Artist Emulation

- I am Piet Mondrian. I am Dutch painter who was an influential person in the De Stijl art movement. I painted some of my best works in Paris from 1919-1938 and when I moved to New York in 1940. My goals as an artist were to create the perfect paintings, so no other art would need to be made in the future. To create the perfect painting, I would need to express the simplicity and use of basic (primary) colors in my works. I also used many straight lines in my works to create simplicity and to create simple, interesting color combinations.

- I create inspiration for myself, I hung colored pieces of paper around my studio to create different lines and connections of the colors. Then, I would reposition new pieces of colored paper and alternate the dynamics of colors and spacing. Throughout my life, I followed a similar schedule of regrouping the pieces of paper on the wall to create new inspiration for my works. I trained in the Rijksakademie in the Netherlands where artists and philosophers would exchange ideas and knowledge. After World War I, I moved to Paris where I began to produce series of grid-based paintings. As I matured during my time in Paris, my works began to consist of less and less colors and I many focused on primary colors and the use of white and black. I continued this mindset and procedures when I moved to Manhattan and until my death in 1944. 

Color to Life

1. How does your work show an understanding of the style, color choices, and mark making of original?
- My work showed a understand of the original painting by creating a similar landscape and textures. I also tried to make identical colors that were in the original painting. Many of my brush strokes were similar to the original and I tried to create interesting strokes by having different amounts of paint on my brush. Also twisting the brush resulted in different textures that I think made my painting emulate the original more.

2. Regardless of the "match" between your work and the original, what did you learn about the act of painting (color use and mark making) in the process of this project?
- I learned that trying to create a specific color was very hard but often resulted in cool, interesting color that was useful in the painting. Also, brush strokes are important to show the texture and colors of a part of a painting. Many little brush strokes might create one texture, but longer and swifter strokes are better to use to create a larger painting and images. Another thing I learned is that it is helpful to work from the top of the painting down to the bottom. This allows you to paint from the background to the foreground and cover up or go over mistakes and also create a feeling the the foreground is in front of the background.

3. How well unified is your final canvas (do all areas possess similar levels of attention, surface detial, etc)?
- I feel that most of the canvas is unified to create one final painting. Looking back I think I could have added something to the brown area on the left of the canvas to tie that part into the rest of the painting. But other that that, I think that the rest of the painting has good flow to it. I was happy with my sky and mountains at the top of the canvas so I didn't spend as much time with that part as I did with other parts.

4. To what degree do you feel comfortable as a "painter"? Have you come to control the medium> How do you wish to explore it more? What limitations does the medium pose for you?
- I feel very comfortable as a painter, especially using acrylic paint. I have become more confident in making larger strokes to create different brush marks. I think that painting standing up with the painting on an easel was harder for me and I think that it made it more difficult for me to control certain brush strokes. I think it would be fun to continue painting with this medium and try and create my own painting instead of basing it off someone else's painting. I think that the acrylic paint was different for me because I couldn't just use an eraser when I made a mistake but I think that also helped me deal with mistakes and adjust around the mistake.

Learning To See

1. How thoroughly were you able to explore the expressive qualities of line in your 

contour drawings? 

- I was able to explore many types of line qualities in all of my contour drawings. As I used different medias, I used different line qualities because the different surfaces such as the wood that I used.

2. How well were you able to represent the positive and negative spaces of the 

silhouette drawing? 

- I choose to draw a tree for my silhouette so the branches allowed for a nice silhouette with positive and negative spaces.

3. How well did you master “craft” in your series of silhouette drawings?  In what 

ways could you have improved your “craftsmanship” throughout your process? 

- I feel like I did a good job in terms of using the ink for the silhouette drawings. I could have done a better job with using the ink with wood and not been as sloppy. But overall I think I did a pretty good job with ink and combining it with water too.

4. Which techniques, tools, or styles did you find most comfortable?  Why? 

- I enjoyed using the ink for my silhouette drawings and ink and water combined to create shadows and shading of the cup I was drawing. I also used pencils to shade drawings and I felt comfortable with the pencils.

5. How were you able to combine your own sense of expression in your representation of the shapes? 

- In my silhouette drawing, I put my own twist on my trees that I drew. I combined the tree branches with one another across the page to have an interesting look and connection between the trees.

6. Given the feedback you received throughout your work, what are your formal strengths as a representational artist?  What are your expressive characteristics?

 - I feel that my shading is a strength of mine in being an artist. I feel more comfortable with shading to create depth in the drawings and make the drawing better. I don't like make bigger, dark lines in my drawings but I could improve on that in certain situations.

Line & Silhoute Drawings

In my pencil drawings, I was focusing on shading and line quality within objects. As I continue this year, I want to continue to focus on shading and improve on creating depth and shape of objects. In my ink drawing I was trying to create interesting lines that connected and created a cool, unusual painting. In the future I went to keep having interesting lines and objects in drawings and creating depth within them.

Week 1 Drawing

This week we drew a variety of fruits and objects. For my first image, I picked out a older looking vase.  The reason I picked it was because I was intrigued by the shape of the glass and the cool shape of the handle. I tried to create depth in the glass area of the vase. Because we were using ink, it was not easy to make the image have a rounded shape. I tried to use two lines coming up from the bottom of the glass to create some depth of the vase. I also intentionally didn't connect some lines at the top of the vase to have it look a little different than the actual vase but still look cool.

In my drawing of the pepper, I tried to capture the jagged lines of the pepper. These lines helped give the pepper depth. I also tried to shade the stem of the pepper because of the way the light reflected off it. The contour lines of the pepper were hard to draw because of the tough lines and sharp jagged lines.