WATERCOLOR
Overview
Title: Magnets
Size: 41.91 cm x 33.02 cm Medium: Watercolor and Black Ink on Illustration Board Date: October 2023 Exhibition Text
"Magnets" is a watercolor illustration outlined with black ink. This piece is meant to visualize my family tradition of collecting magnets at significant locations we travel. This tradition is very important to me and my identity, and I wanted to create a piece that emphasized the importance of these magnets to my identity. I created this emphasis through my use of color on the magnets versus the rest of the piece. I drew inspiration from James Hartman and Milford Zornes when creating this painting.
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INSPIRATIONS
Another inspiration I found for my piece was Milford Zornes, a watercolor artist based in California. In his pieces Zornes focused heavily on the versatility of watercolors, and on his website states that "There are seemingly an endless number of ways it can be handled" in reference to the medium. He uses a variety of different colors in his work to create a variety of different landscapes. I was particularly drawn to his pieces "California Orange Grove, 1978" and "On the Brandywire, Delaware, 1979" due to the contrast shown in Zornes use of the medium. In "California Orange Grove, 1978" the colors and forms included in the painting seem to be more simplistic, and the forms are outlined in black ink. However in his piece a year later, "On the Brandywire, Delaware, 1979" there seems to be little to no use of black ink and Zornes took a more realistic approach to his use of color and form. I think that the contrasts in these pieces allow us to see the versatility of watercolor that Zornes enjoyed so much. When creating my own piece I found inspiration in his use of color and the way that he outlined the forms included in the piece in black ink. In addition, when experimenting before creating my actual painting, I also took the time to discover the versatility of watercolor.
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James Hartman is an American painter who heavily focuses on creating still life artwork. In his work he focuses on proportion, and making accurate representations of his observations. He creates very colorful pieces, many of which feature scenes that one may find in a home. his use of color is one of the reasons why I was so drawn to his work when looking for inspiration for my piece. He uses bright, vibrant colors while still making the colors seem like they fit right into the scene. For me, his scenes are really brought to life and visually appealing due to his use of color. I was specifically interested in his pieces, "Dining Table" and "Still Life with Permanent Green Light", due to not only the colors used in these paintings but also the content of the piece itself. Going into my research I knew that I wanted to create a still life of an area of my home, and I was inspired by how these two pieces were of a simple table setting. When creating my own piece, I wanted to take Hartman's use of color and the relative simplicity of his work.
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PLANNING
Once I had figured out the angle and specific formal qualities I wanted to include in my painting, I decided to redo the same sketch but color it using gouache this time. Doing this allowed me to figure out how I should use the paint in my final piece in order to create proper shading and layout of the colors. After doing this I made a few notes on things that I thought could be improved through better technique in the final. For example, I used too dark of a yellow for the walls which not only gave the wrong atmosphere to the piece in general, but also made the wall look slightly dirty.
After my first experimentation with the gouache on my sketches, I decided to create two more sketches to see which method of painting would look the best in my final. On the first sketch I used a more watered down gouache that had the light, airy look featured in many Milford Zornes pieces. On the second one however, I used straight gouache onto the paper which gave it a much more solid look. There actually ended up being certain aspects of each technique that I found looked better. For the walls and appliances I liked how the watered down gouache more, however I liked the normal gouache better for the magnets because the bold colors assisted in communicating my theme better. |
When beginning to plan my piece, I first wanted to figure out which angle I wanted to create my illustration from. I chose to sketch one side angle and then a front angle. I also chose to color in these sketches in order to begin to consider the shades of the colors I wanted to use to represent the colors in my actual kitchen. I ultimately decided on using the side angle because I felt that this angle allowed me to include more magnets on the fridge.
The magnets were the main focus of this piece. My theme for this piece is how my family and our family vacations have impacted my identity. My family collects magnets everywhere I travel to put on our fridge which has heavily impacted my identity, and I wanted to be able to appropriately illustrate this idea through the choices I made in this piece. I chose to show how important these magnets were through my use of color and contrast against the other colors in the piece. I wanted to use bright, bold colors for the magnet to really bring the attention towards them and make them a focal point in the piece. |
PROCESS
After switching over to gouache, the process became a lot easier and I was actually getting the colors that I needed in order to create an accurate depiction of my kitchen. I also continued to paint the basic colors of all the different pieces of the piece. I didn't need to add too much detail to these pieces because I knew that I was going to add a majority of the details to the piece using black ink.
I painted the fridge, stove, floor, and cabinets using watered down gouache, and then painted the magnets using a more vibrant color pallet. I painted the magnets brighter in order to showcase the theme of my piece being the impact that these magnets have had on my identity. |
To start off my process I first sketched my images from my sketchbook onto my illustration board and made sure everything had straight lines and was proportionate to each other. After sketching it out the first time, I had realized that I hadn't lined the tiles up with the edge of the fridge and it was throwing everything off so I redid that part to make everything flow well. Once the sketch was done, I started off my painting using Koi watercolors, painting the walls yellow and putting a light creme base of color for the floor. Despite experimenting with these watercolors beforehand, I started to discover that they were not working for me the way I wanted on the illustration board and eventually decided to switch over to using gouache again. The Koi watercolors were not giving me the effect I wanted the paint to have. |
Once all of the color was put onto the board, I began to add detailing to the piece using black ink. I used outline pens of different sizes, using the smaller ones to add stippling to the walls, floor, and fridge and then using the thicker pen to outline the edges of the objects. It took me a while to add all of the details to this piece because I used stippling for a majority of it. Once I was happy with how all of the details looked in the piece, I went in with a smaller pen to add details to each of the magnets. I wanted to make each magnet different to represent how they looked in real life. I included names of places, people, and other scenery on the magnets. |
EXPERIMENTATION
The other main form of experimentation I did in this piece was using a variety of different techniques to create shading and details using black ink. In some areas of the illustration I created this shading by using cross-hatching or other techniques for layering lines, and in other parts I used stippling. Through this experimentation I was able to discover which technique produced the best results. I actually ended up preferring how the shading looked using stippling rather than the cross-hatching which is not what I originally thought I would end up preferring. I also experimented with different sized pens for outlining, using a 0.1 pen, a 0.3 one, and a 0.5 one. Each of these pens were better for different parts of the piece and I got to experiment with which pens created the best results. I found that the thicker pens were better suited for outlines and darker stippling shading whereas the thinner pens were better for light stippling and cross-hatching. It was beneficial to have a variety of pens because it allowed me to use a variety of different techniques to create shading throughout my illustration. |
The initial experimentation I participated in for this piece was learning how to use the Koi watercolors that I originally wanted to use. I had never worked with this brand before, so I needed to learn how they applied, how to blend them, and how easy they were to manipulate. I completed this experimentation on a sheet of paper and tried out a variety of different colors and techniques for application of these colors. These colors worked fairly well on paper, however when I transitioned to using these watercolors on my illustration board they ended up being different from how they looked on paper. The color was thicker on the board which made it more difficult to blend and create the thin effect I wanted to create with the color. I tried to remedy this in a variety of different ways. First I tried to add more water to the paint, and then less. After that didn't work I tried allowing the colors more and less time to dry. Once none of these techniques worked for me, I made the choice to move back to using gouache.
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CRITIQUE
There are a lot of similarities between my piece and my inspirations. One similarity between my piece and Milford Zorne's piece "California Orange Grove, 1978" is the way that we chose to use watercolor. We both placed the watercolor down as a base of colors and then went back in to outline the main forms in the piece. This similar technique makes both of our pieces look visually similar. In addition, we both utilized the versatility of watercolor throughout our pieces. I chose to use watercolor in a variety of different ways throughout my piece, and Milford Zornes is known for his experimentation with watercolors. A similarity between my piece and James Hartman's piece "Still Life with Permanent Green Light" is the subject matter included in both of our pieces. We both chose to create a piece based on a scene typically seen in a home, mine being a kitchen and his being a dining room table. Another similarity between our pieces is our color palettes. In both of our pieces we chose to use a lighter color palette.
There are also some differences between my piece and the work of Milford Zornes and James Hartman. For starters, In Milford Zorne's piece "California Orange Grove, 1978" he chooses to use a darker color palette and he creates a scene full of natural elements. Contrastingly, in my piece I use a lighter color palette to illustrate an indoor scene. In addition, the main difference between my piece and James Hartman's piece is that we used different mediums. James Hartman used oil paint whereas I used watercolor to create my illustration. This difference in mediums causes our pieces to look visually different.
There are also some differences between my piece and the work of Milford Zornes and James Hartman. For starters, In Milford Zorne's piece "California Orange Grove, 1978" he chooses to use a darker color palette and he creates a scene full of natural elements. Contrastingly, in my piece I use a lighter color palette to illustrate an indoor scene. In addition, the main difference between my piece and James Hartman's piece is that we used different mediums. James Hartman used oil paint whereas I used watercolor to create my illustration. This difference in mediums causes our pieces to look visually different.
REFLECTION
Overall, I am very happy with the outcome of my piece. This piece was enjoyable to make because of the topic of the piece itself being so impactful on my identity and so important to me. This piece took a lot of experimentation and effort due to the amount of detailing I had to add to the piece to make it look realistic. I enjoyed experimenting with color in order to create emphasis in this piece, and it was interesting to experiment with colors in order to replicate the colors of my actual kitchen. This piece took me a while to create because I use a technique called stippling to add details to certain aspects of the piece. Stippling is the process of continuously placing dots onto a paper in order to create shading and dimension. This stippling took me a while just because of how time consuming it was to individually place so many dots onto my illustration board. Through this piece I was challenged to create an accurate depiction of a space that exists in my life using colors and proportion. Through this piece I feel that I was able to develop my illustration skills, a medium I don't work with often other than creating sketches for other pieces. My least favorite part of this process was discovering that the watercolors I was going to use weren't going to work the way I needed them to work because it meant I had to adapt to a new plan. My favorite part was the theme of this piece and how I was able to create a piece that connects so personally to my identity. I hope that people are able to look at my piece "Magnets" and consider traditions in their life that impact their identity.
ACT QUESTIONS
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
You are able to visually see the connection between my piece and my inspirations because like James Hartman I created a piece based on a scene typically found in a home and I used a similar technique that Milford Zornes used in his watercolor pieces.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The versatility of watercolor, and how it can be utilized in a variety of different ways.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have discovered that while some artists may use the same medium for all of their pieces, they can still find ways to produce different unique results in each of their pieces.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
How to use a medium in a variety of ways to create one cohesive piece.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that James Hartman's goal through many of his still life's was to create a scene that would be found in a home and that he did this in order to create a certain atmosphere in his piece of homeliness.
You are able to visually see the connection between my piece and my inspirations because like James Hartman I created a piece based on a scene typically found in a home and I used a similar technique that Milford Zornes used in his watercolor pieces.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The versatility of watercolor, and how it can be utilized in a variety of different ways.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have discovered that while some artists may use the same medium for all of their pieces, they can still find ways to produce different unique results in each of their pieces.
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
How to use a medium in a variety of ways to create one cohesive piece.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that James Hartman's goal through many of his still life's was to create a scene that would be found in a home and that he did this in order to create a certain atmosphere in his piece of homeliness.
CITATIONS (MLA)
“About the Artist.” James Hartman - About the Artist, www.jameshartmanpaintings.com/about. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023.
“Watercolors.” Milford Zornes NA, milfordzornesna.com/watercolors/. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023.
“Watercolors.” Milford Zornes NA, milfordzornesna.com/watercolors/. Accessed 10 Oct. 2023.