FIRST REFINEMENT

--- Materials:  a crafting knife, Pages from sketchbook, a sponge, a paint brush, a cutting mat, blue and white acrylic, blue charcoal, blue and black ink, a fountain pen and white charcoal dust.

>My aim today is to refine my first experimented piece by making a new abstract similar to my first experiment as my first refinement. I am going to go through the same phase of creating the abstract and the buildings but instead, this time, I am going to use ink and a fountain pen to draw lines unto the abstract. This is because I wanted the abstract to have looked different and more intriguing- as I believe having lines make a piece of art more interesting.  I am also going to paint the abstract unto the background so that the buildings become even more camouflaged into the painting.

 

I started by adding my blue abstract (using the sponge) onto the fourth page representing the background. This was so that the background was not too basic and plain. This was quite challenging because I did not want the colour on the background to be too dark as the abstract going over the background obviously had to be visible. After going through the same stages as my first experiment, I decided to add random lines into the abstract whilst making sure the lines followed the outline of my technique. Firstly, I decided to add, unto my abstract, lines in black and blue ink. After adding the lines, I started getting a little expressive with them by making them come out of the cloudy abstract and out of the actual painting. When using the sponge, I tried to add some black paint, using the hard part of the sponge, unto the black line already in the abstract.

Finally finishing the piece, I realised that the lines that I drew made the building look even more camouflaged because the lines brought all the cut-out buildings together as if there were no buildings to be seen in the abstract. In my opinion, putting the abstract piece on the background, instead of on the other pieces of paper, made my work more effective in comparison to the first piece I did. This is because the buildings and the sky are then made very hard to spot which is interesting for viewers when they do spot buildings. This also therefore makes the piece an illusion. I really liked the idea of the skyline and architecture disappearing into the abstract which meant that the piece could be seen in different views creating an atmospheric perspective. This has been my aim since I started abstract -to create an illusion making the viewers’ look carefully at the construction of the image or outline of an image. When comparing my refined piece to the original piece, I noticed that putting my technique in particular spaces was important as it created the rule of thirds. I enjoyed the idea of controlling the viewer’s eyes on what they see first flowing from section to section in the painting almost like an adventure or a path. In my opinion, what did not work too well in this painting were the lines I added. Overall, the lines make the abstract look too busy and over expressive. My technique was used a lot in this abstract making the rule of thirds hard to see as- at a first glance- I seemed to really concentrate on the left side of the painting because I realised that the colour there is darker than the right side so it therefore caught the viewers’ attention. To improve this refinement, I would remove the lines and stick with my normal technique- so that it is not overly expressive. I am also going to try adding a black background instead of a normal abstract background and compare the two to see the difference between my second and first refinement.

FINAL PIECE

I am thinking of continuing to improve this abstract and refine it as; this is something I would strongly like to present for my final piece. The reason for this is because it connects with people personally as everyone is involved with mental imagery. This is also relatable to me because of the colours used. The colour blue symbolises peace, however the colour black is also used in this piece. The colour black makes it look as if the darkness is either overcoming the light or the lightness is overcoming the dark. This is because the colour black is small in proportion to the amount of blue used so the emotion could either be growing or shrinking. Furthermore, the shapes used for the abstract look as if something exploded; explosion is normally a connotation of something negative which I paint in blue- something positive. This creates an oxymoron of different connotations.