Size: ~16 cm x ~18 cm
Medium: Leaves and Oil Pastel on Sketch Paper
Date: October- November 2016
Exhibition Text:
With my ephemera piece, I tried to show how one aspect of something can depict the entire thing as a whole. The leaves of some trees make the general shape of the tree. I depicted this by using an exacto-knife to cut out the veins of the leaf, and drawing the tree in the background. The cut leaf resembles the trunk and branches, while my drawing in the background showed the leaves of the tree.
Medium: Leaves and Oil Pastel on Sketch Paper
Date: October- November 2016
Exhibition Text:
With my ephemera piece, I tried to show how one aspect of something can depict the entire thing as a whole. The leaves of some trees make the general shape of the tree. I depicted this by using an exacto-knife to cut out the veins of the leaf, and drawing the tree in the background. The cut leaf resembles the trunk and branches, while my drawing in the background showed the leaves of the tree.
Planning
Brainstorming
I originally had a few different ideas about my ephemera piece, from chalk murals to carving a pumpkin, to salt or sugar sculptures, but none of them seemed right to me. I didn't have a good building I could make the mural on, nor enough chalk, I found out someone else in my class was carving a pumpkin, and another was doing salt. I wanted what I did to be more original, and I needed it to be something easy to get a hold of in my neighborhood, as I didn't have much money to spend on this.
I eventually decided to use leaves because it was mid-fall, and all of the maple trees around my neighborhood were dark shades of red and green, which would look cool for many things. I had easy access to a few types of leaves, and collected a bag of them on the way home.
I eventually decided to use leaves because it was mid-fall, and all of the maple trees around my neighborhood were dark shades of red and green, which would look cool for many things. I had easy access to a few types of leaves, and collected a bag of them on the way home.
Planning "Sketch"
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Because a lot of this played by ear, I didn't sketch out my plans first. The pictures I used to plan out how my drawing would be layed out are here. These pictures were originally going to be my final product, but because the leaf I was holding blended in with the tree in the background too much, I desided to draw the tree in the background, and place the leaf over the drawing.
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Inspiration
My inspiration for this was drawn mainly from the idea that one unit of something can represent the whole of it. Like many ephemera pieces, mine isn't based off of another piece of art by a different artist. The idea of being a part of something bigger than ones-self is often used to promote a feeling of teamwork and accomplishment and purpose in a group of people.
The style I used for the background was reminicent of post-impressionism, and how they use small lines to show the small, intrecite leaves and how they move in different directions. |
Post-impressionism Archives - Masterpieces Of Art. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2016, from http://masterpieces-of-art.com/tag/post-impressionism/
Haas, M. (2011). Vincent Van Gogh - Post Impressionism. Retrieved December 12, 2016, from http://wethersfieldvisualart.blogspot.com/2011/10/vincent-van-gogh-post-impressionism.html Chestnut Tree In Blossom 1 Post Impressionism Oil Painting. (n.d.). Retrieved November 3, 2016, from http://www.likepainting.com/chestnut-tree-in-blossom-1-post-impressionism-oil-painting-p-5460.html |
Process
Cutting the Leaves
To begin, I collected leaves for a few days on my way home from school. I was looking for leaves with cool colors and that looked like they were shaped similarly to the tree they came from. I didn't have a general idea of what I wanted to do when I started to collect leaves, but I wanted to try some things out. I was thinking of trying to make different patterns on a few maple leaves, but the leaves tore too easily when cut in a certain way.
I carefully cut out the viens of the leaves, because cutting over them was tearing the leaves, and noticed that it looked like the maple tree in my nieghbor's back yard, and when I held it over the tree, it looked like it resembled the tree as a whole. I thought one wasn't going to be enough, so I collected more leaves, from other tree's around my neighborhood, and searched for what type of tree they were online. Then I cut the vains out on those leaves too..
I carefully cut out the viens of the leaves, because cutting over them was tearing the leaves, and noticed that it looked like the maple tree in my nieghbor's back yard, and when I held it over the tree, it looked like it resembled the tree as a whole. I thought one wasn't going to be enough, so I collected more leaves, from other tree's around my neighborhood, and searched for what type of tree they were online. Then I cut the vains out on those leaves too..
Oil Pastel
I originally was going to hold the leaf up by the stem over the tree, and take a picture of it, but because the leaves on the tree were the same color as the leaves I has holding, the leaf blended in too much with the background, and I needed to come up with a different idea to show the similarities between the tree and my leaves.
I decided to draw the tree into the background. I chose to use oil pastel for a few reasons: because the only other means of coloring the tree would be colored pencles, and I wanted vibrent colors on my pieces, and because the thinkness of the pastels made making leaf shapes easier. I used short strokes to create the leaves, which reminded me of the post-impressionist project he did in Freshman year.
To draw the tree without making marks on the paper with pencle, I placed the cut leaves on the paper, and used the base color to draw the outer leaves. Then I would put the leaf in the envalope I kept it in, and finish drawing the layer of base color. At that point, I had a fully drawn tree, but adding adjacent colors made the drawing pop, and made the tree look more interesting to look at. I did this with all of the leaves I made.
I decided to draw the tree into the background. I chose to use oil pastel for a few reasons: because the only other means of coloring the tree would be colored pencles, and I wanted vibrent colors on my pieces, and because the thinkness of the pastels made making leaf shapes easier. I used short strokes to create the leaves, which reminded me of the post-impressionist project he did in Freshman year.
To draw the tree without making marks on the paper with pencle, I placed the cut leaves on the paper, and used the base color to draw the outer leaves. Then I would put the leaf in the envalope I kept it in, and finish drawing the layer of base color. At that point, I had a fully drawn tree, but adding adjacent colors made the drawing pop, and made the tree look more interesting to look at. I did this with all of the leaves I made.
Reflection
With the ephemera piece, I had a lot of problems deciding on an idea, and I think if I settled on one ealier, I'd had less of an issue getting the project done on time. There was a lot of last minute plans that fell through, and I needed to make do with what I could. In all honesty, I feel like having a piece more founded on existing artwork would make my research much easier. My plan changed a lot, and that meant I had less time for the project I finally settled on. The research aspect was very hard to do, and I feel like a different project would have been much easier.
I really like how the oil pastels gave the tree a nicely saturated color. Most of the pieces I do with color are colored pencle or water color, so they have less saturation, and I honestly kind of like how this turned out. I had planned to redo the picture, while holding the lea over the paper, to it looked like it wasn't just sitting on it. The leaves I were using were very fragile, and they deteriorated before I could do it. The leaves were ripped, and inorder to do it, I would need to not only cut the viens out of another 3 leaves, which are already decomposing, I would need to redraw all of the tree drawings, because they were made for that leaf, so it as the right size, and so the viens looked like possible branches.
I really like how the oil pastels gave the tree a nicely saturated color. Most of the pieces I do with color are colored pencle or water color, so they have less saturation, and I honestly kind of like how this turned out. I had planned to redo the picture, while holding the lea over the paper, to it looked like it wasn't just sitting on it. The leaves I were using were very fragile, and they deteriorated before I could do it. The leaves were ripped, and inorder to do it, I would need to not only cut the viens out of another 3 leaves, which are already decomposing, I would need to redraw all of the tree drawings, because they were made for that leaf, so it as the right size, and so the viens looked like possible branches.
ACT Questions
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effects upon your work.
2.What is the overall approach the author has regarding on the topic of your inspiration?
Most of the background on post-impressionism came from my freshman level Art Foundations and sophmore Art History, where we tried to imitate post-impressionistic styled landscapes using oil pastels, and where we had an entry in our process journal with notes on artists in that movement. That being said, all of my information was from a reliable source, and a fairly neutral source. The websites I did use were mostly just databases with large amounts of images about the same art movement or artist, so they didn't have much of an oppinion on them.
3.What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, ect. while you researched your inspiration?
4. What was the central idea or theme of around your inspirational research?
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I had to make inferences on the styles used in post-impressionist works.
2.What is the overall approach the author has regarding on the topic of your inspiration?
Most of the background on post-impressionism came from my freshman level Art Foundations and sophmore Art History, where we tried to imitate post-impressionistic styled landscapes using oil pastels, and where we had an entry in our process journal with notes on artists in that movement. That being said, all of my information was from a reliable source, and a fairly neutral source. The websites I did use were mostly just databases with large amounts of images about the same art movement or artist, so they didn't have much of an oppinion on them.
3.What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, ect. while you researched your inspiration?
4. What was the central idea or theme of around your inspirational research?
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I had to make inferences on the styles used in post-impressionist works.