). Akira [Motion picture on DVD]. Japan: Toho.
Ward, L. O. (n.d.). Turner to Monet. Retrieved from https://nga.gov.au/exhibition/turnertomonet/Detail.cfm?IRN=29073
Otomo, K. (Director). (1988). Akira [Motion picture on DVD]. Japan: Toho.
Ward, L. O. (n.d.). Turner to Monet. Retrieved from https://nga.gov.au/exhibition/turnertomonet/Detail.cfm?IRN=29073