Teardrop in the Dark
60 cm * 60 cm
Acrylic Paint on Canvas
November 2019
Exhibition Text:
Teardrop in the Dark reflects a lot of the emotional turmoil I felt in the past few weeks. Influenced by my frustration how it only tears the visual appearance of tears for our society to realize that something is wrong, this piece reflects a recent emotional moment I had at school. This piece is primarily inspired by Frida Kahlo's color scheme Self Portrait with Necklace of Thorn and Hummingbird and Lichtenstein's Crying . Medium is Apple Barrels' Acyrlic Paints on Canvas.
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Critical Investigation
Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with necklace of thorns and Hummingbird , 1940. Oil on Canvas.
Lichtenstein, Roy, “Crying Girl” 1963, lithograph on lighrweight on offwhite dove paper.
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My main inspiration for this piece is Frida Kahlo's Self Portrait with necklace of thorns and Hummingbird. The connection to Frida's reaction to her suffering leaves me was what truly inspired me to make a piece conveying this message. According to Andreja Velimirovic (2018), "Every element in this painting gives specific clues to Kahlo’s mental state, perhaps none more than her still, direct, emotionless gaze that seems to express the immediacy of her pain." I appreciated and replicated her use of symbolism in her piece from the ominous black hummingbird to the thorns holding her back. also appreciate Kahlo's use of dripping blood, an aspect I replicated onto my own piece. I appreciate how Kahlo express emotion into her piece.
Roy Lichtenstein, a pop artist, loved composing pieces with dramatic contrasting colors. His use of dark, lines adds texture, to the piece. In this piece, the dark values seemed to emphasize the light values. At a time where the American economy was booming, it seemed that pop culture has awakened as well. Lichtenstein created this piece from a mocking gesture towards the booming media industry. According to Stamberg (2012), "Lichtenstein's 1960s works were comic-inspired — they're angsty frames, often featuring ladies in distress. " It seemed as though his art rebuke it all. In this piece, I found myself attractive to this aspect of this piece, as I knew I wanted to replicate how it is almost dramatized.
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Sketches
For this project, I knew that I wanted to replicate the sadness in Kahlo's pieces, while making them melodramatic like Lichtenstein. So I thought to go through with the background idea. With the teardrop, I knew that impose a face in it, so I can replicate my emotion into my piece. In the first sketch, I thought it would be easier to draw a face onto a upside down teardrop, however, I later realized that that looked more like a balloon than a teardrop. In the second sketch, I considered having bleeding arms in the background, but I had difficultly plan the size of the arm and I also feared how that would look with a teardrop in front of it, so I later scrapped that idea. I later decided on the sketch 3 because I appreciated how the sketch contains the melodrama (with the contrast of dark background against light) of Lichtenstein with depicting the sadness.
Process/Techniques and Experimentation
Experimentation with Face on Canvas
To begin, I knew that I wanted to paint with a 2 ft by 2 ft canvas, so I thus made one and applied gesso onto it. After that, I used my ruler stick to divide my grid to a 8 in * 8 in grid, by adding a dash ever 3 inches onto the canvas
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After drawing a rough, symmetrical outline of the face onto the canvas, I realized that I struggled with the face. The lips did not look like my own and the eyes were two hard to make realistic looking
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Experimentation with Photos
Cropped Photos
I then used a photo of myself as a reference photo, as I knew that I need this for my project. I used my senior photos for my reference photo. I though thus would work, but I found a problem with how I faced away from the camera. I wanted to focus on the nose and the mouth, as I struggled with those parts of the face the most. I of course did not want to utilize the smile, but I did appreciate how I did have many options when it came to the face.
Here, I fixed most of the outline with the help of my reference photos, a genuine help. Although I did play around next project onto the canvas, the sketch captures what I am truly looking for in the piece. I truly appreciate how the reference photo helped me tie the piece back to myself. I am also glad to know that I am not completely dependent on the grid method, as I feared the impact gridding out the face would have on the piece.
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After this, though it was time to add the blue wash onto the piece. Here, I added several drops of Apple Barrel's Cobalt Hue paint into its white paint. I then mixed it until it reached a pale sky blue color. I used this color because I want to prepare myself for the intense colors that would be in the rest of the piece, similar to both Kahlo and Lichtenstein.
Here, I then applied the paint with wash (water, paint mixture) while being careful to not cover the outlines for the eyes, nose and mouth. I then, after applying to two layers of wash, then applied the Cobalt blue on the eyes brows, and much of the outlining of the eyes, mouth and nose. After outing the piece, I began to notice how the I could see Lichtenstein in his piece, the intense color began to resemble his work.
Experimentation with the tears
Here I then re-adjust and blended the face. I referenced the reference photo to find the dark shaded spots, while generously shading with those colors to resemble Kahlo's style better. I also found myself constantly changing the tears, until I found myself fixing the eyes. I also fixed the nose so I then blended the nose.
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After finally fixing the tear lines, I then outlined the teardrop with a thick line of white paint.
Then with the use of the Burnt Umber, I began to out fill the rest of the background the paint.
Here, I directly added the paint onto the canvas, something I have not done every. When I did this, I made sure to blend almost sparingly, using the flat 6 brush (my thin brush) so that the color blended better. At times, I found myself adding more Burnt Umber brown so I could blend better. As I did this, I also made sure to help clean use the white space better, by reshaping the the tear drop and coloring over a bit of the light brown space.
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Final Product
Reflection & Critique
Compare
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Contrast
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Teardrop in the Dark
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Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with necklace of thorns and Hummingbird , 1940. Oil on Canvas.
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Teardrop in the Dark
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Lichtenstein, Roy, “Crying Girl” 1963, lithograph on lightweight on offwhite dove paper.
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Reflection
For this project, i deviated from my last two projects and focus on my own mental health. I knew I wanted to use this piece for my comparative study, so I then review much of my previous research there. After so reflection., I thought it was best that I focus on my sadness and how I came to get help recently. After completing this piece, I can definitely say that I felt a lot better and believe this piece convey a lot of what I felt about the word around me: people do not notice something wrong unless it is almost screamed at them. I thought about deviating towards Lichtenstein's piece. After completing the piece, I do believe I did improve on blending, in a sense that this piece looks a lot better than my first self-portrait I worked on over the summer. However, my greatest struggle in the piece was making the teardrop as symmetrical as possible. I noticed that making the long narrow tear drop would make it difficult to add a face on it, but having a wide teardrop was hard to make symmetrical. I attempted to fix this with the help of the white paint, to nor only get rid of parts of the teardrop. After getting rid a lot of the face, I eventually thought it was too difficult, so I stopped. On the bright side, I can definitely say that there was an improvement of the quality of my work. Using small brushes near the face, and the wide 3/4 in brush in the background was a great decision as it helped me blend better. This improved the quality of my craftsmanship. After comparing the pieces, I do believe I did better when it came to the background, as adding the white space added emphasis, to the piece a direct connection to Lichtenstein. My color values were similar to Lichtenstein as well, but I focues more on a cool color, rather than a warm color. My use of dark blue lines, unlike Lichtendtin's dark black lines, did create texture like Lichtenstein's piece. Upon further reflection, I can visibly see how borrowing elements like color, texture and values from Kahlo and Lichtenstein. Adding vibrant colors added emphasis to the the hands its imperfection. Overall, I believe this piece was a piece well-done.
ACT Response Questions
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Kahlo's use of natural colors and her use of negative connotations associated with black was something I replicated onto my own piece.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors approached the topic in informative way, providing enough context behind Lichtenstein's and Kahlo's pieces.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered that when people observe work from Frida Kahlo, they see a piece full with symbolism. While Lichtenstein's observers seemed to relish his style.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my research was to find a artist that express disappointment through a frailty symbol and how internal greed causes this.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Throughout my research I inferred that Kahlo created pieces that referenced her view of the world, while Lichtenstein created pieces that seemed to mock melodrama
Kahlo's use of natural colors and her use of negative connotations associated with black was something I replicated onto my own piece.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors approached the topic in informative way, providing enough context behind Lichtenstein's and Kahlo's pieces.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered that when people observe work from Frida Kahlo, they see a piece full with symbolism. While Lichtenstein's observers seemed to relish his style.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my research was to find a artist that express disappointment through a frailty symbol and how internal greed causes this.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Throughout my research I inferred that Kahlo created pieces that referenced her view of the world, while Lichtenstein created pieces that seemed to mock melodrama
Bibliography
“Roy Lichtenstein. Finger Pointing from The New York Collection for Stockholm. 1973: MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art, https://www.moma.org/collection/works/72057 .
“Crying Girl.” Philadelphia Museum of Art, https://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/60729.html?mulR=459764950|3.
Velimirović , Andreja. “The Importance of The Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird.” Widewalls, 2018, https://www.widewalls.ch/frida-kahlo-self-portrait-with-thorn-necklace-and-hummingbird/.
“Crying Girl.” Philadelphia Museum of Art, https://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/60729.html?mulR=459764950|3.
Velimirović , Andreja. “The Importance of The Frida Kahlo Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird.” Widewalls, 2018, https://www.widewalls.ch/frida-kahlo-self-portrait-with-thorn-necklace-and-hummingbird/.