Dry Point
Reminiscence
Dry point 6cm x 8cm October 2019 Exhibition Text The artwork piece "Reminiscence" was inspired by past grieving feelings that I had coped with. These feelings came from my dogs death. So I wanted to pay a tribute to him, his name was Snowball. I don't want this piece to be a sad one, although it expresses all my grieving. I want it to be a celebration and tribute to Snowball. To show coping and how much he meant to me. |
Planning
Inspiration
Inspiration
Planning Sketches
This is my first sketch, I wanted it to be my base for my further drawings. For this sketch I just redrew Frida's self portrait dedicated to Dr. Eloesser. I wanted to get a feel of which techniques I had to use for future planning. This first sketch I mainly realistic due to the painting being realistic. I really wanted to work on composition too, because I struggle with finding a balanced placement of things as an artist. So I wanted to practice it and see if I can mirror mostly everything from the painting. It's not meant to copy, just to give me a ground barrier of where to branch off from. It was also used to help me measure the symbols and how big I can make them and how big they can actually go. Since I struggle with composition, I wanted to make sure I can fit the drawing and symbols I wanted in the plate frame.
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This is my second sketch/drawing. In this one I inserted myself in her cloak and her place. This sketch was when I formed idea's on how to represent myself, but still resemble the painting. I made the flower symbols smaller to make it less dramatic and more simple like the emotions. She had like little droplets at the end of the flowers, I turned them into heart shapes with the stem of them to be the crack, so I formed broken hearts. To go further into symbolizing the broken emotions. Then for the earring Frida had a hand, I was stuck on trying to figure out which part of the anatomy I can use to match this piece. The hand earring she wears was given as a gift, so that's what made it tricky of me to think of something. But then I thought of the heart because snowball was a gift to me and had my heart. I have thick eyebrows like Frida, but not a unibrow and I wanted to symbolize that as well. Frida had very little makeup and I'm a person who enjoys makeup and I wanted to represent that. The lips I made more my own size and shape, but I kept the feature of them going down and that blank expressions she conveyed.
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This is my third sketch, this sketch had the most brainstorming. I had to figure out how to add him and how I wanted to add him. I wanted his tribute to be special and not rushed so I took time. I tried to work with the background, I felt like leaves weren't related to snowball and animals nor with me. So I thought of things that he liked and that can relate to the piece. So at first I was thinking of grass because he would roll and run it. So I was thinking of healthy grass to represent the memories of him being healthy. But then I thought of dead grass because of his death. Then overall I canceled those ideas because I felt like grass was too plain. Then I added the leaves concept just to see how it would look, But I didn't like it. Then I dug deeper and did research on flowers for healing. I chose healing to represent me and the feelings of coping and moving on, but also for him because he healed form his death because he was no longer in pain. |
This is my final product where I put everything together. I managed to make everything fit perfectly within the border and used all the symbolism I wanted. I'm happy with how this sketch of the final product turned out. I really didn't change any of the concepts I wanted in this piece. The only thing I changed was my face and the overall drawing of me. I wanted it look more like me of course, So I changed some features and I changed her position to be more like Frida's. One symbol I added was the tear to show more depth emotion. I wanted it to make people wonder. because there's a tear but my face is completely blank. I wanted the viewers to dig deeper. I felt like the background worked well with the concept I wanted as well.
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Process
Experimentation My process took a lot of turns and twists, there's many different values and contrast. I also had to work with composition a lot. So these sketches on the right are the process of making the final product. They are ordered from 1-9, with one being the first sketck/process step and 9 being the final product. So for the first sketch there's very light value and no contrast. I was creating the face for the base with the hair and neck and ear. There's very little depth yet because it's just the first step. Then on the 2nd sketch I wanted to work on my composition and make sure the eyebrows were balanced because I noticed in my second planning sketch the eyebrows were not balanced and had terrible composition. So I used a lining technique to make sure they measured up. Then numbers 3-7 I was having trouble with eyes. They weren't turning out how I wanted until the 8th try. The composition for the eyes were terrible and had very different contrasts and values. Then in #8 and #9 I was satisfied with them and finally got things to be balanced. Towards the last ideas my craftsmanship really improved. Then for the dress, it was a easy process and the dress in fact has lots of depth with the values and contrast. Then for the final product I added a lot of shading to form the figures and objects. I also added the shading to the flowers, to almost make them look 3D. |
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Process
Making the actual piece took 3 attempts and I still wasn't satisfied. I would first have to ink the piece and spread it out with a square flat piece of plastic. Then I would take scrap paper and rub off all the ink. While I'm doing this, all before I put watercolor loose leaf paper in a bin of water for 8 minutes. Then I dry the paper with a towel and let it sit. When everything is done I put scrap paper on the rolling machine then put my ink piece on top. Then I would put the semi dried watercolor loose leaf paper on top then I roll the other way to print it on. I ordered the pieces I made 1-3. Number one came out okay, it was a little light in value and also somewhat blurry. Then number 2 came out even lighter and more smudgy/blurry. For number 3 it also had blurry parts, but came out darker. To add to the process I feel like I should of learned how to clean the template, to prevent smudges. I would want to learn how to make the ink settle in. I feel like learning the cleaning process is important to have a crisp clean artwork with no smudges. The process for this piece is more simple than the block print, because I never really had to guess my carving, I carved right on top of my final product sketch. So the piece overall has fine detailed lines that were supposed to be sharp. But personally I think the ink went past the lines because the lines are thin and that's what caused blurry symbols. Then the lines can be inked easily and become darker, it was just a process of finding how much ink I should add and wipe away.
Reflection
For the overall piece, I wasn't really satisfied with the final product. But that could just be me knowing I can always improve and do better. I'm happy with the concept and themes I put together for this piece, I'm really happy to have this tribute for Snowball. I feel my sketches came out really good, even if I had to do fix ups. I'm really happy with the amount of work and research I've done for this project, because it all paid off. I feel like I could improve on inking the project, I feel like I could of learned more techniques to get what I want in the product. I'm not satisfied that each piece came out with a different value and a little smudgy. I could of learned to balance the ink and how much i scraped off. I feel like though for my sketches I noticed things weren't symmetrical, like the eyebrows and I'm proud and like that I used techniques that I knew to make them symmetrical. I also like that I didn't have to remove anything I wanted to do, it all fit in the picture frame. I feel like my piece fully resembles Frida Kahlo's paintings. I turned it into my story and my life and my art style. But I feel like viewers can still tell that she was my influence and how I connected each painting of hers to mine. I'm very proud that I did that for this piece.
ACT Responses
1) Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
For this piece I related it to Frida Kahlo's symbolism again, but this time I didn't use the Mexican roots, I used her feelings of sadness. I also used actual symbols as symbolism in my piece like she does with the dog and sun, and also clothes, plants and expressions.
2) What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach is story telling, expressions, and symbolism. For this piece I'm telling a story of my feelings that she also felt and the story of my dog. Then I'm also using objects for symbolism to relate to the story I want to convey and viewers to understand. I used the cold expression she portrays in her artwork piece that I was inspired by.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Generalizations I realized for people was that Frida and myself related to having sad feelings about something, but not letting them show. We continued to dress up and be ourselves. I discovered that we share the humbled Mexican culture where showing emotions of sadness is considered weak, so we hide them.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea and theme was to pay a tribute to my dog Snowball, while still reflecting my identity and who I am. I wanted to incorporate my feelings and my love for animals.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Frida was going through a rough time where she was vulnerable, but didn't want to show it. I also inferred that she loved her dog very much and that she took it everywhere.
Bibliography
“Self Portrait, Dedicated to Dr Eloesser, 1940 by Frida Kahlo.” Henri Matisse, www.fridakahlo.org/self-portrait-dedicated-to-dr-eloesser.jsp.
“Self Portrait with Itxcuintli Dog and Sun.” Frida Kahlo - The Complete Works, www.frida-kahlo-foundation.org/Self-Portrait-With-Itxcuintli-Dog-And-Sun.html.