Title: Hummingbirds Can be Terrifying
Size: 65 cm x 45 cm Medium: Colored Pencil Completion: November 2022 - Exhibition Text-
'Hummingbirds Can be Terrifying' is a self made portraiture piece using only white and grey colored pencil on a piece of black tagbord. It is inspired by the work of contemporary Swedish artist, Markus Åkesson, who often included symbols of the hummingbird moth in his artwork. As the hummingbird moth is a symbol of personal growth and aspirations, this piece is meant to represent feeling scared by entering a new chapter in your life, and uncertainty in what comes next.
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- Inspiration -
Artist in focus: Markus Åkesson
Markus Åkesson is a Swedish artist that specializes in glass engraving and realistic oil portraits. His series of work 'The Woods' features mostly children, contrasting the almost completely black background. I found this series of paintings by Åkesson because of his inclusion of moths- specifically the hummingbird moth- in several of the pieces. The symbolism of the hummingbird moth was something that I wanted to include in my own piece. Åkessons portraits feature incredibly high contrast, with very dark shadows and bright highlights on the face, as well as a balanced saturation that brings color and life to his art. He uses somewhat of a vignette effect in his portraits, with the face of the subject being the brightest part and everything else slightly darker or less contrasted in comparison.
Markus Åkesson is a Swedish artist that specializes in glass engraving and realistic oil portraits. His series of work 'The Woods' features mostly children, contrasting the almost completely black background. I found this series of paintings by Åkesson because of his inclusion of moths- specifically the hummingbird moth- in several of the pieces. The symbolism of the hummingbird moth was something that I wanted to include in my own piece. Åkessons portraits feature incredibly high contrast, with very dark shadows and bright highlights on the face, as well as a balanced saturation that brings color and life to his art. He uses somewhat of a vignette effect in his portraits, with the face of the subject being the brightest part and everything else slightly darker or less contrasted in comparison.
- Process -
The first step in my process was to plan out my piece. I based my planning process around the inclusion of the hummingbird moth- something that I read about after one landed on me. The hummingbird moth is a symbol of dreams, aspirations, and personal growth. I knew that I did want this to be a self portrait, and so I planned to use a friend of mine as a model. I wanted the model to be interacting with the moth or moths in some way that symbolized feeling overwhelmed with what the future holds. I came up with a few designs but ultimately decided to have one large moth cover an eye of the model, while being surrounded by the bug as well.
Similar to Åkessons work, I wanted my piece to have a very dramatic lighting and high contrast between the background and the subject. Originally, I was going to use graphite to color in an entire background with black. However, I decided that it would be much simpler to use a black board and use a white pencil or crayon of some sort in order to create the image. I cut out a piece of the black board and tested two different mediums on it in order to compare them- oil pastels and colored pencil. While the pastel had a higher level of opacity, I decided that the colored pencil would be better to achieve a higher level of realism in tiny details.
I set up my environment to take my reference photos of the subject. I cut out 3 life sized hummingbird moth cutouts and taped them onto the subjects face and body. I used a dark room with no natural lighting, in order to have better control over the contrasts and strength of the lighting. I used a phone flashlight and moved it around until I found a position I liked where the paper moth created an interesting shadow on the face. I then took that image and edited it to have an even higher contrast, and a low saturation, to make it easier to use as a reference. I used the grid method for this piece, and so I applied a grid onto the picture and copied it down onto my board.
I first started by coloring in the face on the piece. The brightest points were on the chin and cheek where the moth did not obstruct the light, as well as on the left edge of the face. I started with these lightest points and worked my way outwards using less pressure, and eventually moving on to dark grey colored pencils rather than white. The darkest points on the face were on the tip of the nose, in the corners of the lip, and in the area surrounding the eye. The eye was something I struggled with, since I wanted to add the detail of the eyelash, but the image was too dark. Another thing I struggled with was the shadow of the hair on the neck, since I had not yet drawn the hair.
For the chest and arms, I started off by first coloring in large sections of highlight with the white colored pencil. I then switched to the dark grey colored pencil and slowly applied more preassure as I got to the center of the highlights. To create a gradient, I went back in with a white colored pencil to smooth out the edges and make everything appear seamless. Here, the shadows on the chest were something that I struggled with, because the curves were more subtle. I had a hard time creating realistic shape with the few tools I had here.
For the hair, I initially used a dark grey colored pencil, and used light, quick strokes, stemming from the top of the scalp and curling at the bottom of the face. I did this very lightly, because in the original reference image, you could not make out any individual strands of hair. As I got closer to the top right section of the hair, I applied more preassure in order to make the strands of hair slightly lighter. I also drew them in higher concentrations in order to create the illusion of lighting. Once I did this with the grey colored pencils, I used a very sharp white colored pencil to make very thin, harsh lines to create the highlights of the hair. I repeated this until it looked like the light was hitting the top of the head and created a desireable amount of contrast.
My next step was the clothing on the subject. Clothing was something that I had struggled with in prior pieces, and so I was hesitant to start it. I blocked in the lightest areas on the chest with white, and worked my way out using less and less preassure to create curves. Because there were ridges on the chest of the tank top, I followed the curves of the chest vertically in order to create the texture I saw in the reference image. For the fringe on the bottom of the chest area, I used small circles and lines in order to create a lace texture. The rest of the tank top, I followed my same method of starting with the lightest shades and slowly transitioning into the shadowed areas.
The final aspect of my piece was the moths. I used an anatomical image of the hummingbird moth as a reference, and started with the body. I very lightly drew out the design on the back of the moth, which included the shape of a skull and a striped pattern towards the bottom. At first, the wings were incredibly challenging as I attempted to recreate the patters as I saw them in the image exactly. I used small, heavy strokes for the lighter parts of the wings, and lighter strokes for the blacks and browns. I finished it off with two white antenea at the top. As I continued to draw these, I memorized the patterns on the wing and back and abandoned my reference image.
- Critique -
Similarities include:
- Use of negative space. Similar to Åkessons work, I utilize a completely black background in order to highlight the subject of the portrait and make it stand out. - Inclusion of the Hummingbird moth as a symbol. Both of our works feature multiple hummingbird moths flying around the subject. Along with the obvious connections of similarity here, the moths also create a similar movement to the pieces. - High contrast. I purposefully recreated the incredibly high contrast and dark shadows of Åkessons work to create a dramatic lighting and an overall darker piece. |
Differences include:
- Use of color and saturation. Åkessons work features a cooler color pallete that utilizes high saturation in order to make the boy in his portrait stand out from the black background even further. In my piece I decided to only use white and grey colored pencils in order to achieve a black and white effect.
- Medium and texture. While very realistic in its use of highlights and color, Åkesson used oil paints on canvas which gave his piece a much more textured, blocky appearance. My chosen medium of colored pencils were much more refined and gave my art a sharper image.
- Areas of Emphasis. The lighting in The Woods is put directly onto the face of the child. The surrounding areas get darker as they get further away from the face. My piece intentionally strayed away from this vignetting effect, as the face in my portrait is almost completely shaded by the wings of the moth. This was to create symbolism of feeling blinded.
- Use of color and saturation. Åkessons work features a cooler color pallete that utilizes high saturation in order to make the boy in his portrait stand out from the black background even further. In my piece I decided to only use white and grey colored pencils in order to achieve a black and white effect.
- Medium and texture. While very realistic in its use of highlights and color, Åkesson used oil paints on canvas which gave his piece a much more textured, blocky appearance. My chosen medium of colored pencils were much more refined and gave my art a sharper image.
- Areas of Emphasis. The lighting in The Woods is put directly onto the face of the child. The surrounding areas get darker as they get further away from the face. My piece intentionally strayed away from this vignetting effect, as the face in my portrait is almost completely shaded by the wings of the moth. This was to create symbolism of feeling blinded.
- Reflection -
This was a very refreshing piece for me to complete, as the several pieces I had done before this didn't feel satisfying or good at all. This piece was not rushed and I genuinely enjoyed doing it. Colored pencils were not something I had worked with extensively prior to this portrait, and so I am very proud of the work that I did with them. Colored pencils will definetly be something I will work with more heavily in the future. I also liked how the black and white effect turned out. For me, it made a reference image more easy to replicate and meant that I could focus more on texture and contrast rather than color. While I'm aware that the meaning of this piece might not be obvious to those who look at it without reading about my process, I also love the meaning of this piece and the inclusion of the moths as a symbol of personal growth.
- ACT Connections -
1) Clearly explain how you were able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your art?
My inspiration very directly connects to my piece even at first glace, because of the placement of the moths around the subject, as well as the layout of the portrait, and the use of an entirely black background.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Markus Åkessons intentions in his collection of paintints 'The Woods'
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While doing my research I learned a lot about the timeline of French art movements and their techniques and meanings. I learned about the shift from royal or religious paintings being favored to more simple depictions of people.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
For the Old Lodger, I happened to stumble across it online randomly and I loved the pose he was in and immediately got the idea to replace the alcohol with an energy drink. When looking for a second painting to use as inspiration for my second painting, I looked for any paintings with a theme of exhaustion first, and then narrowed it down to paintings of students.
5.) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I came to the conclusion that representation in art matters- especially for working class people who, before these art movements, were very rarely depicted as people worth respecting.
My inspiration very directly connects to my piece even at first glace, because of the placement of the moths around the subject, as well as the layout of the portrait, and the use of an entirely black background.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Markus Åkessons intentions in his collection of paintints 'The Woods'
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While doing my research I learned a lot about the timeline of French art movements and their techniques and meanings. I learned about the shift from royal or religious paintings being favored to more simple depictions of people.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
For the Old Lodger, I happened to stumble across it online randomly and I loved the pose he was in and immediately got the idea to replace the alcohol with an energy drink. When looking for a second painting to use as inspiration for my second painting, I looked for any paintings with a theme of exhaustion first, and then narrowed it down to paintings of students.
5.) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I came to the conclusion that representation in art matters- especially for working class people who, before these art movements, were very rarely depicted as people worth respecting.
- Citations -
Markus Åkesson, The Woods (Insomnia), 2013, oil on canvas