Title: Something's Wrong
Size: 30 cm x 43 cm Medium: Oil pastels on paper Completion: September 2021 - Exhibition Text-
'Something's Wrong' is a 30 cm by 43 cm self made art piece, created with oil pastels on paper. It's about the creeping feeling that you don't belong in a certain place and the anxiety that accompanies that. The piece is meant to imitate the style of Margret Muzas tintype photography portraits using a completely different medium, while still maintaining a visible similarity.
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- Inspiration -
Artist in Focus: Margaret Muza
Margaret Muza is a Milwaukee based photographer who specializes in tintype portraits- a style of photography in which an image is created by exposing a sheet of tin coated in dark lacquer or enamel to light. The resulting photograph is completely desaturated, as the camera does not capture colors, with an intense contrast between the highlights and shadows. While Muza is a commissioned photographer and artist, her personal work is creative and eerie. She uses stark contrasts in lighting, balance and symmetry of her subjects, and --- to make the pieces intense and unique. The reason I chose Muza as my inspiration is because of a line of portraits she did with children and a terrifying Easter bunny, that I thought perfectly captured the lingering feeling that something wrong, and being uncomfortable in a situation out of your control. |
While the intention of this series of portraits was not to be scary or unsettling, the childish appearance of the Easter Bunny costume combined with the lack of saturation and deep shadows create an unnerving contrast between playfulness and anxiety. Along with this, the concerned appearance of the children adds to the possible theme of feeling out of control and anxious. These portraits were commissioned by a local gallery that invited people in to have their photos taken with the bunny.
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- Process -
The first thing I did was make a grid onto a large sheet of paper using a graphite pencil, to get the proportions of the Bunny in the picture perfect. After I used this method to copy the Bunny, I drew in myself freehand. This stage was tricky because the proportions of the eyes, nose, and mouth was something that I struggled with. I wanted to appear frightened and uncomfortable. I made myself glancing to the left, with my eyebrows raised, and a frown on my face. For the sweater, I wanted something simple, but still with a small design, so I added a few stripes, to make it appear even more childlike.
I always start by coloring in and shading the face in all of the portraits I do. For the colors, I decided to deviate from the complete desaturation of Muzas photographs and add a slight amount of color- while still keeping the overall grey and dismal appearance. This would be tricky because I would have to use a proportionate ratio of grey to colors throughout the entire piece. I started by doing a thin layer of peach over the whole face, and then a light layer of tan in the areas I wanted to be shaded. I then blended this out in the mid-tone areas of the face with the grey pastel. For highlighted areas, I used a thin layer of grey but blended out with white. In shaded areas, I used a thin layer of black, and blended out with grey. For small details like eyelashes and highlights in the eyes, I sharpened my pastels with a knife in order to get more of a sharp line.
After the skin of the portrait was complete, I moved on to the hair. I drew on the hairline, and then started feathering downwards with the brown pastel in very light strokes. I colored in the bangs first, because they were the area with the most intense highlights and shadows. After the brown, I used the same technique but with black, going out from the hairline and then towards the bottom of the strands to give the illusion of harsh lighting and depth. I then went in and blended all of it out with the grey, leaving a small amount of space in the very middle for me to blend out with the white, in order to create highlights in the hair. The remainder of the hair I colored in brown, and then blended out with black. I went back in with the grey to add a bit of texture, however it remained mostly block-y as it was, for the most part, just black.
I then moved on to the sweater I was wearing. I decided I wanted it to be red, with a blue and white stripe in the center. A mistake I made when coloring in the sweater was to work in small sections instead of doing the entire thing all at once. I would color in a small portion with a thin layer of red, and then go in with the grey and black to create texture and folds in the cloth. As I moved along different parts of the sweater, I attempted to use the same amount of pressure, however some areas had a higher concentration of red or grey, giving it an uneven appearance.
The next part of my process is the Bunny. Because the bunny is mostly white, it wouldn't have the same stark contrasts seen in the skin and sweater of the portrait, and would be made of mostly highlights. I used a layer of grey in the areas of the bunny that would have shading, and blended outwards towards the center by using slightly less pressure in every stroke. I then used an entire white pastel crayon by blending this grey outwards and filling in empty space in order have nothing empty. I used more grey and even a little bit of black on the left side of the snout, because it was being covered by my shadow. Then, I colored in the nose and mouth of the bunny. I used a small amount of purple on the note, and then a heavy layer of black, blended out with the grey. I went back in with the black to create more intense shadows, and used the white to create highlights. For the mouth, I used a thin layer of red and pink around the lips, and then applied black to the center of the mouth and in the corners where it was more shaded. The eyes, I decided would be blue. I used a layer of blue that ended up being a tad too thick, and blended it out with grey in order to get the even amount of saturation I had used in the rest of the portrait.
I thought for a while about what I would do with the background of the piece. I wanted it to feel childish and playful, with the inclusion of pastels, but still wanted it to feel vintage and a bit off-putting. I decided to use yellow-green and pink to create tiles behind the subjects as a backdrop. I started with the yellow-green, using a thin layer and blending with grey and white. I used black and whites towards the edges of the tiles in order to make them appear raised and shiny.
- Critique -
Similarities include:
- Lack of saturation. Muzas work is completely desaturated, as it was taken using the tintype photography method, which doesn't capture color at all. My piece attempted to give a similar, grey appearance without completely stripping it of color.
- High contrast. Both pieces attempt to utilize highlights and shadows in a way that makes the subject of the portrait pop out at the reader. These deep shadows and bright highlights give the piece a more serious mood.
- Symmetry. Both portraits of Muzas and my own feature two sides with an equal balance of positive and negative space, with two subjects on both sides, or one in the very center.
- Lack of saturation. Muzas work is completely desaturated, as it was taken using the tintype photography method, which doesn't capture color at all. My piece attempted to give a similar, grey appearance without completely stripping it of color.
- High contrast. Both pieces attempt to utilize highlights and shadows in a way that makes the subject of the portrait pop out at the reader. These deep shadows and bright highlights give the piece a more serious mood.
- Symmetry. Both portraits of Muzas and my own feature two sides with an equal balance of positive and negative space, with two subjects on both sides, or one in the very center.
Differences include:
- Inclusion of color. While Muza uses a method of photography that doesn't capture any color whatsoever, I made the decision to include a splash of color in order to make it slightly more interesting and creative.
- Meaning. As Muza was a commission artist, these works had no other deeper intended meaning. My piece attempts to put meaning to the symbols seen in Muzas photography and to give it a little bit more depth.
- Medium. While I completed my piece using Crayola oil pastels, Muza used photography to capture her subjects, resulting in a far more realistic image, along with the differences in saturation seen.
- Inclusion of color. While Muza uses a method of photography that doesn't capture any color whatsoever, I made the decision to include a splash of color in order to make it slightly more interesting and creative.
- Meaning. As Muza was a commission artist, these works had no other deeper intended meaning. My piece attempts to put meaning to the symbols seen in Muzas photography and to give it a little bit more depth.
- Medium. While I completed my piece using Crayola oil pastels, Muza used photography to capture her subjects, resulting in a far more realistic image, along with the differences in saturation seen.
- Reflection -
This piece was my second attempt in oil pastels and I definitely am seeing improvement in my skills with blending and color matching. This piece was a challenge, because without a reference photo that gave me colors to match, I was just guessing which colors to use and blend the entire time. I think that I was successful in that the saturation levels are relatively the same throughout the entire piece and it looks very even and intentional. I am very proud of the hair and the mouth and nose of the bunny, however the proportions of the face without a reference are something I need to work on more. The eyes are slightly too large and the mouth is crooked. I hope that viewers get slightly uncomfortable when viewing this piece, as that is the intended effect.
- 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 for this piece was the work of Margret Muza, a photographer local to my own city. I discovered her because of the bunny portraits she did in a local gallery in April, and I fell in love with her work. While my piece has a few similarities to her tintype portraits, it is not meant to replicate every element of just one of her pieces.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Muza is a commission artist, and so it is difficult to say definitively weather these portraits of hers have any deeper creative meaning, however, it can be reasonably guessed that her series of bunny portraits were not to capture the feeling of not belonging, and were made for the purpose of making money.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
When looking for an artist to base my work off of, I knew I wanted to take inspiration from a more local, contemporary artist compared to the typical 19th-18th century European artists I usually based my work off of.
5.) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I learned a lot about the tintype photography method while I was researching, including how the chemical process works and how it was used originally centuries ago. While looking at Muzas photography, I also took a lot of inspiration for the original tintype photographs taken with the first ever cameras like that.
My inspiration for this piece was the work of Margret Muza, a photographer local to my own city. I discovered her because of the bunny portraits she did in a local gallery in April, and I fell in love with her work. While my piece has a few similarities to her tintype portraits, it is not meant to replicate every element of just one of her pieces.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Muza is a commission artist, and so it is difficult to say definitively weather these portraits of hers have any deeper creative meaning, however, it can be reasonably guessed that her series of bunny portraits were not to capture the feeling of not belonging, and were made for the purpose of making money.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
When looking for an artist to base my work off of, I knew I wanted to take inspiration from a more local, contemporary artist compared to the typical 19th-18th century European artists I usually based my work off of.
5.) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I learned a lot about the tintype photography method while I was researching, including how the chemical process works and how it was used originally centuries ago. While looking at Muzas photography, I also took a lot of inspiration for the original tintype photographs taken with the first ever cameras like that.
- Citations -
Muza, Margret. Easter Portraits. 2022, Milwaukee.
Muza, Margret. 2019, Milwaukee.
Muza, Margret. 2019, Milwaukee.