Portrait ProjectStephanie Archibald

INTIAL SOURCES

Initial Sources I chose “girl in bed” by Lucian Freud as my source painting. I initially noticed this piece because of the overall calm feeling which was conveyed by the pose and composition of the subject. This is also further projected by the artist’s use of warm tones and yellow undertones. The piece has a very intimate feel because of the closeness of the subject and upon further research I found that this was actually a painting of his wife.

Freud painted this using oil paint and observed his sitter in great detail. He used a combination of softly blended shading, creating quite a flat appearance to create an emphasis on the thin detailed lines used particularly on the eyes and other significant details such as individual hairs, wrinkles and freckles.

Experiments and decisions Through my painting I wanted to create a sense of atmosphere. I felt the realistic and meticulous style of my initial sources would help to convey that idea so I decided to use that as the drawing style.

For my 8 drawings I spent a lot of time observing my face and experimented with different compositions. In these I was trying to create a slight tension without coming across as too intense. These were all simple line drawings where I looked at the effect of looking at my face from different angles.

There was quite a few different compositions that I felt worked with that idea so I then experimented with a few of those using colour to create an atmosphere. One of the things I liked most about Lucian Freud’s work was the calm and quite intimate atmosphere that was created by the warm undertones. I decided to try out warm colours, cool colours and a more neutral colour scheme for 3 of the earlier compositions to see what the effect was. I found that the cool and neutral colour schemes didn’t quite create the sense tension of tension with the neutral one being quite dull ad the cooler one being a bit too bright particularly in the background. I did really like the composition of that one the most out of the 3 so I decided to combine the warm tones with that composition for my final piece.

Final OutcomeThrough this developing this painting from research I definitely learnt a lot about how colour composition, and the use of materials can influence and create an atmosphere in a painting. I feel like I have a much better understanding of visual language because of this and will be able to use these techniques as a way to communicate ideas.

I also learnt a lot about painting skin tones and the undertones that appear in the skin depending on the light. I used the technique of a lot more subtle shading similar to how Lucian Freud’s work appears and I feel like this had a dramatic impact and I feel like this helped to make my work slightly less intense looking. This understanding of colour and lighting made it a lot easier when it came to mixing acrylic paints to create the perfect skin tones.

Year 1 Reflection Across the year there were a lot of assignments that I feel really benefited me as learning experiences. Overall I think the the kew gardens challenged me the most as it pushed me into areas of art that I had previously never explored. Although I had a lot o difficulty with time management and feeling a bit unsure in this project I really think it allowed me to explore new techniques and materials which I could possibly translate into other projects.

Overall I think the project that I enjoyed the most was the British Museum one. Through this project I was able to explore the pathway of graphic design a lot more in depth and gained more of an understanding of visual language. The brief also gave me an idea of how working for a professional client would work and the and the specifications and sometimes limitations that you have to work within. I definitely think that communicating ideas through visual qualities has become a strength of mine over the year.

I think for the future I still need to work on my time management skills a lot and spreading work over a period of days rather than trying to get things all done at once. I also think that experimenting more with materials would help my work a lot as I quite often found a material that I liked and stuck with it rather than looking for other alternatives.

Plans for the futureOver the course of the year I have definitely narrowed down my pathway into more of the digital side of art. This has progressed a lot over the year as previously I’d only really explored fine art as an option. I haven’t quite narrowed down which area of digital arts I want to pursue so one of the things I want to build on is exploring animation/motion graphics, digital illustration, possibly film/photography and continuing to grow my skills in graphic design. Over the course of last year I’ve taught myself how to use photoshop and the basics of illustrator so one of my aims for this year is to look at expanding my knowledge in digital programs, in particular adobe animate and premier pro.This year I’m going to be applying to both art foundation and university. I’ve been looking at the courses graphic deign, motion graphics, digital advertising and editing and post-production. Most of these courses require similar qualifications generally 3 A Levels with B or above but I still want to aim for distinction at least in all of my subjects. As these are all creative subjects they also require a strong portfolio demonstrating creative ideas and visual skills so I’m going to work on my online portfolio a lot and producing work that displays all of my skills. Most of these courses don’t require any previous knowledge of the specific programs used however I would still like to build on this in preparation so I can concentrate on my ideas rather than learning new programs from scratch.