Year 13- Faces and Buildings

I was given a brief of the Human body and could take this is any direction I desired. Due to my interest in architecture and buildings I decided to combine the two.

Gaining Initial Inspiration and Ideas

   My first inspiration for this was found when visiting Cartwright hall art gallery in Bradford. There was an exhibition on by Anne Desmet. I was very inspired by the way she used tiny built structures to then build and overall larger image and it was only that you looked closer at the image that you were able to see the details. I was also very interested in her use of reflection with in her art. as the image above on the right shows, Desmet has a skill for making industrial building work appear in an organic way and this is very suitable for my project.



Oxtoby face made with buildings

 

From this I drew my own slightly different version using an Oxtoby image and my own imagination for the buildings. this is shown on the right.

This idea made me want to have faces hidden within the architecture and I was aiming to create something ambiguous where you had to stand back to look at the image to see the face



Oxtoby face hidden in geometric shapes



I decided to look into the idea of faces hidden in geometric designs. The image above on the left shows my practice of this in oil pastel. I feel this looks quite futuristic and angular and I really like how the face becomes camouflage into the background. Once again I used  an Oxtoby image for the face. this is because I feel Oxtoby shows huge quantities of expression and emotion in his art. This is something I want to portray.

Because this images structural design has been made up with my imagination I decided to look into true building designs to use and camouflage my faces into. Below is a picture generated by carbon papering images of my school at different angles on some triangular graph paper. I added to this vortex of confusion by layering splashes and streaks of paint over the lines.

School carbon paper images

 The image below is a copy of a piece by the up and coming artist Luke Rudolf. This is a further development of how to make a face hidden in geometric designs. This plays on the psychological fact that humans will always look for faces within shapes because it is their first instinct. This is because a babies first sight to trust is their mothers face and since then it becomes instinctive to look for one.



Luke Rudolf copy



Taking My photos 

I decided to take some photos of my sister dresses up with face paint on in a geometric design .  The theme of the photographs was on fear. As I had the idea of having faces hidden in the geometric designs I had to think why the person would be hiding. The reason people use camouflage is usually due to the fear of being found. I wanted to show fear in my pictures and give the effect of hiding. I also decided to use aggression as this can come out when a person or animal is afraid.

 

 Developing Ideas From my photos

I then began to experiment with how I was able to turn these photos into artwork. I have made a pencil drawing copy of the image and decided to continue the lines painted onto the face. This was in an attempt to hide and camouflage the face into the background. I think that to improve this I should continue to fill the background with a dark shade to really hide the face.

 Using the inspiration by the artist Caragh Thuring, who's art copy is shown on the right, I created a hidden painting of my face. I continued the lines of the face paint and formed a caged effect. This was also inspired by steel construction in buildings. The bright colours add to the futuristic appearance and disguise the face further.

Willem de Kooning copy

Willem de Kooning seemed like a good artist to look into as he often hides the figure withing shapes and colours. on the left there is a copy I have painted with acrylic with the image I have copied alongside. I like this method of painting and the obscure and hidden effect it gives however I want to use shapes which are more geometrical with an architectural nature.

 

 



Yuri Pavolich Annekov

I found the Artist Yuni Pavlolich Annekov who is a Russian cubism and futurism artist. To the right is an art copy of a piece of his work. this is very good for my theme as it uses architectural shapes to disguise the face and uses many angles of the face in one image. I find this very interesting. Making this painting also allowed me to do very skilled work which I enjoyed a lot. The image I copied is shown with other work by Annekov.

This piece of work made me want to generate my own version. I took some photos of my dad dressed in a suit and a bowler hat with the architectural shapes of my house in the background. The outcome of a trial piece is shown on the right. Instead of making it completely a painting I used the original photos slashed and mixed different versions togteher then connected them with my own painting. I also looked into other ways of distorting the face by cutting up photographs. The other image on the right bottom is a mixed media piece blending faces and architecture with a range from photos, pencils and pens.

I wanted to look more closely into architecdtural design so created this collage of buildings in leeds I have photographed. It is inspired by the Bauhaus movement. I felt I needed some skill drawing of real architecture so I have drawn this pen copy of the clock in the town I live in. I especially looked into how line shape influences the texture of  the image.

Taking more photos

I was extremely happy with the outcome of these images. The main aim was to give a sheek editorial look with alot of geometric lines framing a face with a geometric haircut and outfit. The lighting gives a feel of drama and makes it easier to paint. I now needed to work out how to turn these into a piece of art work. An oil pastel copy is to the left and a pencil drawing is to the right. I painted the faces over a city scape of Leeds (original sent to manchester university) This is shown below:

To the right is a mixes media piece of art using external construction to build the architectural design out. I initially painted the faces leaving masking taped lines for more geometrics. I went over some areas with oil pastel and white spirit before cutting cadboard into regular shapes to stick on the painting. I applied cut corrugated plastic to the surface to give more depth to the piece. This links back to my idea of hiding faces and bodies in architectural design. I am using these geometric shapes as camouflage.

For my portfolio for architecture at Sheffield University I had to create a piece of work entitles 'My street' The outcome is shown on the left. I came about this idea when looking at the connection people have to their houses. Doris is a lady who lives on my stret in some really ugly council owned flats. When I visited her I was actually impressed with how cleverly the flats had been put together to be incredibly space conscious. It led me to realise that architecture is just as much about practicality than interesting and innovative design.

In my personal study I have studied many fascinating modernist architects such as Daniel Liebeskind, Zaha Hadid and norman foster. As well as looking at the work by Frank Gehry, Richard Rogers and Frank lloyd Wright. A few images of their work are shown below.

I then decided to focus more on hiding the face in geometric shapes. Cubism seemed like a useful art movement for me to look into due to the simplification of the human form by straightening curves to straight edges and only using some main details of what the artist can see. To the left is a copy of on of my own photographs of the girl with the frame. I found that getting a cubist impression on your work is done by giving hints of the emotion through the complicated angles of the facial muscles. This is especially apparent in the eyes and the lips. The image I have done shows worry. I have learnt these methods by looking in to the work by Piccasso, Delaunay and Leger.

 

Using inspiration from the Bauhaus and Russian constructivist movement I created  a series of card structures. The aim of this was for me to get a feel for what making architectural models is like. From my research into architects i found that a lot of their work is based on one rough initial shape idea and the building design and functional features comes after. These acted like my initial shape ideas. It was very interesting to work out how to play with the angle positioning to get the best outcome. Photographing these objects with a spotlight gave me some very interesting stills. The shaddows and shading on the objects is ome of these photos are shown below. I made 4 card structures in total and one using a clay mould with plaster of paris.

To analyse the light reflection and form of these confusing shapes I copied a selection below. On one of them I have merged together the same shape at different angles. This gives a confusing vortex of shape and shaddow. Playing with the dimensions of space and light by just changing a few angles was highly interesting.

 I have also made a face out of wooden blocks. This brings the aspect of pure construction back to the initial idea of blending architecture with the humand body and form of the face. This is shown above.

I copied an image of a Michael Angelo sculpture but I have cut the details into angular shapes. This is related back to the work by the cubist artists. This tought me about how to simplify the complicated features and angles of the face into a more basic design whilst still getting across the same image. This is shown in the area around the eyes and nose as well as the flowing beard.

Below Are some ICT photo edits which are all attempting to blend the face with the buildings in the background.

All of these images are made with this inspiration of this image found in a Sunday Times magazine. I then decided that this would be good to make a lino print with. I would have used my own designs however it was really important to get the definite straight lines of the original.

A selection of outcomes of my lino print are ahown below. I feel the most successful of the lino prints use a lighter colour for the first print and have the colours built up in a tonal sequence. Although it was interesting to stray from this rule and for example, print onto blue paper.

Scream

I felt as thought I had used the feature of blending the face withing buildings and architectural shapes so I decided to look at it from a different angle. I though of new ways that I could incorporate geometric shapes into the body and came across the idea of either screaming or crying out the angular piences. The scream seemed to be a better idea to me as it would link back to the Russian Constructivist movement with the communist posters of girls shouting for example the Rodchenko on the left. I thought that the angular shapes could have a similar meaning to the constructivist pieces. She is shouting a message. The message I wanted to be souting would have to be, in a way, violent and angry if i wanted to make the shapes pointy.
A selection of photos are shown below.

From these images I did a series of copies in oil pastel, arcylic paint and on an etching. The images of these are shown below.

 I experimented on how the geometric shapes could come out of the mouth to make it look like they are visual images of a sound. I really liked the 3-dimensional shapes but prefered it in a triangular form.

I was inspired by the work of Arne Quinze. He makes fluid 3D structures from match stick like forms. One of his pieces of work is shown on the right.

The outcome is shown below. I am very happy with the impact it brings to the veiwer. I faded the colour of the triangular shapes from black to white. This is because what she is saying is becoming diluted the further it spreads out. It is also heard quieter and makes less impact when not given directly from the source.