Part 3: Project 3: People in Context

Exercise One: A Figure in an Interior

For this exercise, due to COVID-19, I decided to work from a photograph of my mother-in-law trying on her wedding dress as it had some rather interesting angles in it and I felt it would be rather interesting to recreate. I decided to really simplify the background and focus the lines of the paint in specific directions to help with leading the eye inwards towards the centre of the image, as well as brightening the piece up by using the yellow as a base for the dress, but also creating a strong contrast to both the dress and background by creating a darker flesh tone and hair colour. I felt this would make the subject stand out further within the piece and create even more depth.

• 

• 

Having reached a stage where I feel I have finished the piece, I am actually rather pleased with the end result and believe the illusion of depth is actually rather believable and does actually draw the viewer’s eye inwards. I thoroughly enjoyed simplifying the background so much and manipulating the paint to assist with the illusion and can definitely see this method suiting me. I decided to keep the hanging dress in the background to also assist in forcing the subject to the foreground further. I also made the drastic decision to darken the face slightly, which I actually feel pleased with. The reason I am pleased with it is because I feel it creates a slightly eerie feel within the piece, whereas everything else is rather ‘pretty’ in comparison. I like that it is showing shadows forming on the face, as I feel the piece is very much meant to focus on the dress as the main statement. I think the lightness of the dress in comparison with the other drearier colours is also rather helpful in creating an almost spotlight effect on the dress. Whilst I haven’t tried to recreate a wedding dress as such, I think people will wonder why this dress in particular is so important and this is rather exciting to me.

Research Point 3.3.1.1: Figures in Interiors

The results of my findings for this Research Point can be found by clicking here.

Exercise Two: Telling a Story

For this exercise, I was instructed to create a piece which told a story. I felt there were many ways in which to interpret this, however, I decided I wanted to create a story within the expressions and demeanor of the characters. I thought back to my tutors’ recommendations to simplify my backgrounds as well as the objects on the table. I wanted to work with muted colours for this piece and to try to keep both characters in the piece rather in the foreground and ‘limelight’ so to speak.

Looking at the finished piece, I am extremely happy with certain aspects of it – the shadows on the dress work really well and the flesh of the woman works really well with the background tone added in as shadow. I feel the background, table and contents work extremely well and relate beautifully. However, I feel the detail of the man’s shirt do not relate quite so well. If it was a separate piece of him alone, I feel this would work really well as the texture created in the material of his top is rather interesting, however, I feel there is a slight disconnect with the rest of the piece. Perhaps this is because of the change in base colour? There is a rather ‘cold’ feel to this part, whereas the rest feels rather warm by comparison. Having said that, perhaps the ‘spotlight’ being more strongly focussed on the man may actually draw the viewer’s eye to him first and then outward to the woman, raising the questions of why is he sat in such an embarrassed way and why is she laughing? What has happened that she finds funny but he is embarrassed by? I think it is two sides of the same coin: humour and embarrassment. The fact the embarrassment shines brighter than the humour also raises intrigue in itself: is embarrassment a stronger emotion than humour? Is humour actually a darkness when caused as a result of embarrassment? I feel my paintings develop naturally over the course of the creation process and leave me with questions just as the viewer. I feel I begin with a plan but enjoy where the process takes me and am able to enjoy the end results just like others do.