David Cambria is one of my most favourite artists I’ve found while researching for my self-directed project, I love all of his work in this series of portraits. I like how he creates a detailed face from smaller marks, of different colours, and the uses bigger strokes for the outline and on the background. I also like how the background isn’t textured as this makes the painting stand out more, and this will be something I try within my own work. In this particular painting I like the darkness he uses to create shadows and the red and blue hints in the face. I like how the majority of the portrait is built up using skin colour. I also think the strokes are expressive and interesting to view. His work is definitely something which inspires me, his paintings are my favourite that I’ve come across.

Within my own work, I want to push myself using this sort of style to create portraits, and going larger than I have done before,  I think this kind of style will be interesting to experiment with and quite fun to do too. 

Andrew Salgado is one of my favourite artists I’ve come across since starting my research for my self-directed project, the way he builds up a face or a figure using colour and strokes is really good, and something which inspires me. I want to be able to create paintings to a similar standard of these one day and they are definitely something to look up to. In this painting in particular I like how the colours start of warm and then fade down into a variety of blue tones. I like how even though it is an expressive style the detail hasn’t been lost in the face, especially in the eyes. 

Self Directed Statement (so far...)

I have decided to develop my previous project but look at using different painting styles such as oil paints. The topic of my project is blank expression, within this I will look at using light in my work to create depth and seriousness. The main media I want to work in is oil paints. I want to capture people of guard and then turn these photographs into paintings. Creating sketches and experimenting with different materials I hope that these will inspire my paintings. I want to experiment different back grounds using oils, such as dripping like some of my previous water colour work. I previously looked at Sally Manns ‘face’s series, which inspired me to photograph people off guard. Some artists I have also looked at are Andrew Salgado and Dan O’connor. To develop my work from here I want to experiment more with oils, working on a larger scale and loosening  up more with my technique. 

Masri Hayssam - Dolcia – Oil, Acrylic, Gesso 27.6 x 19.7 x 0.8in

Dolcia by Masri Hayssam is a very expressive painting in terms of strokes and gestures created by the paint. The features on the face are very prominent and stand out from the rest of the face which almost creates a background as it’s painted so loosely.  The colours are mainly blue tones giving it a cold tone and also makes the painting seem like there is a deep emotion behind the eyes. The thick lines and strokes are quite messy and rough but are placed in certain ways to make up some of the outlines. I really like how Hayssam paints his faces, they look quite quick, almost like a sketch, and I think that is really effective. I think this sort of quick style would be something to experiment with. 

                                                    Jaeyeol Han- Passerby, Comma 13.4 x 8.3 x 1.2 in

I really like this style and how the artist has created the face using a few large strokes, the minimal use of different colours is really effective too and could link into how I am currently looking at how colour effects an images in terms of emotion and mood. The yellow Han has used to create highlights is interesting and it’s different, however, the features in portrait are not as clear as some other paintings I have looked at. I do like how the background is not touched and it is literally just the outline of the face.

Brandi Hofer -  The case of  M.Valadamer 20 x 18 x 0.8 in

This painting by Brandi Hofer, caught my eye as I had been taking photographs, for self-directed, using lighting to create a different effect and mood in the photographs. A few photographs I have taken have used red lights, and some of them I want to use to create paintings from. This has given me inspiration as to how I could include the colour into my paintings, like I have with my photographs. I also like how the artist has used very little colour in the face, with only hints of red and yellow to create highlights and how the background has been bought into the face. The strokes from the background make it all flow.

                                      Jeong Ah Lim - An Ordinary Person 9. 20.9 x 17.9 x 0.8in

I like how the artist has used the background to create the face, by only painting the features and some strokes to make the outlines. The different coloured backgrounds in her work is similar to the photographs I have been taking for self- directed as the colours could mean different things and also can give the painting/photograph a different emotion/mood.  

                                               Thomas Donaldson – 9-14-13 Head. Acrylic, 

                                                         Oil paint, Spray paint, wax 19.7 x 15.7 x 0.8in

Although I am not keen on the colours used in this painting or the face itself, I like the build up of textures and the fact Donaldson has used lots of different mediums to create the painting is very interesting. I also like how the right hand side is not of the background is not as textured as the rest of the painting. I think looking into how he’s worked spray paint and wax into the painting could be something which would be interesting to experiment with for my Self-directed project. 

Paint - Write up

I chose to go with ‘the body and/or self’ and within this I chose to go with ‘expressive’. I began to look at different styles of expressive painting mainly of portraits. While researching different artists I came across Paul wright, who’s art work is very textured, as he paints in a messy style, with different strokes almost blurring the face, it influenced my work into moving into ‘blank expression’. I wanted to paint portraits of people with a ‘blank expression’, so the audience has to read into what the person may be thinking or seeing. I also looked at Catherine Hennessey, who works with water colour and ink; she creates very meaningful images that bring across an emotion, often without showing the whole face. I liked the style and media she used for her work, and this ended up being similar to the route I have decided to go down. An artist similar to this that I also looked at was Agnes Cecile, she mainly paints with water colour and ink, some of her work is very expressive and loose, where as other pieces are precise. She uses a lot of colour, drips and splashes. 

Paul Wright

Paul Wright’s art work is inspiring due to the amount of colour and tone he uses to create the face. Mixtures or blues, reds, purples, and greens are just a few that he uses to give the portrait depth, using dark lines to mark out the structure of the face. He’s painting style is very loose and he works with oil paints.

This painting almost looks as though the face has been caught while moving, the different lines give it a blurry effect, the eyes really stand out in this painting. The paint strokes/marks make the painting more visually interesting to look at.

Nick Lepard

I first looked at Nick Lepard when I was doing a-levels, the style in which he paints still inspires me, as it is so textured. He uses the paint to create strokes and marks in his portraits which shape the face and also makes the painting very expressive. He manages the lose look while still keeping the detail and expression in the face, and that is what inspires me the most. 

Even though this painting is more tidy, the lines in the face create the shape and expression of the man. The hints of blue and grey, show a coldness and the tone is very dull. He is a great artist to look at for my paint project.

Sally Mann -Faces

I feel like this collection of images by sally mann show expressions captured by the people, as if they didn’t know the photo was being taken. I like the effects from the old camera and the out of focus features.

With parts of the face being out of focus this also gives the impression that these were snapshots .

The eyes were very important to me as I think in sally mann’s images these are the main focal point, they are always sharp and clear, they almost tell the story of the photograph. The image above is my favourite out of the collection, as even though the eyes are very dark they stand out and make you question what is going on in the mans head and what he is thinking. 

With my own photographs I tried to take close up photographs of people during conversation to give a more ‘natural’ look. I took photos of different textures to add to my images on photo shop to try and give a similar effect. 

Ink & Glue experiments