Project 1:
"The Light of My Life"
50.8cm x 76.2cm
Digital Illustration
June 15, 2020
Exhibition Text:
This piece "The Light of My Life" is heavily inspired by the painting Psyche Opening the Golden Box by John William Waterhouse. This painting's purpose symbolize the fear of the dark, as the woman in the photo found a box containing light in a dark cave. The creature in the background is inspired by the painting The Cyclops, as it is watching over her as she opens the box, resembling monsters in the darkness. The box in this digital piece symbolizes hope and optimism, as she is corned in the dark hoping for bliss.
Digital Illustration
June 15, 2020
Exhibition Text:
This piece "The Light of My Life" is heavily inspired by the painting Psyche Opening the Golden Box by John William Waterhouse. This painting's purpose symbolize the fear of the dark, as the woman in the photo found a box containing light in a dark cave. The creature in the background is inspired by the painting The Cyclops, as it is watching over her as she opens the box, resembling monsters in the darkness. The box in this digital piece symbolizes hope and optimism, as she is corned in the dark hoping for bliss.
Planning:
Inspiration:
The oil painting Psyche Opening the Golden Box by John William Waterhouse. I'm trying to explore with a different art movement, and I decided to look more in to artists from the Romanticism movement since I'm not familiar with it. This painting caught my eye because I particularly liked how innocent and softly painted the woman looks. She is the primal focus of the piece, as she is centered more in front and colored brightly more so, while everything is more dull in the background. I plan on using this piece, as I wanna draw the woman in the painting in a somewhat same pose. |
The Cyclops by Odilon Redon was a questionable addition I wasn't sure of researching about. I was unsure of where to incorporate this image into my final product, but I was sure that I wanted it there. I found The Cyclops to be an inspiring piece for me to analyze because I love the soft yet oddly eerie vibe (feeling) it gives off. I wanted to somehow draw/include the cyclops in the background in my own image. This painting was from the Impressionist movement, which can be the reasoning for the gentle brushstrokes.
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This is a simple image I found off of google search, as it is a woman opening a glowing box. I thought this would be an interesting establishment to my digital piece, as I wanted the box to have more importance. I want the box to symbolize happiness and optimism as it shines in a dark room.
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Sketches:
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Sketch 1:
Technically, for this sketch I planned coloring it in because I wanted to see how the colors would contrast or if I needed to change the color palette to my liking. I used watercolors for a light coloring to see what it look like. This overall turned out to be the sketch I use for my final piece. |
Sketch 3:
For this one, I copied the other sketch and tried a non-line art coloring style. I was practicing slightly what my digital art style would look for this piece. I was trying to warm up slightly since I haven't colored digitally in a while, so I was making planning sketches to make up for the time loss. |
Process:
*Click to enlarge slideshow process*
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Process:
After I selected my planning sketch, I took of picture of it and uploaded it to the drawing software Autodesk Sketchbook. There, I traced over my sketch, and deleted the old layer prier. I decided to hide the layer for now, and I started to work on the background. I was looking for a cave like aesthetic, so I looked up several references towards cave like atmospheres, and started sketching one of my own. When I finished sketching out the background, I started coloring it with a grey-scale pattern. There, I was gradually building shadow layers and leaving lighter areas for my highlights. I brought back my old layer containing the woman with the box, and I started to add color within the line-art of the piece. I selected the figure afterwards and used the bucket tool to fill in the entire drawing, making sure I'm in a new layer first before doing so. I used the color purple since I feel the most comfortable using that color as a shading hue. I finally sketched out the cyclops part of the piece, following the same format with the woman (first coloring, then slowly shading the piece). Lastly, I opened a new layer and set the blending option to soft glow, that way when I try out my glow effect it would shine brightly as it should. Using the airbrush and ink pen tool, I added bright glowing areas around the woman's upper body and box itself. |
*Click to enlarge slideshow experimentation*
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Experimentation:
For this project, I wanted to see if I could make a glow affect sense the overall theme of my piece is the fear of darkness, so I wanted to make something to contrast the idea. On the right side, I looked up a video tutorial on how to make a bright and clean glow effect. I found this video to be helpful since it was the same drawing software I was using at the time (Autodesk Sketchbook), On the left side, I was testing out different layers and color aspects to see how light or dark I should make the drawing. I wanted to test out different colored multiply layers. The last image was me testing out a certain art style for the cyclops, but I ended up keeping my original idea. |
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Compare & Contrast:
Similarities:
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Reflection:
Critique:
I have mixed emotions about the final piece. During the process portion of the illustration, I thought the piece looked quite decent until the end where I added the glow effect to the box. I feel as though the colors are off and could have been arranged better because I feel as though the hues look off and quite sloppy (I feel as though I should have done a better job in preparing the color palette before actually coloring it in). My main distaste for this piece is the way the cyclops is drawn and colored. He looks too much like a cartoon, which made it harder to try connect the inspiration, even though I picked it. I tried to redraw him several times to my satisfaction, non the less I still feel disappointed in the end results. The most challenging part of this piece was indicating where the glow effect should be, because I'm still practicing on my lighting and shading abilities, so I feel as though this could have been executed a bit better. Overall, this piece I feel as though might be one of my worst projects I created considering digital media is one of my favorite mediums to work with.
I have mixed emotions about the final piece. During the process portion of the illustration, I thought the piece looked quite decent until the end where I added the glow effect to the box. I feel as though the colors are off and could have been arranged better because I feel as though the hues look off and quite sloppy (I feel as though I should have done a better job in preparing the color palette before actually coloring it in). My main distaste for this piece is the way the cyclops is drawn and colored. He looks too much like a cartoon, which made it harder to try connect the inspiration, even though I picked it. I tried to redraw him several times to my satisfaction, non the less I still feel disappointed in the end results. The most challenging part of this piece was indicating where the glow effect should be, because I'm still practicing on my lighting and shading abilities, so I feel as though this could have been executed a bit better. Overall, this piece I feel as though might be one of my worst projects I created considering digital media is one of my favorite mediums to work with.
ACT Responses:
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork.
My overall approach of this piece is to display how the light can overcome darkness (a metaphor for don't let fear or insecurities consume you).
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall apporoach of both of the pieces were vague from both artists.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I can generalized that the Impressionist art movement has more of a soft look towards their paintings, and the Romanticism movement is more bold (hues are more bold) and realistically painting (art style).
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My theme for this project was fear, specifically the fear of the dark as the woman is holding her only light source.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I can infer that The Cyclops by Odilon Redon was more of an eerie piece rather than joyful purely looking at the hues, and the other piece was more gentle and calm based on the piece being located in a forest.
My overall approach of this piece is to display how the light can overcome darkness (a metaphor for don't let fear or insecurities consume you).
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall apporoach of both of the pieces were vague from both artists.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I can generalized that the Impressionist art movement has more of a soft look towards their paintings, and the Romanticism movement is more bold (hues are more bold) and realistically painting (art style).
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My theme for this project was fear, specifically the fear of the dark as the woman is holding her only light source.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I can infer that The Cyclops by Odilon Redon was more of an eerie piece rather than joyful purely looking at the hues, and the other piece was more gentle and calm based on the piece being located in a forest.
Bibliography:
“Psyche Opening the Golden Box - John William Waterhouse.” USEUM, useum.org/artwork/Psyche-Opening-the-Golden-Box-John-William-Waterhouse-1903.
“Reliving the Past.” Tracks In The Dust, 24 Jan. 2013, tracksinthedust.com/2012/09/10/reliving-the-past/.
“The Cyclops, C.1914 Oil On Canvas Poster by Odilon Redon.” Fine Art America, fineartamerica.com/featured/the-cyclops-c1914-oil-on-canvas-odilon-redon.html?product=poster.
“Reliving the Past.” Tracks In The Dust, 24 Jan. 2013, tracksinthedust.com/2012/09/10/reliving-the-past/.
“The Cyclops, C.1914 Oil On Canvas Poster by Odilon Redon.” Fine Art America, fineartamerica.com/featured/the-cyclops-c1914-oil-on-canvas-odilon-redon.html?product=poster.