S E L F
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I N S P I R A T I O N S
A R T I S T : V E R M E E R
To interpret this piece as my own, I plan to enter myself into it, in place of the woman. Additionally, I plan to change the paintings in the background into my triptych (three paintings I’ve already done) and embody my own creativity by incorporating paint brushes on the table, etc. However, there are some elements of the piece I wish to disrupt.
Vermeer has embodied the definition of Dutch Golden Era in this painting. Many artists of the time focused on what they found to be the beauty of daily life, romanticizing it in the process. This idea has been seen here as Vermeer portrays a woman holding a balance, suggesting the idealized female balance, stability, and virtuous design in her silent contemptment. This piece was created at a very inequitable time for women and this is seen as Vermeer glorifies the gender roles of a female in the Dutch Golden Era. Within the painting, there is a painting on the wall of the Last Judgment. The national gallery of art framed the connection, “...to judge is to weigh” to newly connect the piece to a more religious perspective. The woman holding the balance displays the idea of moderation and temperance, and priority of the Catholic religion during the Dutch Golden Era. It idolizes her silence as religiously correct.
The outdated gender roles perspective was an element I did not wish to include in my piece as I wanted this self portrait to most clearly define myself, and I happen to stand exactly against what this piece wishes to communicate on gender roles. To counteract this, I will hold nothing (explained later in planning).
Vermeer portrays an intense understanding of light and shows this through his use of value. I wanted to utilize the same technique Vermeer was able to use to create such accurate versions of reality. When I first saw this piece I was shocked by the way Vermeer was able to understand light, contrast, and value. Your eye follows the light through the piece causing a soft portrayal of movement.
Vermeer has embodied the definition of Dutch Golden Era in this painting. Many artists of the time focused on what they found to be the beauty of daily life, romanticizing it in the process. This idea has been seen here as Vermeer portrays a woman holding a balance, suggesting the idealized female balance, stability, and virtuous design in her silent contemptment. This piece was created at a very inequitable time for women and this is seen as Vermeer glorifies the gender roles of a female in the Dutch Golden Era. Within the painting, there is a painting on the wall of the Last Judgment. The national gallery of art framed the connection, “...to judge is to weigh” to newly connect the piece to a more religious perspective. The woman holding the balance displays the idea of moderation and temperance, and priority of the Catholic religion during the Dutch Golden Era. It idolizes her silence as religiously correct.
The outdated gender roles perspective was an element I did not wish to include in my piece as I wanted this self portrait to most clearly define myself, and I happen to stand exactly against what this piece wishes to communicate on gender roles. To counteract this, I will hold nothing (explained later in planning).
Vermeer portrays an intense understanding of light and shows this through his use of value. I wanted to utilize the same technique Vermeer was able to use to create such accurate versions of reality. When I first saw this piece I was shocked by the way Vermeer was able to understand light, contrast, and value. Your eye follows the light through the piece causing a soft portrayal of movement.
P L A N N I N G
O V E R V I E W O F C O N C E P T
C O M P L E T E D
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P R O C E S S
BUILDING THE CANVAS
STAGE 1
First I began by making my canvas. Our class resources limited us to only have side lengths of 1, 2, 3, and 4 feet but could not do any lengths in between. Because the original dimensions of my piece were 1'5" x 1'3", I decided that it would be best to create a canvas that was 3 x 4 feet. So to make this, I began by grabbing two 4 ft pieces of wood and then two 3 ft pieces of wood. I hammered these edges together and then I grabbed a square to check that the frame I made was as close to a perfect rectangle as possible. I then took a stapler and stapled the connecting points between the wood pieces. After this I took a section of canvas and stretched it over the edges. I pulled it tight and then stapled the edges down. Then I cut the extras off the surroundings of the canvas. After this I gessoed the canvas. However, I found in this process that I had stretched the canvas too tight originally and that the gesso I applied after would only make this worse. Because the wood for the frame that I used was too weak, and the canvas was too tight, the full canvas warped. This is what is shown in the picture to the left. I then realized that if I wanted to have a very tight canvas I would need to build my own canvas from scratch. I decided that this would be my next step, and realized that it would bring the benefit of being able to control what size my full canvas would be. |
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STAGE 2 |
STAGE 3 |
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STAGE 4 |
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STAGE 8 |
STAGE 9 |
STAGE 10 |
STAGE 11 |
STAGE 12 |
CREATION OF PIECE
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STAGE 14 |
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STAGE 15 |
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I then worked paint in the blue cloth and I began by simply sketching it out. This was one of the quickest and most problem free stages of this piece as it was just a matter of creating smooth graditions which is something that I really enjoy doing. I started by filling in the darkest areas of the fabric, although I found that putting straight black looked to harsh. To counteract this I mixed a majority of black with a ton of blue and just a very tiny amount of white (to lighten it) and I used this for my darks. It worked a lot better. I then blended the shadows into lighter values by softening edges out with straight blue. To create highlights I mixed blue alone with some white and smoothly blended that in. In some places where highlights were more obvious, I would add more white to the mixture. This section of the piece required only one layer.
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STAGE 18 |
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STAGE 20 |
I then worked on the hoodie. This was definitely one of the most difficult parts of the piece. I wanted to be able to show the many creases and folds of it without creating the look of dark and light patches of the fabric. I found that there was a lot of struggle regarding the texture of the hoodie as well as it's not a smooth satin fabric like most historical baroque paintings focus on. Therefore, I wanted to make it smooth enough to look like folds in fabric, but not too smooth so that it distracts from the texture of the actual fabric.
I began this section with a rough sketch. In this sketch I blocked out the general proportions and shapes, but also included loose organic shapes around places that I would like to have blocks of shadows. This helped me a lot in future phases. I then when in with the paint. I started at one side and moved to the other like a puzzle instead of blocking in full sections at once. This increased how much time it took to make the piece and created a better environment for messing up a consistent color scheme (as seen in picture two). I then disregarded this method and by photo three I had moved into taking a more overal and general approach. This helped a lot.
The logo was difficult because of the warped fabric. It took the most time out of the whole hoodie just because I wanted it to look cohesive with the full piece and not like I had just sloppily laid down some writing. I feel I was pretty successful with capturing this form. I finsihed the upper left portion of the hoodie last and I can confidently say that it's my favorite part of the section. Over the course of painting it I feel I learned a lot more about how to work with the paint. At this phase I did the pants too which went well.
I began this section with a rough sketch. In this sketch I blocked out the general proportions and shapes, but also included loose organic shapes around places that I would like to have blocks of shadows. This helped me a lot in future phases. I then when in with the paint. I started at one side and moved to the other like a puzzle instead of blocking in full sections at once. This increased how much time it took to make the piece and created a better environment for messing up a consistent color scheme (as seen in picture two). I then disregarded this method and by photo three I had moved into taking a more overal and general approach. This helped a lot.
The logo was difficult because of the warped fabric. It took the most time out of the whole hoodie just because I wanted it to look cohesive with the full piece and not like I had just sloppily laid down some writing. I feel I was pretty successful with capturing this form. I finsihed the upper left portion of the hoodie last and I can confidently say that it's my favorite part of the section. Over the course of painting it I feel I learned a lot more about how to work with the paint. At this phase I did the pants too which went well.
STAGE 21
I then moved onto the full composure. The table did not take too much time to complete but in the future I would like to do another layer on it to make it darker. I'd like to fix the floor along with that. The wall was pretty quick to complete. I was really happy with the way that I was able to capture the light and shadow that came through the window and onto the wall. I feel it improves the perspective of the piece as a whole. The picture frame is one of my favorite details of the piece because of the way that I was able to make it appear metallic. I was worried that it would look like sections of solid color instead of a light capturing surface, but I was able to do a couple layers to get it to the place I wanted it to be at. I then worked on the desk and filled in the items on the table. I was really proud with how the paint brushes in the box came out because I did them with a reference from real life. I was proud that I was able to get an accurate result.
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E X P E R I M E N T A T I O N
TECHNIQUE FOR PAINTING FACES
Because I have only done an oil painting of a face once before, I wanted to use this piece as an opportunity to experiment more with how I may be able to approach portraiture differently. To do so, I wanted to see if there were a way to complete a painting of the face. Instead of taking the time to do an indepth sketch of the face, I did one in minutes. I blocked out an outline of the face and then left a few marks for where the eyes, nose, and mouth are. After this, got out some acrylic paint and did a more indepth sketch of the face, except, this time I was able to incorporate color. This definitely resulted in a change of time that it took me to complete this. I did not stress too much about the acrylic layer because I knew that whatever I didn't like from it, I could have the opportunity to change when I started the oil layer. It went pretty well and I was able to get a pretty good idea of what I wanted for the piece as a whole.
Because acrylic dries so quickly, I was able to go in with oil for a more official layer very soon after. The oil layer went a lot quicker than it would have originally because I didn't have to focus on covering the canvas as much. Because I was able to softly blend the layers of acrylic underneath, the upper layers of oil were even smoother than what oil could be on its own. Normally, oil does not lay as thickly on the canvas because it takes longer to do more layers so the texture of the canvas tends to peak through. However, with this piece the layers of acrylic underneath were able to fill in the pores of the canvas and leave behind a smoother texture for the oil to layer on top of (as seen in picture 4). Overall, I feel this new attempt at a method was very successful.
Because acrylic dries so quickly, I was able to go in with oil for a more official layer very soon after. The oil layer went a lot quicker than it would have originally because I didn't have to focus on covering the canvas as much. Because I was able to softly blend the layers of acrylic underneath, the upper layers of oil were even smoother than what oil could be on its own. Normally, oil does not lay as thickly on the canvas because it takes longer to do more layers so the texture of the canvas tends to peak through. However, with this piece the layers of acrylic underneath were able to fill in the pores of the canvas and leave behind a smoother texture for the oil to layer on top of (as seen in picture 4). Overall, I feel this new attempt at a method was very successful.
C R I T I Q U E
SIMILARITIESMy self portrait is a piece that is based off of Vermeers "Woman Holding a Balance". Therefore, there are a lot of similarties that can be drawn from the two. Essentially, the goal of my intention was to place myself into the piece and warp details to better fit my identity. Because of this the composure of the piece stays very comparable. Even though the painting is different, the frame holding it stays the same. The background, including the pattern of light through the tiny window and curtain stay the same again to keep a similar composure. The table and color of blanket stay the same as well.
I kept the full piece in the same dutch golden era style regardless of what I chose to change. In this way, elements and principles of design have largely stayed pretty similar between the two pieces. Specifically this can be seen as both pieces have a similar exploration of light and value as they heavily rely on contrast. Both pieces have the subject and main place of emphasis laying on the person in the photo (myself vs the woman with the balance). Overall the two pieces are very comparable. |
DIFERENCESWhile there is much to compare, there are definite contrasts between the two pieces. The most obvious of these being the subject matter. Instead of having the woman be the person in the photo, I changed it to myself to create it into a self portrait. In addition to this, I changed the painting in the frame to something that would more closely fit my own identity (a piece that I had created in the past). While the painting style stays the same, I have definitely modernized the subject matter. Instead of portraying Dutch Golden Era clothing, I depict myself in sweatpants and a Reagan hoodie (the school I go to) to provide some commentary on how times have changed.
Outside of this, while composure stays fairly consistent, there are some contrasts in other elements and principals of design. I feel that Vermeers piece more heavily implemented dramatic light in his work. This can be seen in the way he uses darker values to suggest shadows and lighter highlights to suggest highlights. Overall he has a different observation of contrast. While both pieces hold an emphasis on the people, I feel my piece also holds emphasis on the table as I've used lighted values to mute the items out less. |
R E F L E C T I O N
This project has taught me so much about how I function as an artist. I learned that I really like to work in layers which is something that takes a long time in oil. Therefore, I think I would like to try other mediums that make layering easier. I found that I really like doing a sketch in acrylic over pencil, and I think that I'll use this technique again in the future now. After taking on a painting of this size, I think that I'd be able to do work that is even better in a shorter frame of time, as I've already taken the time to see what works best for me. By the end of the piece, I feel that there is a clear connection that can be drawn between Vermeers, Woman Holding a Balance, and my piece. I feel I was able to use a fairly similar technique between the two so that they carry a similar feeling.
The biggest challenge I faced in this piece was time. Layering oil takes a very long time because you have to wait for things to dry in between (which for oil is a lengthy amount of time, especially because I like to use linseed oil to thin it and that extends dry time). I've come to find that I'm never truly done with a piece. There will always be things that I could change or add on to make it better in my eyes. This has made me realize that I need to find a time to just accept its completion.
This piece tied in a lot of what I did with my tryptich. That piece was my first in oil so I had to discover how I liked to use the medium at that time. Everything that I had learned about oil- what I liked and disliked, processes, techniques, etc- all was incorporated into my approach for this piece. My favorite part was painting the cloth. I enjoyed trying to paint something with such rich color and contrast in value. It went extremely quick and is one of my favorite parts to the piece. In conclusion, I hope that other people view my work with appreciation to dedication. As I find it hard to never fully complete a piece, I hope that others don't view things through the same lense. I really enjoyed creating this piece and I feel I learned a lot about how I create art.
The biggest challenge I faced in this piece was time. Layering oil takes a very long time because you have to wait for things to dry in between (which for oil is a lengthy amount of time, especially because I like to use linseed oil to thin it and that extends dry time). I've come to find that I'm never truly done with a piece. There will always be things that I could change or add on to make it better in my eyes. This has made me realize that I need to find a time to just accept its completion.
This piece tied in a lot of what I did with my tryptich. That piece was my first in oil so I had to discover how I liked to use the medium at that time. Everything that I had learned about oil- what I liked and disliked, processes, techniques, etc- all was incorporated into my approach for this piece. My favorite part was painting the cloth. I enjoyed trying to paint something with such rich color and contrast in value. It went extremely quick and is one of my favorite parts to the piece. In conclusion, I hope that other people view my work with appreciation to dedication. As I find it hard to never fully complete a piece, I hope that others don't view things through the same lense. I really enjoyed creating this piece and I feel I learned a lot about how I create art.
A C T Q U E S T I O N S
Check list
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
I really liked the composure of Vermeer's piece and wanted to create something that would immediatly be recognizable as based upon it. The effect of this is that I chose to directly place myself into the piece. This can be seen as the piece looks like Vermeers, but with the intention of displaying my identity instead.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author is analyzing the qualities of this painting. They have observed the metaphorical, literal, and fundamental reasonings behind what Vermeer chose to include in the piece.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I've come to realize how the Dutch Golden Era was far different than what it is described as today. Many view it as a perfect time, however, reality shows that this is a romanticized lie of what it actually is. I feel I have learned a lot more about the actual hardships of the time.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The general theme for my research was regarding Vermeers intention for the piece. This of course centralized on the Dutch Golden Era and the glorification of it. I also focused on historical beliefs about women.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
That what is said about these paintings cannot be considered full truth as none of them see the perspective or intention of Vermeer himself.
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
I really liked the composure of Vermeer's piece and wanted to create something that would immediatly be recognizable as based upon it. The effect of this is that I chose to directly place myself into the piece. This can be seen as the piece looks like Vermeers, but with the intention of displaying my identity instead.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author is analyzing the qualities of this painting. They have observed the metaphorical, literal, and fundamental reasonings behind what Vermeer chose to include in the piece.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I've come to realize how the Dutch Golden Era was far different than what it is described as today. Many view it as a perfect time, however, reality shows that this is a romanticized lie of what it actually is. I feel I have learned a lot more about the actual hardships of the time.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The general theme for my research was regarding Vermeers intention for the piece. This of course centralized on the Dutch Golden Era and the glorification of it. I also focused on historical beliefs about women.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
That what is said about these paintings cannot be considered full truth as none of them see the perspective or intention of Vermeer himself.
C I T A T I O N S
- “Woman Holding a Balance.” National Gallery of Art, www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.1236.html. Accessed 26 Dec. 2021.