I have began two paintings today and technique wise I have let the painting just happen and haven't specifically set out to paint the image in any intentional way, which has allowed some really exciting elements to happen.
The painting below, I started by painting the skin tone, I thinly applied the paint where I found that the background worked well with the fleshy tones, with this I immediately had a base colour which helped to create an over all skin tone. When coming to do the eyes and the inside of her mouth I liked the idea of keeping them blank, as I am working with the idea of depression and anxiety I thought that the blank eyes worked well as the woman's eyes are empty because she has no spirit or life within her and her mouth is blank because she cannot speak because of the difficulty to talk to people about feelings. Her body is naked in an unsexual way as it represents that she is vulnerable. I am currently debating whether to fill in her hair fully instead of an outline as I already have suggestive lines and shades on her chest, her face has a variety of light fleshy tones and with her hair being left with only suggestive lines I worry that the image has become unbalanced and too thinly painted.
Below is an unfinished painting of a woman which when I finish I will paint it with two birds on her head, the birds are normally a symbol of freedom, however the birds wings will be clipped so they cannot fly away because they are showing that the woman is trapped within her head hence why the birds are specifically placed there and bound to her. Her gaze is looking down because she cannot look at the viewer because normally when people lie they cannot look at the other person to tell that lie, this is the reasoning behind her gaze because her whole image she is portraying is a lie because she is pretending to be a person she is not which is what a lot of people who suffer with depression tend to do. Her eyes are empty alike the previous painting as she has little life and or spirit fighting within her. Her clothes are drawn on in lines and drips which after looking back at the image in progress it seems to really work as it balances out the heaviness of her hair. I think I now need to think very carefully on how I am going to paint the birds to make sure that the image stays balanced.
I found when painting the women that I originally painted their lips a pinky shade similar to the original image however when painting them I found that looked unnatural as though they had bigger lips than before and it looked too bright. I found when repainting it that a natural tone was much more effective as the general facial tones worked well together.
Both images have a cracked canvas base as the women are portraying a painted image in front of the viewer and she puts on they put on in front of others however underneath the image she is cracked, damaged and hurt and internally suffering.
I want my images to still be beautiful because people who suffer with these aspects are still people and are even more special as they are brave enough to be able to pretend to others that everything is ok and don't want to drag anyone else down with their internal battle.
No comments:
Post a Comment