Skyline

Skyline: an outline of a subject such as buildings defined against the sky. I was fascinated by doing this theme because it made me more aware of the buildings and the landscape around me. I wanted to do something different than drawing or painting an ordinary 'skyline'. This blog shows my progress of how I found my technique and developed into my final piece. When carrying on reading, it presents a quick short summary of my blog;

I was walking outside - when I saw a building which defined skylines. Abruptly I took a picture of the building. Then I used these pictures to help me experiment different ways of presenting ‘skylines’. 

When researching for ideas and inspirations I did some research and discovered a man named Michael Tompsett. Michael Tompsett had been experimenting with a particular painting - using different subject matters, such as portraits and landmarks. It got him thinking about other ways in which maps could be presented (in different - provoking ways). He then found the process extremely interesting and fulfilling, and realized that he had found his niche. He created a positive space of buildings creating a beautiful, colourful skyline.

  

Following Michael Tompsett’s art style I decided to also look in positive space in buildings, and do more experiments - hopping to find my own technique. When coming back from the New York trip I decided to experiment with negative spaces as well as positive spaces.

Finally, going to the New York trip helped me because I was able to experience beautiful landscapes and take beautiful pictures of buildings and sky scrapers, creating a nice skyline for my theme. Whilst going on my trip I made sure my pictures matched the pictures of one of my three main artists which are photographers.

Stephen Wiltshire is known for his ability to draw a landscape from memory after seeing it just once. I decided to try and draw from memory when looking at the pictures I took from New York.

After doing a lot of Stephen Wiltshire techniques and his way of art, I tried doing different things resolving to layer buildings over each other. I decided layering buildings over each other made it look interesting and alive as it reminded me of a movie I watched recently which was “inception.”

After coming back from New York I decided to do a lot of experiments with different colours and trying out different ways to make skylines interesting. Instead of an ordinary image of a skyline I started cutting out stencils and looking at positive and negative space following Michael’s technique.

I started looking back at the pictures I took in New York and tried experimenting with paint even though my artist was a photographer (Ansel Easton Adams). I also started drawing buildings with ink - from the photographs I took in Ney York - to give it a different impression and style.

After repeatedly experimenting, I finally found my own technique within one of my paintings. I decided to zoom in and tried identifying any small mistakes. The technique I found was interesting to me. I decided this technique was what stood out because even though it looked like an ordinary abstract it still reminded of clouds.

 

I went to another trip which was the London trip. When going there I was able to visit the exhibitions and live theatres. The live theatrical stage was something interesting which I talked about in the blog. I was able to see a lot of skylines and beautiful buildings which was an inspiration for my final piece.

I found stickers lying on the floor in my bedroom, and was very fascinated by the way it was designed. The next image shows a clear image on how it supposed to look like. The artist makes the image pop out by using a sponge or carton etcetera. This then made me do research. Eventually, I came upon artists adding decoupage into my work.

Example from of Decoupage

 

Movie that inspired me creating an illusion in my piece

  Going back to some of my experiments - saying how it reminded me of the recent movie I watched. I realised the movie was all focused on elusion on what is real and what is not. This inspired me into making buildings faded from within the abstract but still able of seeing the buildings outline connoting “skyline.”

 

Going through some of the inspired pieces I found in New York, I also learnt that the artist are related into pop ups, which intrigued me into doing decoupage.

 

Mental image or mental picture is the representation in a person's mind of the physical world outside of that person. After watching Inception I decided to do a little research of the word I heard in the movie “mental imagery.” This also inspired me into creating an illusion in my pieces.

 

 

After all the inspirations (and finding my own technique) I decided to follow one of the artists – Alexander - (who cuts an image from a story and turns it into a decoupage). I loved how my piece looked, because the skylines are still visible in the illusion created by my own abstract.

After all my refinement and adding everything that inspired me (movies,illusions etc), I decided to create my work on a black cardboard and created this final piece.

Final Piece Evaluation and Development

 

7/04/2017- 09:56

Firstly, I looked at all the pictures I took from the London and New York’ trip. I drew buildings so that I could relate to mental imagery and skylines representing the memories I have from the marvellous trips I went on. The important thing was that I did not use all the buildings in the photographs so as to accurately represent a memory as memories are never perfectly exact. Furthermore, I drew famous buildings such as; The Empire state, the statue of Liberty, Big ben etcetera. When drawing the buildings I made sure that some were drawn from a low camera angled shot- inspired by the photographer I am studying, Ansel Easton.

 

7/04/2017- 10:05

To begin with, I cut out buildings from an A1 piece of cardboard and laid them out unto another A1 piece of black cardboard. When doing the layering process, I made sure that the tallest buildings were separated from each other on the page, so that the shapes look balanced on the cardboard. Also, I made sure that the shapes did not touch each other.

 

24/04/2017- 11:22

To begin with, I cut out buildings from an A1 piece of cardboard and laid them out unto another A1 piece of black cardboard. When doing the layering process, I made sure that the tallest buildings were separated from each other on the page, so that the shapes look balanced on the cardboard. Also, I made sure that the shapes did not touch each other.

I then started creating a decoupage by layering cardboard on top of each other. I used a glue gun to stick the cardboard together overlapping more than five cardboards.

25/04/2017- 15:13

To begin with, I cut out buildings from an A1 piece of cardboard and laid them out unto another A1 piece of black cardboard. When doing the layering process, I made sure that the tallest buildings were separated from each other on the page, so that the shapes look balanced on the cardboard. Also, I made sure that the shapes did not touch each other.

I then started creating a decoupage by layering cardboard on top of each other. I used a glue gun to stick the cardboard together overlapping more than five cardboards.

 Learning from my refinements I wrote about in my blog posts, I started painting with white acrylic unto the cardboard before painting my technique on top of this in blue acrylic.

 

25/04/2017- 15:28

To begin with, I cut out buildings from an A1 piece of cardboard and laid them out unto another A1 piece of black cardboard. When doing the layering process, I made sure that the tallest buildings were separated from each other on the page, so that the shapes look balanced on the cardboard. Also, I made sure that the shapes did not touch each other.

 then started creating a decoupage by layering cardboard on top of each other. I used a glue gun to stick the cardboard together overlapping more than five cardboards.

Learning from my refinements I wrote about in my blog posts, I started painting with white acrylic unto the cardboard before painting my technique on top of this in blue acrylic.

 

When painting my technique unto the cardboard statue of liberty I struggled. The reason for this is because the shape kept moving out of place making it hard for me to paint over it (the other shapes moved around too). To overcome this challenge, I stuck the shapes unto the cardboard so that it would be easier for me to paint on them.

 

25/04/2017- 15:54
I decided to layer my technique unto the cardboard touching most areas of the piece in order for it to look busier.

 

25/04/2017- 16:11

I then used black thread and dipped it into white paint. After learning from refinement eight, I decided to flick the thread unto the page for my final piece. I then dipped the thread into blue paint and flicked it onto the cardboard.

 

25/04/2017- 16:11

I then used black thread and dipped it into white paint. After learning from refinement eight, I decided to flick the thread unto the page for my final piece. I then dipped the thread into blue paint and flicked it onto the cardboard.

 

 

25/04/2017- 16:22

When using the sponge technique, I dipped it into the water first before dipping it in the blue paint. I then poured some water unto the cardboard creating a fluid texture.

 

25/04/2017- 16:36

Finally, after I filled most of the space on my abstract, I applied dust from white chalk unto the piece creating a fantasy atmosphere in the abstract.

 

24/04/2017- 14:49

I painted the cardboard that created the decoupage black. I realized that the black camouflaged very well with the background of my cardboard. This was an excellent result but I wanted the viewers to see the construction of the piece as much as I wanted the decoupage to be camouflaged (I explained why I wanted the construction of my piece to be seen in one of my refinements).

26/04/2017- 09:46

-          Using chalk to exaggerate the painting.

 

26/04/2017- 10:07

When I finished with my abstract, I started sticking acetate over some buildings and drew over other buildings in pencil. Drawing with a pen did not stand out as much as drawing with pencil on black cardboard- this is because the lead in the pencil comes out as grey which is obviously lighter than the colour of the cardboard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluation:

In my opinion, I believe my final piece was very successful as I have achieved all of the goals that I endeavoured to achieve in this piece. When looking at this piece, you can see some of the buildings -mostly the church- camouflaged into the background. I thought that was one of the most interesting things about this piece because the piece differs depending on the angle you look at the piece from therefore creating an illusion in your mind. This reminds me of the movie “inception” as the buildings look as if they are spinning around. This connotes a dream like I explained in my refinements. I really liked the sponge technique I used because if you zoom close to one of the buildings, for example the “Big Ben,” the way I controlled the sponge created interesting shapes that look like spirals. For this reason, and others too, when looking closely at this piece there will always be an interesting abstract seen. I think the black cardboard went very well with my piece because it made the colours from my technique and abstract stand out. A white background is too bright to ignore, but using a black background diverts all attention off the background and to the painting on it. I would have preferred to use a bigger piece of cardboard so that the painting is clearer and more of my abstract can be seen- this creates even more effective moods for a viewer. Furthermore, I used the colour blue and black because the two colours coordinate together creating a dreamy effect. Also, the black background showed that the memories were vague.

The Movie That Inspired Me in Creating My Decoupage Piece

When watching the movie “Inception” I was fascinated by the story line, cinematography, music and CGI.

What I really like is how the main characters were able to travel in “class three,”- meaning jumping into someone’s dream and from that into another dream and within that another dream. The way the dreams were constructed was amazing. The characters have a device where they can create anything in the dream and live in that dream. The consequence of this was that you would question yourself if you were “in a dream right now” or “reality.” The fact that they have the power to imagine whatever they want to create, like buildings, and things that challenged the ordinary connected to my research about mental imagery. Unlike reality, in the movie they are living in a dream and creating their mental images like the exact copy of the real object. When the characters create an image, the buildings or what they are trying to create always twirls around first. This is where I came across the idea of layering my buildings around a piece instead of them just layered straight- like they should be. After watching the end of the movie, I realized that the movie was all about a precious memory that the main character did not want to let go of. This then gave me the idea to research “mental imagery.” We imagine images in our mind that we believe are precise images but scientists say that “we create false images in our mind” that are very similar to reality. The movie inspired me to create a decoupage because when the characters create a whole new world everything moves in front of them; as part of the audience, I felt like the buildings come out of the screen.

 

Summary of the movie:

[1] Dom Cobb (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a thief with the rare ability to enter people's dreams and steal their secrets from their subconscious. His skill has made him a hot commodity in the world of corporate espionage but has also cost him everything he loves. Cobb gets a chance at redemption when he is offered a seemingly impossible task: Plant an idea in someone's mind. If he succeeds, it will be the perfect crime, but a dangerous enemy anticipates Cobb's every move.

[1]http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/plotsummary

TWELFTH REFINEMENT

---Materials: a crafting knife, white cardboard, a bunch of glittery thread, cardboard, black sand paper, a cutting mat, a sponge, a paint brush, tracing paper, a pen, blue, white, black and red acrylic.

>My aim today is to do the same thing that I did for the “eleventh refinement” but on cardboard covered in black sand paper. I have tried using a black background before- in my “second refinement”- but it did not work. I am thinking the cause of that was because I used black acrylic instead of a plain black background. When painting black acrylic onto a material it leaves brush marks which blends in with the piece.

 

 

black thread used to create the background.

I followed the same method I used for my previous piece but this time using less black as the background is already black. When adding the glitter strands over the piece I made a mistake and flicked it accidentally on the page not knowing it made a mark. However, this is the mark I endeavored to create from the beginning so I decided to flick the strands unto the page again to create a nice line.

I thought this was really successful. The reason for this is because the black really made my technique and the abstract stand out. The blue and the black background was a perfect match as it created a dreamy effect like in my second refinement. The sponge technique that I used was beautiful on the black background. I also liked the form of the piece as it is rectangular compared to the previous refinement (square). Because the shape of the piece is now longer, I added more buildings which created a busy decoupage. What I did not like in this piece is that the buildings stood out too much and are not camouflaged into the abstract. The reason for this is because I used sand paper instead of using black cardboard. When I used sand paper you could see where I had cut out the buildings because I stuck the sand paper over the cardboard whereas if you use a naturally cardboard, you would not see where the buildings have been cut.

FINAL PIECE

I have finally decided to use this as my final piece. I will buy two big cardboards in an A1 size and use all my previous resources and methods to create the decoupage technique on a bigger scale.

ELEVENTH REFINEMENT

---Materials: a crafting knife, white cardboard, a bunch of glitter strands, cardboard, a cutting mat, a sponge, a paint brush, tracing paper, a pen, blue, white, black and red acrylic.

>My aim today is to do my abstract piece on a larger scale than my sketchbook and make the decoupage expressive by layering repeatedly. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Firstly, I took two cardboards and started cutting out buildings. I took one of the cardboard pieces and started drawing the outline of the buildings. When drawing the buildings I made sure they were popular buildings from either New York or London. I then added my technique before applying the abstract with a sponge. I made sure that I added a lot of black and blue paint around some of the abstract following what I did in my ninth refinement. I then started drawing over the cut-out buildings and made sure I left some spaces in my drawing “to look as if the buildings are vanishing within the abstract.” I used normal acetate instead of the transfer technique for just one of the buildings because I do not want many buildings to be clearly seen. I then started doing the decoupage technique, following Alexander Korzer-Robinson’s technique, and I layered cardboards on top of other cardboards. Finally, to add some final touches to my piece I used a sponge and covered some of the white spaces in the background in blue to make the building more camouflage. I then added some paint over the acetate so that it could blend in with the painting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How is My Work Related or Similar to Alexander Korzer-Robinson?

Our work is really similar to each other’s because we both layer materials to create a story- in my case buildings pop out of the painting. Our pieces are similar because we make a story come to life by layering a lot; Alexander and I only use one to five layers of a material to create a story. Using my way of creating a decoupage is more interesting in this type of piece because the distance of the buildings trick your mind’s way of thinking- linking to “mental imagery.” I also like that you are able to see the layering behind the building when looking at the painting from a different. In Alexander’s case, it would be hard to see how he created the decoupage because the material he uses makes his buildings not to “pop out” as much. When looking at how I created the decoupage, it reminded me of New York.  The decoupage reminded me of when I entered the lift and saw how the empire state building was built on a video on the ceiling. I think leaving this visible construction in my piece would be a good idea as you can relate to images in your mind and how we create a memory (by joining pieces of a memory you can remember) and at the same time the construction of buildings.

I thought the piece looked very interesting as the buildings stood out of the painting very well rather than being flat on my sketchbook. I also really liked how some of the buildings, for example Big Ben, are camouflaged into the paintings which worked really well. The idea of adding my technique first before the abstract painting was a brilliant idea as I knew exactly how much space I had left and could figure out where I wanted to paint the abstract. Although I do not want some of the buildings to be camouflaged, so that the skyline is still visible, I still want more than two buildings to be camouflaged. To do this I will have to look carefully at the background and the buildings and make sure the background is filled with paint and there are no blank spaces left. I realized after “refinement ten” that the cut-out buildings left shadows behind them, which was interesting to see when standing close to the work. For my twelfth refinement, I am going to take onboard what I endeavour to change and do so but on a black background.