Statement

I am a fine artist who is experimenting with themes relating to self exploration and identity. Recently I have been using different media and mixed media in order to convey meaning. I gain lots of inspiration from ar it's such as painter Paul Ruiz. His way of painting is interesting as he used thick layers to create a deeper effect on his portraits. His style has inspired me to create a thicker layer on my paintings and see what happens when I experiment. 

Another artist I am inspired by is expressive painter Kwangho Shin. The way he uses expressionism and the use of dark paint and thick layers really relates to my work and inspired me to try out new colours and new media to see what each one brings.

When I come across an issue in my work, I always try my best and figure out how to solve my issues. Most of the time it comes to retracing my steps and seeing where I went wrong. When this happens I always try new things. Such as changing pathways and switching media. Even though my specialty is painting, I like to go away from that and switch it up to make my work more interesting. 

I feel as though there are so many aspects of my life that can be reflected in my work and there is much more of myself that I can share with my audience. 

Final piece

This is my final outcome for my 'FMP'. It is a large scale canvas acrylic self portrait. 

I had a few issues when I first started this painting. At first I thought it was too large and I was afraid on hoe to take it on to suit my comfort zone. So I started off by taking some photographs for some inspiration. 

The original idea came from my previous works in my visual notebook. Just the idea of creating a self portrait with the use of different colours that I originally didn't intend to take on.

I started off by drawing the outline with black chalk and I then used that to create a more shadow look at first. Then as time went on I progressed with adding more and more layers on to it. 

I think the strongest part of the painting is the use of the colours. The pallet is limited but the colours tell the story for itself. I used more darker colours around the eyes which I think is one of the leading roles in the painting. Especially the shading around the face. 

The painting was presented well with the rest of my project and it tied in well with my other secondary research through out my visual notebook.

"Art Therapy" research and development

I started to develop myself into my project by adding in my own interpretation of myself by taking on my emotions and my thoughts. So I experimented with my emotions and put them into paintings. The results were messy and different. I like how they turned out. I think it brings out the context and I think the colours each tell a different story. How I have used bright colours but the meaning behind the painting is dark.

 

I think this is a great way of expressing my emotions and my feelings. It can be used as art therapy and used to tell a story. For example, when I look at this painting I think that life is beating me down and bringing out the worst in me. It's making me messy and putting me on edge. And now that I can see how I feel right in front of me, I can use my art as a way of fixing it and making it better. 

This one is different from the paintings above. I used charcoal to draw out my face and then washed it out to make a more thinner background. I then added marks of red paint. This can tell the story of how I feel in danger and how I am in a self destructive place. 

"Self Exploration" development

For my final major project I stuck with the context of myself. So all throughout my visual notebook I have only done myself and my emotions, by using art as my therapy and self exploration. 

In this portrait, I stuck with my expressionism painting and left out so,e facial features such as the eyes to create a more dramatic look. I was going for a look based of my emotions. How I feel dark all the time, and nothing much is going on with myself.

On the other hand I think the paint quality is good on this piece. It isnt to thick and you can see the features quite clearly from the use of the darker paint to create tone.

 

This is a small quick painting I done to get out my feelings. As my whole FMP was based on my emotions, I thought it would've been a good idea to let out how I really feel. As in this painting I only used red because to me, red has several meaning behind it. It can mean danger and love. And I also added in black as well to highlight the darkness that I am feeling. The context behind this painting is that I am not feeling too well. I feel dark and in danger. I feel like I am putting myself in danger.

 

This here is practice to help my upcoming final piece. I changed my style from using dark colour paints to bright coloured paints such as pink, red, purple etc. 

I done this because I think it defiantly stood out from the other paintings I done in my visual notebook because of its bright colours. So I started using them colours as a background first, to see if it fits in with my painting. 

I took some photography of myself to help develop my research further into the self exploration context. So I think I achieved that by doing the photographs of me looking into the mirror, also the phrase "is she pretty on the inside?". I based my FMP on the phrase. It is part of my context to explore who I am on the inside. 

Life Drawings

I done this simple line drawing as a warm up to get used to the shape of the figure. I used black fine linar and started off slowly. I am pleased with the body shape even though I didn't put much tone and detail into to body. I only used fine lines but I think it adds a really good effect into the figure. It shows off the shape more than the tone. 

 

I used expressionism in this painting because I wanted to this time, show off the tone more than the lines. I only stuck with using blue and brown colours as I didn't want any parts to be too dark. I think the use of the blue makes the painting more cold and it brings out the expression more. It highlights some areas more than how the brown does. 

I stuck with the expressionism again for this painting but I only focused on the torso. I wanted to keep practicing the expressionism and get used to highlighting more parts of the body. I again stuck with blue and brown but this time I practiced more with the brown. I wanted to make it more darker this time and I feel that the darkness really sets the tone for it. Especially the background. It highlights the areas which have depth in them such as the waistline and shoulders. 

I changed my colour scheme for this painting and used a selection of lighter colours such as pinks and purples. I again focused on the torso so I could have more time to paint in the depths of some parts of the body. I am pleased with the result of using the newer colours as I feel it has created a new look to the body. It brings out more highlights and makes the mood more lighter than how my previous paintings did. 

 

Kwangho Shin artist study and practice

I researched artist 'Kwangho Shin' for my painting inspiration as I feel that his paintings have a darker tone to it which can tie in with my works. So I picked out the paintings that I think can relate to my works and that can help inspire some of my paintings. I done this research in my visual notebook.  

This painting is a black and white self portrait just to get started on figuring out Shins works and tying them into my works. I used an expressive paint quality to add more effect and a more darker tone to it, which I have used most on the face. I feel as though this expressionism can show off the context. 

I wanted to show an emotionless expression but still have some mood on to it and I feel the black and white adds to that quality.

 

Painting of a colleague

I done a rough painting of a colleague to get used to painting other people other than myself as that's what I have been doing the past few weeks on my project. So I started off with a simple portrait to help get warmed up.

This is the final result from the image shown above. I feel like it's a good start to painting other people.

I think the strongest point on the painting is the use of colours on her face. Even though I did not add any detail, I did add extra black tone to show the more fixed features.

Black and white painting self portrait

I took a series of photographs for inspiration to do my final piece. I wanted it to be a simple painting but have the context to be personal to me as an artist. 

This is one of the expamples I stuck in my book to help further my research. I stuck with the black and white theme to limit my use of colours and media.

Out of all of the photographs I took for practice I selected this one as I feel it has a simple yet challenging structure to it. And also because it relates well to the context of my work.

This is the final outcome of the painting. It was done on a large canvas using acrylic paint. 

I started off first by doing a coat of grey, black and white to get the lines and the tone correct. Then as time progressed I added more layers of blue and brown and more grey. 

My aim for this peice was to make the mood cold. And I feel I achieved that by adding in the thin layers of blue and grey. 

"Cogs" - Self portrait

These drawings are a way of identifying the context of my visual presentation. I wanted to make the context a bit complex and simple to understand. For example, I added in the "Steampunk" look on the top of my head to highlight the workings of my head and what goes on inside my head as a person.

I figured the steampunk look was perfect to represent that as the look comes with cogs, clocks, and spruckets which identify working issues of me as a person. 

The message I wanted to get out of this image is that I work in my own way, I am working out the bad parts inside of me to make sure I fully work. It's a way of self exploration. 

 

In this picture, I stuck with the idea above and I made a watercolour painting of myself. I think the use of the red and black really highlight the context and make the painting more simple to understand.

I continued with the cogs on my head which symbolises self exploration and self identity and shows that I am a working progress. 

I really like the use of the thin layering on my facial features. It really brings out the dark tone for the painting.