"Magnify"
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Inspiration & Research
I had two inspirations for Magnify.
The first is some of Vincent van Gogh's flower paintings, especially Vase with Cornflowers and Poppies. I like the look of his flowers, in the way that they’re not completely orthodox. They’re detailed, but a bit more angular and scraggly than one would depict flowers. He made an effort to capture the flowers blooming as if they were growing outside on a nice summer day, and uses the colors to reflect it.
The other is Rene Magritte, and his painting The Listening Room. The apple, larger than life, is one of many examples of his surreal paintings that if inspected, are wholly unusual. The giant apple calls into question the reality of things and puts a new spin on an everyday object. This apple demands respect, and the strange size helps it receive it.
The first is some of Vincent van Gogh's flower paintings, especially Vase with Cornflowers and Poppies. I like the look of his flowers, in the way that they’re not completely orthodox. They’re detailed, but a bit more angular and scraggly than one would depict flowers. He made an effort to capture the flowers blooming as if they were growing outside on a nice summer day, and uses the colors to reflect it.
The other is Rene Magritte, and his painting The Listening Room. The apple, larger than life, is one of many examples of his surreal paintings that if inspected, are wholly unusual. The giant apple calls into question the reality of things and puts a new spin on an everyday object. This apple demands respect, and the strange size helps it receive it.
Planning
This is the planning sketch for my finished piece. I had the general idea of what I wanted to do when I made all of these sketches, and this one was already my favorite when I put this together.
This one was a bit more general of an idea, I knew I wanted to do something with something nature and I've had a continuous interest in van Gogh. I was thinking something in the lines of his almond tree paintings, but with some added birds. In the end, the idea wasn't particularly interesting or anything so I scrapped it. This sketch was more outside of my other ideas. I was thinking about going abstract, with a solid white circle (representing the sun) and a detailed hand picking it up. The triangle/mountain thing was a contencious point for me though, because I wasn't sure about how much and what detail I wanted to put in it. This frustration made me not want to do it. This is actually the flower vase and bouquet that I worked from when I made my full sketch to scratch from, sans the boring leafy stem thing. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to take a photo of it until it had wilted a bit. |
Process
To start the drypoint printing process, I had to carve my design into a plastic plate with an etching tool. Since it was clear, I taped my plate over my full sketch (top left) and carved carefully over the pencil lines. In this image (bottom left), I moved the plate off of the sketch to take a photo of it while it was unfinished, and placed it on the back of my sketchbook to show the lines better. I mostly started with the flower vase, and eventually the whole design was scratched onto the plate.
The next step to printing is working with the ink. I spread a thin layer of the ink over the plate and carefully wiped away the ink on the non-etched parts of the plate. This was tedious, requiring that the ink be removed from where ever this isn't etching, but I also had to make sure not to remove the ink from the engravings in the plate. I had many parts that were etched close together, and removing the small amount of ink between the lines was difficult. While the ink went on, a piece of watercolor paper was soaking in a tub of water. This was required for the ink to stay on the paper well. After rubbing in the ink, the plate was placed on the paper, and run through a press between folded newsprint. The ink is on the paper, and the print is complete (right). |
Experimentation
This is another print I made. At first glance, it may seem like it is better than my other print. However, if you look at the close-up photo on the right, there is ink smudged all over. This is likely either because I didn't wipe away enough ink from the area in an effort to not wipe away too much, or because I may not have dried the paper after removing it from the water well enough. This bothers me a lot as I tried to figure out the best way to do the whole process.
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Reflection
Overall, the product was okay. I had a lot of trouble putting together this whole piece, and I think it came out okay despite that. This and the block print were both really outside my comfort zone. I had trouble carving my plate, ocassionally my hand slipped and cut too far, which really bothers me. The printing process for this project was also much more tedious than that of the block print, and required more steps and more care. All of my prints have smudged ink in one way or another, and it wasn' t clean the way I wanted. However, I still do like my final product, but if I could redo it, I'd take the whole process much slower and ask for help from a classmate. I ruined some prints by getting an inky finger print on the paper, and I genuinely should've just asked for help on the project.
I would say that my piece is easily comparable to my inspirations. The flowers in my print have the same rough qualities as many of van Gogh's flower paintings. They are more angular, and each petal is outlined rather than given a general rough outline as many other representations of flowers are given. My piece is also similar to The Listening Room and other Magritte paintings in the way unusual sizing is used. However, my piece has this as a complement, and not necessarily the complete focus of the piece as in his painting. My strange sized objects are very different from what he usually uses. His are often food or people, and mine is a face and flowers. The last and most obvious difference is that my piece has no color, unlike my inspirations, just a black line on white paper.
I would say that my piece is easily comparable to my inspirations. The flowers in my print have the same rough qualities as many of van Gogh's flower paintings. They are more angular, and each petal is outlined rather than given a general rough outline as many other representations of flowers are given. My piece is also similar to The Listening Room and other Magritte paintings in the way unusual sizing is used. However, my piece has this as a complement, and not necessarily the complete focus of the piece as in his painting. My strange sized objects are very different from what he usually uses. His are often food or people, and mine is a face and flowers. The last and most obvious difference is that my piece has no color, unlike my inspirations, just a black line on white paper.
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.
Vincent van Gogh's style of flowers directly influenced the way I illustrated my flowers. Likewise, many of Magritte's paintings used unusual sizes to bring attention to the object, like the large face in my piece.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
They said that Magritte has a habit of hiding things behind an apple as a motif, but this time it is the center focus, which is more unusual for him.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc while you researched your inspiration?
That artists express themselves in a large variety of ways, from seeing the beauty in simple flowers to venting frustrations in the form of paintings with unusual motifs.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
It was on what my inspirations' work represented, to the artists and to the world.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
That Rene Magritte was likely a stressed man, with all of his strange paintings about hiding but not hiding.
Vincent van Gogh's style of flowers directly influenced the way I illustrated my flowers. Likewise, many of Magritte's paintings used unusual sizes to bring attention to the object, like the large face in my piece.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
They said that Magritte has a habit of hiding things behind an apple as a motif, but this time it is the center focus, which is more unusual for him.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc while you researched your inspiration?
That artists express themselves in a large variety of ways, from seeing the beauty in simple flowers to venting frustrations in the form of paintings with unusual motifs.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
It was on what my inspirations' work represented, to the artists and to the world.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
That Rene Magritte was likely a stressed man, with all of his strange paintings about hiding but not hiding.
Sources
http://poulwebb.blogspot.com/2012/12/vincent-van-gogh-flowers-part-2.html
http://www.wga.hu/html_m/g/gogh_van/05/flower10.html
http://www.renemagritte.org/the-listening-room.jsp
http://www.wga.hu/html_m/g/gogh_van/05/flower10.html
http://www.renemagritte.org/the-listening-room.jsp