Process Portfolio

Process Portfolio
Since I wanted to keep the recurring theme of a growing
content feeling and appreciation for home, I thought of
components of Mexican culture that would clearly illustrate
home. For this block print I decided that huaraches would be
that touch of culture in my piece considering that these
shoes have been a part of the people of Mexico for a long
time. These are made from old tires, something that can be
seen as already having a sense of life through the journey
that it has traveled. Huaraches are also handmade and
worn often worn by not only farm workers in Mexico but
Mexico’s people in general and to me this allows them to be
a representation of home and how I want people that see
me to know that I carry that journey of my family from
Mexico along with that aspect of knowing where I come from
and the aspect of home with me.
Since the primary factor of the pieces was meant to be the huaraches, in my
first sketch I decided to have a pair of huaraches hanging from a wall. At first I
did not think to have any other feature in the background of the piece but I had
to keep in mind the characteristics of Gauguin's prints. I also realized that I
having the shoes alone would be relying too much on letting the image speak
for itself. The following sketch includes only a pattern that is seen on
huaraches. However I again I realized that the artist inspiration did not show
through enough. Not only that but I thought the pattern would not be enough to
showcase the inspiration of the huaraches as it may not be immediately
recognized by the viewer. The final sketch has a pair of unrealistic limbs which
I thought correlated well with gauguin's tendency to exaggerate the human
body, I also included the monstera deliciosa plant as it not only helped
illustrate my theme but it also matched gauguin's admiration for nature.

In my other works I tend to use calla lilies as they symbolize

growth. I used them to show my growth in understanding
and appreciating my home in Mexico. I decided to
incorporate foliage, more specifically in this case, monstera
deliciosa plants, as they are native to Mexico and are very
large and together these factors exhibit how my home and
culture drape over me, the fact that I allow that shows the
comfort felt from this.
I started off by drawing the limbs and monsters delicious plants onto the linoleum
plate. Usually I would have drawn the desired image on a paper and transferred the
image onto the plate but in this case when I drew on the linoleum I quickly sketched
the image onto it without going into much detail since the image lacked extreme detail
to keep simple such as the way that Gauguin did his woodcuts. Afterwards I took out
the appropriate carving tools I would need to easily carve out large parts and tools that
would be small enough to dig into corners and began carving out the sections with the
largest parts that would essentially be white with a the wide tool to quicken the
process. While doing this I assured that I left about a millimeter or so of the linoleum
from the pencil marks so that I wouldn’t accidentally carving into that sections that
would eventually have the ink on them. After clearing out the large sections I switched
from the wide tool to a tool that was more narrow and I used it to begin carving out the
details of the image. After completing carving out the all the necessary part of the
linoleum I moved on to prepping for the actual prints. To set up my work station I
placed newspaper within the area to prevent ink from smudging everywhere and set
out all the necessary supplies which included speedball water soluble ink, paint
spatula, roller, ink tray and paper. I set the final carved out piece on the newspaper
and used to the paint spatula to take out the ink and set it on the ink tray. With the
roller I used it to capture ink on it and rolled it over the linoleum. After I believed that a
sufficient amount of ink was on the linoleum I placed a sheet of paper over the
linoleum and used a flat heavy object to transfer the ink onto the paper. ​
My artistic inspiration was the duo Tim Noble and Sue Webster whose work
consists of a combination of accumulating objects that are perceived as junk,
light, and shadows. They have a collection of found objects varying between
mementos from their travels to found thrown out trash. On the surface, their
works appear as peculiar piles of garbage but in a closer look we see that the
piles are actually meticulous fabrications that cast expressive shadows when a
light is shown behind it. Seemingly, Noble and Webster choose object that
reflect people’s most reckless actions. The casted silhouettes are ingenious
self-portraits and a representation of the role the artists have in the objects
within. These projections also serve to communicate how these piles of trash
are the result of people’s everyday and most thoughtless choices.
Progressively, Noble and Webster have collected undesirables from others
while seeing them as being intended for a greater use. Ultimately following the Noble, Tim, and Sue Webster. The Gamekeeper’s Gibbet.
2011, London.
phrase, “A man's junk is another man's treasure.” With these collectibles, they
would build figures made of piles of wrecked items, everyday waste, deceased
animals and so forth. Rather than seeing the items as complete trash, the duo
instead saw them as inspiration. These artistic transformations, from garbage
to abstract figures, bring out a new sense of a blunt reality and an aspiration
for advancements in the world.

To follow through with the work of Tim Noble and She Webster, I wanted to
replicate their abstract sculptures of rest led waste and proclamation for
advancements. I decided that I would use abandoned items that would
together symbolize home for me.throughout my household that have been Nobel, Tim, and Sue Webster. Self Imposed
stacked up in an attic and basement. Misery . 2010, London.
For the final product I wanted to there to be one shadow sculpture that will replicate the work of Tim Noble and Sue Webster. This piece
will contain items that represent me such as old toys from my childhood, interests I had as I grew up and things that I have used and am
interested in recent times. Due to the composition of the objects they will form my silhouette when a light is shined from behind.

When planning what the final piece would actually

be, I initially thought to use garbage to build the
sculpture but I remembered that Noble and Webster
insured that their material correlated with their
message so instead I decided to use discarded items
that had an attachments to home and my growth in
understanding and appreciating my home and
culture. I first planned to have not only the silhouette
of my facial side profile, but also the shadow of the
mountain of San Jose from Puebla, Mexico as it is a
point that holds a strong connection to home and my
culture. The second plan was to again have the
silhouette of my side profile while also having see
through glass, or any transparent item, so cast a
slight glow around the image. This was to show a
glorification of the items used to build the sculpture.
The final sketch includes only the silhouette of my
profile. I decided upon this final plan because
reflecting back to the work of Noble and Webster,
they only showed the silhouette of themselves
without any other of additions.
 First I took a picture of my silhouette so I had a guide for what to replicate with the
shadow. I started off by looking for and collecting abandoned items that have an
prominent connection to to my home in Mexico. While doing so I made sure to pay
attention to size as I needed to make sure that I had a fair amount of objects to fill out the
majority of my silhouette and items that would be small enough to serve as the facial
features. In the end I had collected items that all had there own story in connection to my
culture and home. As a base I placed an old gift box I received on a birthday while in
Mexico as a child. I then used a tea box, cup, film circles, CDs and a match box so fill out
large parts of the silhouette. When investigating the process that Noble and Webster go
through I noticed that they consistently have themselves stand against the wall to
compares silhouettes but in my case I used a similar tactic and used the image to
consistently look back to.

I then moved on to the hair as it was a much easier aspect to replicate with the light and shadow. To
do so I used an old traditional coin bag for the top and flowers for the braid and frizz on the top. I
decided to use the flowers as they were less tamable and would easily be as free flowing as the hair.
Next I used smaller old toys and mementos to have precise details on the features. At first I decided
against adding the shadow of the glasses as I thought it would difficult to find items with matching
shadows but eventually I decided to incorporate them with the stem of flowers.

When comparing the image of the silhouette and the silhouette made by the sculpture I noticed that
the forehead was far straighter than the original image since I had only used a photograph to shape it,
so I had to go back to add a slight curve. To finish off I once again used smaller items to shape out
the final features of the lips and nose.
All in all, the end result the first time around was satisfying with a small amount of
disappointment. I was satisfied with the way it looked but the way that it was
assembled worried me. The entire sculpture was put together using hot glue due to
being the most easily accessible and believing that since part of the purpose of the
piece is to have the surface appear messy so having the mess that comes from using
hot glue seemed to be the best correlation. However having used the hot glue worries
be as I it seemed that the piece would have fallen apart if moved to much so to fix the
issue I took apart some parts and attached them back together by using screws to
make the pieces more secure. Other parts I left alone with the hold of the hot glue as
they not only seemed sturdy but they also, as stated previously, added on to the
intended messy appearance. Regarding to the composition of the piece I am satisfied
enough to say that it is close to accurate in replicating my silhouette. In both the
process and theme I believe that I followed through in comparison to Tim Noble and
Sue Webster I’m the way that I replicated the assemblage, use of discarded items, and
aspiration for advancements.

When assembling the piece experimented with different angles and distances. During this process I encountered difficulties. I
consistently held up different objects in front of the light in different angles and distances to try to match the casted shadow to
the image of the silhouette. Often times I would find an object that casted a similar shadow but the scale would be off and
would only accurately match it when held at a distance to far from the sculpture. At times I would attempt to leave it at them at
distance and would hold up the object with mother base object but that would lead to the base object getting the way and
casting an unwanted shadow.
The artistic inspiration for this piece was Paul Gauguin. After Paul For this piece I was more specifically inspired by gauguin
Gauguin began to stray away from western artistic forms he Delightful Land. In this piece he recreated a moment where
adopted a new style in which his devotion was on synthetism and eve is in the presence of the serpent and the apple. For this
simplifying sensory factors to their basic fundamentals. Within his piece I wanted to take away Gauguin form of medium as
artwork one of paul gauguin’s most prominent factors within his woodcuts are similar to block prints. Another form of
works is his use of color in terms of how he utilized them for their inspiration was the limited color pallet, exotification
emotive qualities. Paul Gauguin usually used analogous colors to composition.
produce muted affects. His colors seemingly blended together
with the exception of his primary colors in which he would
intentionally assure that they would stand out with bright tones. In
all aspects of his art he would innovate and his techniques
evolved in different ways throughout his career. Eventually his
prime painting technique settled on him applying his paints
through broad brushstrokes and his finished figures were often
finalized with a bold dark colored outline which served to develop
seemingly abstract and flattened forms. He implemented large
forms to develop emphasis and he used valiant lines in order to
create contour.

One of the many mediums he explored were woodcuts. With this

medium Paul Gauguin still attempted to implement his tendencies
that he would apply in other mediums but due to the mediums
limiting character Paul Gauguin had to do some innovating. His
process included complex techniques and experiments. Gauguin, Paul. Delightful Land. 1993, Paris.
For this piece I wanted to since the point of the piece was to convey hardships that
come from something you love i first thought to represent that through a hand holding
a tuna fruit despite the needles poking it. In this case since the loved figure is home i
decided to use the cactus of tuna fruits because i thought that it would be a good
connection to my culture do to the story of how mexico became its home to its people.

the following sketch again utilized the same tuna fruit cactus but instead the only thing
on the sketch was the cactus itself. My intention was to emphasize the needles on the
tuna fruit by having them stand out by being one of the only parts that remain black.
After I settled on the sketch I liked best I began by drawing the cactus and hand on the
linoleum. When I drew on the linoleum I did it as a quick sketch of the main figure
without going into much detail but the sketchy lines and eventual smudges that
appeared made it hard for me to figure out what to carve out. Thus I realized that I
should have done a detailed drawing on a paper the same size as the linoleum and
transferred onto it. Afterwards I took out the carving tools I would need and began
carving out the sections with the largest parts that would essentially be white with a the
wide tool to quicken the process. While doing this I assured that I left about a
millimeter or so of the linoleum from the pencil marks so that I wouldn’t accidentally
carving into that sections that would eventually have the ink on them. After clearing out
the large sections I switched from the wide tool to a tool that was more narrow and I
used it to begin carving out the details of the image. After completing carving out the
all the necessary part of the linoleum I moved on to prepping for the actual prints. To
set up my work station I placed newspaper within the area to prevent ink from
smudging everywhere and set out all the necessary supplies. These supplies included
speedball water soluble ink, paint spatula, roller, ink tray and paper. I set the final
carved out piece on the newspaper and used to the paint spatula to take out the ink
and set it on the ink tray. With the roller I used it to capture ink on it and rolled it over
the linoleum. After I believed that a sufficient amount of ink was on the linoleum I
placed a sheet of paper over the linoleum and used a flat heavy object to transfer the
ink onto the paper. ​

The final piece I was unsatisfied with so I decided to redo the piece with a newly developed sketch but I
followed the same process.
When I drew on the linoleum I did it as a quick sketch of the main figure without going
into much detail but the sketchy lines and eventual smudges that appeared made it
hard for me to figure out what to carve out. Thus I realized that I should have done a
detailed drawing on a paper the same size as the linoleum and transferred onto it.

It took several trials in order for a decent one to finally come out. Within the trials I
realized that at times when the print came out faded it was due to pressing the paper
to the linoleum for too long to the point where it would lead to the ink to peel off the
paper and transfer back to the linoleum.

Also, around half way into making the prints I realized though my theme appeared to
evidently showing through, the result was not replicating the work of Paul Gauguin. I
eventually decided that I would change the print completely. I kept the concept of
holding holding the tuna fruit but rather than zooming into that part I would have a
whole figure that replicated the composition of Delightful Land.

After changing the appearance of the print I overall am pleased with the final piece as I
believe that I captured Paul Gauguin’s form of carving out the piece and I believe that I
did a decent job at understanding and being able to appropriately manipulate the
medium to an extent. Also I believe that my theme was decently expressed through
the final image. However the aftermath made me realize that I could have done more
manipulating and innovating with the medium the same way that Paul Gauguin has
done in his own prints.
My piece “Dismissal” draws inspiration from Norman Rockwell's Facts of life. Rockwell
soaked his works in heartwarming and touching situations that expressed playful or
solemn interactions between families or strangers. Despite cubism and minimalism
illuminating his era’s art appreciation Rockwell leaned towards sensible storytelling
through realistic aspects. Rockwell's piece was driven with the concept of a parent
telling his son about the aspects of life while the son sits in embarrassment. Looking
at the composition I realized that it joins with my idea of having a parent attempting to
tell their child of their cultural values and their history. I also appreciated his way of
being lively and giving a story through facial expressions and neighboring entities.
Through this I wanted to attempt to replicate his presentations of ideas by forging
magnified facial expressions and using the small things to depict my story.

Raphael, Isabelle. “Celebrate Father's Day with Norman

Rockwell.” Parade, Parade, 14 June 2013,
parade.com/18437/iraphael/celebrate-fathers-day-with-norman-ro
ckwell/#normanrockwellfathers_p1.

Another influence to the illustration was the Pachuco style in 1940’s Los
Angeles that began with the motivation of the Mexican-American youth.
Mexican-Americans developed the style as their own form of identity and
a protest for discrimination. The zoot suit is a major aspect of the Pachuco
style which consists of that widen at the knee and get tighter down the leg
with. The zoot suit also included a blazer that ends towards the knee. To
show a better shine of culture and history.
 Norman Rockwell was specific and thoughtful of his
compositions to accommodate his initial theme. Body
movement and facial expression were leading indications for his
overall concept Norman Rockwell’s Tattoo artist includes a
sailor with a somewhat smug expression looking over as a
tattoo artist crossing out presumably a past lovers name.
Seeing someone get a tattoo made me realize that this
continues to be done and is often used to express values. Thus,
I noticed that my concept of have a sense of appreciation would
connect with Rockwell’s work because I could incorporate it as
the sailor being an older version of the boy in my negative
illustration getting a tattoo that signifies how he has grown to
realize the virtue of his parents stories. ​
“Norman Rockwell: Behind the Camera.” Brooklyn Museum,
www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/norman_rockwell

Similar to to the negative piece, dismissal, I was not only inspired by the spot suit but I was also inspired by the roots of my
culture. Aztec enlightenment was something I wished to put in my illustration as part of the historical aspect. The Penachos, the
feathered headdress, stands out to be a principle component of the culture. I anticipated it to be necessary for me to use the
Penacho a the entirety of my aztec representation and make it stand out through its colors.
I began with sketches of how I wanted my illustration. My first
inspiration was Rockwell’s Freedom of fear, so I sketched the image
and changed the composition of the man's arm and the position of
the boy. As i brainstormed what I wanted to incorporate to bring out
my theme I wrote notes down along the way about how I wanted
certain things to look. The following sketch, I drew the notes on the
previous sketch and changed clothing of the man into a zoot suit
which is an aspect of the Pachuco style that I wanted to incorporate.
I also replaced the two boys sleeping soundly on the bed to a single
boy using his phone rather than listening to his parents who are
trying to tell him about their culture and history. The idea had
weaknesses such as that I wanted to illuminate the faces of the My final sketch was based on Rockwell's
parents and the child but did not succeed in placing it. Facts of Life this sketch kept the the
My next sketch was based on Facts of Life where I changed the the formations of the hands, changed the
facial expression of the boy, and the attire
facial expression of the boy from embarrassed to annoyed. At first i
of both figures. To bring out the aspect of
wanted the boy to be distracting himself in his phone while his father modernism I decided to have the boy
reached out to take it from him. However I thought that the dressed in contemporary apparel. Since
movement of it would propose a different theme to what I wanted. the prime detail of the illustration was the
The sketch also did not have many changes from Rockwell’s piece faces and the book cover i wanted to put
other than the facial expressions and the hand gestures. At first I forth emphasis by implying that there was
planned to replace the image in the left part of the background with a window in front of the figures that was
a picture of an aztec man or a what would presumably be a past illuminating the book cover and their
expressions. The final sketch was
relative wearing pachuco styles clothing. However since I wanted
satisfactory and I believed that it
the father to be wearing a zoot suit I realized that it would not be highlighted what I wanted to get across.
necessary to have a duplicate and instead I settled on having an
image of an aztec man on the cover of the book on the mans lap.
When looking at norman rockwell's tattoo artist I connected it to
continuous actions of getting tattoos. Tattoos are a symbol for an
abundant of things, and I decided to use it as an expression for
appreciation. Looking at Rockwell’s piece I took in the sailors glance
at first I wanted to show a pained expression but after some
consideration I thought that in order to enhance the sense of
appreciation I should change the expression to one of satisfaction
rather than pained. To show a link within the illustration I decided to
use the same aztec figure on the book cover of my piece “dismissal”
as the tattoo for this illustration. To further the historical concept of
the illustration I decided to keep the tattoo artist old-fashioned and
have him wear a zoot suit the way the father is in my piece
“Dismissal.” I also wanted to show the book cover of that is see in
the negative illustration but in the end I decided against it
For Dismissal I began with drawing the final sketch onto the board and started from
bottom to up starting with the shoes. However as I moved upwards and began coloring
the ankles of the boy I noticed that the tones were off and it did not appear to be a
smooth transition but the blending of the skin tones of the man had an evident
improvement. Onward, I began with the bottom half of the figure’s attire. Within the
process of creating the folds on the pants I thought that they were in accurate areas
but looking at references I noticed that the folds have a darker and a lighter side. But
since the pants were black I could not create the darker part of the folds. I also wanted
to imply that there was a window in front of them so that the light would spill onto the
faces of the figures to emphasize their expressions so part I had part of the light fall
onto the knees of the boy’s pants. I completed the blazer of the man but the same
issue with the boys pants occurred with the wrinkles so I went back and added
highlights and shadows. I also noticed that the lines of the color pencil were evident
and I also went over it to smooth over. I moved upward and completed the hair of both
figures.I completed the rest of the clothing for both figures and lightened parts of the
clothing to show the light leaking from a window in front of them. After completing the
clothing I colored the arms and faces. I practiced coloring skin tones beforehand and
the result of the figures was decent. The coloring appeared to be slightly rough but
there was full coverage. When the entirety of both figures was completely covered I
moved on to the background and the floor. I wanted to have the same carpet pattern
that was in Rockwell’s original piece but when it was completed the two colors that I
used were very similar and a difference between them was difficult to depict so I went
over again with the darkest of the two shades.
For Gratitude i drew the outline of the figures and objects of I then finally filled in the skin tones for the figure being
the piece. When I was assured that everything was how I
tattooed and after multiple attempts i finally made the
planned for it to be I began coloring with prismacolor
pencils. I started from the bottom up and first filled out the blending decent. During the first attempt I colored over the
chair since I thought coloring in the metal part of the chair surface with a minimal amount of pressure and colored
would be difficult. However, I managed to do a good job but over it with white but the outcome made the skin look
I i would have added more white to show better light lighter than what I intended. I then erased the area and
reflection. I continued with the pants and shoes of both
figures and added a jean jacket on the lap of the figure
again used a minimum amount of pressure to color the skin
getting a tattoo instead of following through with my first tones and lightly went over it with a peach color to fill in the
intention which was have the figure hold the book that is white spots and to make the tones blend smoothly but the
seen the negative illustration. At first my form of adding peach color made the skin look orange. Still not satisfied
highlights to the clothing was by starting with a solid color
with the outcome I decided to go over it with the mid tone
and and lessening the pressure of the pencil when
reaching the intended highlight but the method changed to color and the result were better that the first two attempts. ​
simply going back and gently erasing the
areas. ​Afterwards, I started coloring the skin tones of the
tattoo artist and the hair of both figures. To get the buzz cut
effect I colored in with black with a minimum amount of
pressure on the pencil. I decided to place the tattoo, which
is a man wearing a headdress from the aztec culture, first
before doing the skin tones of the figure because I noticed
that if I were to put the skin tone first and then put the
colors of the Penacho it would lighten the colors. I also
decided to color the tattoo on first because the colors would
appear to blend together if I would have colored the skin
My attempts of replicating Norman Rockwell’s detail and composition in Facts of Life
was decent due to putting forth the best of my ability into the realistic details of my
piece. In comparison to Rockwell’s work I believe that I have met his playful mood and
way of storytelling. Improvements can be installed within the skin tones because the
colors appear streaky and rough. I could have practiced more with blending rather than
focusing most of my attention on colors. Another improvement that could be placed is
adding more definition to the clothing, specifically the zoot suit. Some challenges I
faced was ensuring a smooth transition within blending. I noticed that when I
overlapped colors, the color I was putting on top would scrape off parts of the bottom
color. However, despite the obstacles and errors there were successes such as
managing to put a sufficient amount of close details.

The overall outcome of my illustration was satisfactory because of the decision I made
to depict my theme of coming to a sense of appreciation for the significance of one’s
culture. One of the parts of the piece that I am content with is how the expression on
the figures face matched the dash of playfulness that Norman Rockwell uses in his
work. I also am glad to that I did a fair job in blending skin tones but I know I can
improve because there were remaining white spots. Despite the metal part of the chair
being an almost insignificant factor of the piece, I am appeased but the outcome. I also
would improve the appearance and add more shadows and highlight to give it the
realistic clothing appearance. My intention of keeping the tattoo artist old fashioned
could have been enhanced by hinting more at the pachuco style rather than only
utilizing the pants as the representation. ​
Paul Gauguin, a post-impressionist artist, is generally appreciated for
his experimentation in color and synthetic to style. At a point in his
life he moved to the island of Tahiti after realizing that western
culture no longer gave him the spark of inspiration that he wanted.
While in Tahiti he painted an abundant of pieces all which exhibited
the tradition and culture that he witnessed and admired. Many of his
paintings exemplify the most genuine parts he saw including Tahitian
people dressed in traditional clothing and landscapes in the
background. Many of his paintings exemplify the most genuine parts
he saw including Tahitian people dressed in traditional clothing and
landscapes in the background. Through his work his merges
everyday cultural appreciation and observation with transcendental
symbolism. Gauguin simplifies the form of figures but manages to
make them stand out through enhanced skin tones. to His styles
consists of piling colors on top of one another. While analyzing his
work i noticed that he most likely put the base color of his figures and
added a variety of other colors in long brush strokes while the paint
was still wet. His simplification and technique is what I strive to Gauguin, Paul. Arearea. 1892, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
imitate.
For the first sketch I wanted to show something that I held onto and shaped me to how
I am now. The house I grew up in were influential so I decided to add that as the
background while I used an image of my brother and I as children at a distance to the
side. But afterwards I decided to keep the figures close up because reflecting back to
Gauguin's general paintings, he tends to keep people intimate to the viewer, thus
rather than I keeping them to a distance I placed them closer but remaining to the side.
I used a really simple landscape background. Exaggerated colors and simplified forms
are two characteristics of Gauguin's style that I want to mimic and I planned to do that
by using warm greens and yellows for the grass, a variety of oranges and browns for
the house and loose and overly organic shapes for the figures. For the following sketch
I kept thinking about the landscapes that Gauguin frequently painted and incorporated
in the background of his pieces. With that in mind I thought about using the hill of San
Miguel in Puebla Mexico. The Hill is a significant spot in Puebla and it played a role in
learning about my culture as a child. I also included an old image of my mother and I
when I was younger. Just like the previous sketch I knew I wanted to use the
exaggerated colors and simple forms so I did not put much detail into the figures. For
coloration, again, I planned to use light greens and yellow for the landscape and bright
yellows and orange for the clothing.
For the third and final sketch I knew I wanted it to be the piece that tied all three
together. In the beginning I planned to have myself as am I am now so I decided that I
would have myself seemingly reflecting back on the concepts from the first two pieces.
To have all the pieces connect further I would have each scene outside while also
using the same color palette.
After gessoing all three canvases I sketched out the prime figures and background of each panel. For the first panel I drew the image of my
mother and I and drew the hill of San Miguel in the background. Because Gauguin simplifies the figures that he uses when painting I
assured that the figures of my mother and I were not as stiff and more loose and simplified. While doing so, I also made sure to simply the
facial features as well. My reasoning for having the people close up rather than to a distance is because some of Gauguin's portraits are
close up with the intention of showcasing a more intimate feeling and I believed that by doing so I would enhance the idea of this particular
scene being valuable to me. Also since one of Gauguin features that I wanted to mimic was his color palette, I made sure that most of the
colors I planned to use were warm colors. For the first piece, I knew that Gauguin's style of blending was not traditional so I attempted to
follow through with his technique of piling colors onto one another his habit of incorporating landscapes I specifically placed the mountain of
San Miguel from Puebla, Mexico.

The next panel was the portrait of myself and just as I did in the first
panel, I reduced the detail of the figure to make it more free flowing
and simplified. In terms of coloration I used exaggerated skin tones
and began applying the paint. To accomplish his style I started with
applying the mid tone first and letting it sit until it was nearly dry and I
piled on highlights and shadows and let the paint naturally blend on
its own while the paint was semi-wet. I noticed that gauguin did not
directly use black for extremely dark colors but instead usually used
dark blue when dealing with black or brown. This is especially seen in
the hair that he paints so I applied a small amount of black paint so
that the piled on blue paint would remain a bit noticeable. I repeated
the same thing on the bark of trees. Because I wanted this panel to
show myself reflecting on the other two panels I didn’t want there to
be such a significant background so after finishing the figure I then
moved to the rest of the canvas in which I used a variety of greens
and yellows to form a simple landscape. ​
The inspiration for this piece was the work or Gerald Lovell. Gerald Lovell is an artist in
Atlanta uses the impasto painting technique and uses layers upon layers of oil paint in
order to give depth and texture to his figures creating emphasis to his subject. His
technique involves having the strokes visible and the different strokes can be
distinguished. He reserves the technique for the skin of the subject of his work to
contrast against the simple background While the clothes and background of his
portraits are painted with smoothed paint, the facial features aren’t lost with the
layering of paint for the skin but rather they are enhanced. The eyes pop and give the
subjects their humanity. He makes the ordinary extraordinary by layering the paint onto
canvas to paint flesh that pops
His drive to painting and his following through with his chosen technique is his decision
to paint as a documenter meaning that he paints a moment in any given situation
wanting to capture a brief pause in a story and he believes that painting in a form of
three dimensions best helps shine through his narrative. He states that his ordinary
lived life is his window through which he observes the subject matter of his work.
Lovell paints the figure of his work with thick layers of paint and develops texture to
create emphasis as the painting physically comes out towards the audience. He also
tends to paint up close and personal portraits of people to that the audience has a face
to face moment with the piece, once again, to have the attention of the audience is his
focal point.
He states, “Subjectively, my interactions and my reaction to things as I experience
them bring life to the art. Objectively, the subtle qualities of my experience are
preserved when I don’t “break the fourth wall”, so to speak.” He paints as a
documenter and believes that a script takes away from the reality of his narrative .
Lovell, Gerald. Yahteer Drayton . 2018, The Gallery by Wish, Atlanta.
In order to allow the content mood that I wanted to
show through I decided on a seemingly relaxed pose. I
also immediately knew that to replicate Lovell’s style I
would have to center my primary figure and have it
more towards the foreground in comparison to
anything else. These two aspects were the beginning
drive for these sketches.For the first sketch I started
out by sketching the figure in a relaxed pose right in
the middle. At first I wanted to the only feature in the
piece to be the figure such as the way the libel often
does however only having a relaxed pose would not
fully push through my theme of appreciation of home.
Thus, I added in subtle aspects that would be
seemingly cut off of a picture to capture the narrative of
a situation. Those subtle aspects were a plant and tuna
fruits since those are recurring points in my pieces that
serve to play the role of home and growth. I also
planned to have the background a less eye catching
color and instead wanted to put noticeable colors on
those subtle aspects.
The following sketch includes the same composition.
Instead there was more incorporated into the
surroundings. The composition was also different
because the pose in this sketch was the figure looking
upwards rather than eye to eye with the viewer but the
mood of the pose was still content and relaxed. Also in
this sketch I had planned to using the Gerald Lovell’s
impasto style not only in the skin of the figure but also
the most important background details that would pull
out my theme. The third sketch slightly strayed away
from the originally planned composition and instead
drew out the figure further away from the viewer while
it would have been in the middle of a scenery.
However after some thoughtful consideration I realized
that if I were to paint the figure further back due to it
becoming smaller it would be harder to input details
and the details would get lost with the impasto style.
Finally I decided that I would use the first sketch since
it replicated the central and up close composition of the
figure, the simplistic background and surroundings.
Also this sketch would be easier to not lose details
when applying the paint.
 I then went in with black acrylic paint to paint the hair. However
while I was painting with the oil paint the paint at times went
beyond the faint drawing lines of the face. Knowing that if I put
I began by painting the background in different grey tones and after the acrylic over oil the paint would crack and in order to prevent it
paint dried I drew the basics of the figure. from mixing with the each other again I used a pallet knife to
I then got white acrylic paint and kept the same pigment from straight out of carefully scrape off some of the paint that went past the edges
the container and applied it to the shirt area. Usually when painting clothing and then went in with the black acrylic paint. After I was done with
I would leave a bit of the area with shadows untouched but when applying the entire figure I compared it to the work of Gerald Lovell and
the paint I did not worry about folds or shadows. noted that the composition of the piece was a replica of his work
Considering the technique that Gerald Lovell would use other than the along with the dull background to create emphasis on the focal
technique used on his figures I decided to mimic that but with acrylic paint. point. The use of thick layers of paint was decently mimicked.
Before the white paint could completely dry, I went in with a small amount However, despite all I realized that I relied too much on the pose
of a light grey color and quickly applied it onto the white paint. For more of the figure to express the theme and decided to add to the
prominent shadows I went in with a darker tone. I did not want the white background to not only have an empty grey background. Then I
paint to be dry so that the grey paint could easily blend in with the white went in and painted the a table that would be cut off from the
and could have visible brush strokes. In comparison to the technique of frame with tuna fruits on it and a small plant in the background
Gerald Lovell. I believe that I did a decent job mimicking his technique but
using acrylic paint instead of oil causes it to appear less thick and textured.
I then took the time to switch to oil paint and create different skin tones with
a pallet knife and using the colors brown, red, yellow, white and black. I
also set out napkins to clean the pallet knife after each appliance.
When applying the paint, I used the pallet knife by picking up enough paint
and layering it onto the canvas. Referring back to the work of Lovell I made
sure to apply the lighter tones onto the canvas first followed by the darker
tones. Whenever I did not apply a sufficient amount of paint the paint I had
just applied would mix with the paint next to or below it which did not allow
a distinguishment between the two. So to fix the issue I would use a pallet
knife to scrape off the paint and remix it then reapply it.