Unit 5 Statement - First Draft

Unit 5 & 6 Statement (all referenced work is on my main blog which I will link at the bottom)

This statement will discuss the progress of my artwork, concepts of my final major and timescale discussions of my proposed final major. The review of my own practices and the influence of other artists will be integrated throughout the statement, hopefully giving it a more dynamic structure.

The one, key influence for all of my work during this foundation year has to be Chuck Close. His work was the reason I started wanting to scale up my portraits to a size abstractly larger than my previous and I knew from the start that a self portrait similar to his would be my starting point for my final major. Whilst this could be seen as closed minded and a linear way of thinking but the other units during this year have given me the opportunity to work in other areas and not be all absorbed by one piece of work. If anything, starting it so early has only allowed for major improvement as I’ve really been able to see my processes and techniques evolve. I'd like to draw attention to the heavily increased improvement and refinement process, with a lot more focus on trial and error and learning from other artists, as well as Close. The reason for this drastic improvement process has to be down to the study and analysis of these two portrait artists; Kelvin Okafor and Arinze Stanley. Both of which have a large social media following and provide workshops that allow others to learn from them and improve their drawings. However, as these workshops tend to be extortionately expensive and as i'm self taught, i figured I'd be happy with learning what I can from them by looking at their work. One of the main things I had avoided before studying these two artists, was the use of different media in a graphite portrait. There is always potential to damage or ruin a drawing when mixing media so under advice from teachers and peers I chose never to introduce alternative media. However, one of the things my teacher pointed out during a ‘crit’ of my final major self portrait, was the lack of depth it possessed in comparison to a charcoal portrait I'd done the year before. I soon came to realise that the way Stanely and Okafor achieve such detailed and accurate drawings is by using charcoal to achieve darker tones where it would be otherwise impossible with graphite.

Studying Okafor’s work in comparison with Stanley’s has allowed me to see the entirely different process of working they both have. Stanley’s compositions tend to be extremely accurate to the reference he uses, showing a high degree of both photorealism and hyperrealism. Okafor on the other hand tends to subtly change some aspects of the original drawing to give it a more airbrushed and delicate look. Under close scrutiny, he seems to divert slightly from basic aspects of the reference photo to achieve a composition of soft, airbrushed and realistic portraits. Okafor seems unbridled by having a slightly different eyebrow or eye shape, as long as the finished composition looks realistic. Upon discovering these styles of working, I’ve preferred to look at Stanley’s work to get the raw and genuine photo accurate compositions he produces and look at Okafor purely for techniques and process rather than the overall outcome.

One key aspect of my work I’ve been wanting to improve is a certain graininess that appears due to spending a large amount of time working into a composition. I managed to narrow it down to the fault of low quality paper and spent days looking through paper i had to determine the best to use. The graininess, however, still seemed to appear and whilst it didn't ruin my work, it devalued some of the hyperrealistic aspects. I did some research and asked around and managed to get a brilliant recommendation of Strathmore Bristol paper. It feels like photo printing paper and is as thick as card. It’s incredibly smooth texture has allowed my mediums to be perfectly blended into the paper without leaving the grainy look and allow my compositions to maintain their hyper realistic values. The more and more I develop work using this paper, the more I appreciate the quality of it. The robust yet smooth quality allows thorough blending to achieve soft skin outcomes and intricate detailing of pores or spots.

I've decided that the name for my final project will be ‘Me’. I feel as the proposed goal will compose of a singular, large self portrait, there is no better fitting title describing what it entails. I decided what I wanted my final piece to be last October after reminiscing over my 2nd year coursework being a large charcoal self portrait scaled at around 1.5 x 1.5 meters. I knew that my final major would be portrait based, as I feel it is what I excel at. However, instead of completely reliving the process, I wanted to revert to my previously preferred medium of graphite. If however, I had focused more on hyperrealistic artists prior to the near completion of my final major, I would have definitely integrated charcoal into the composition to add an extra sense of depth and tonal contrast. The switch back to graphite came after drawing actor Emilia Clarke’s eye in graphite and being overwhelmingly positive about the result. It gave me a new reinvigorated confidence in the medium My goal for the final major was to make it better in every way possible in comparison to the 2nd year self portrait. The reason for this was that I’d studied Chuck Close more indepthly and brushed the surface of researching other hyperrealistic artists at the very start of the year, not to mention my rapid progression in producing my own photorealistic work. I’d done some studies at the start of the year of depicting celebrities, focusing on getting as much detail into the composition as I could at the time, given how new I was to the world of hyperrealism. One was the eye of actress Emelia Clarke, the other, a portrait of singer Billie Eilish. I shall discuss the process in section four (the paragraph after next)

The majority of techniques used fall under the stereotypical list of techniques you’d expect for any graphite related composition; shading for depth, crosshatching for tone, stippling for texture, sketching for outlines and blending for realism. The tools used, however, are not so simple. I used a range of 4H - 14B graphite wood pencils, 2B - 8B woodless graphite pencils, 2B, 6B and 9B graphite crayons and a HB mechanical pencil. In addition to this, a large array of blending stumps were used to properly give the composition a smooth and soft look. Many types of erasers were used to create vibrant highlights, varying from putty erasers to electrical erasers. Obviously the use of all these mediums requires a surface to apply them to so a very large piece of -insert paper name here- was sourced (from our art cupboard) which measured around 1.5 x 2 meters, so only slightly bigger than my last self portrait. The timescale is linked under the bibliography.

I composed Clarke’s eye using graphite pencils, erasers and blending stumps, progressively building up the eye and the surrounding areas until I was pleased enough with my progress to call it finished. I spent a considerable amount of the time on developing the skin and its texture, something I’d never really done before but is a key part of hyperrealism. The outcome was very successful, the tonal value varies throughout, adding exponential depth to the composition. Furthermore, the finely drawn pores and wrinkles add that extra inch of realism, giving the composition life and dimension. The darker graphite pencils have been utilised to create soft shadows around certain aspects of the eye, implying multiple light sources were used during the photoshoot. The main criticism I have of this specific composition is the lacking softness and smoothness that the bristol paper, I mentioned earlier, allows you to have. Due to this, the composition has a slight grainy and rough feeling which seems to suggest it’s an eye of someone in anguish, rather than in delicate bliss. Trying to vary my use of mediums, Eilish’s portrait is composed using a biro pen, something I’d taken a liking to in my pre foundation work. I used just the one pen, aiming to achieve photorealism with as few tools as possible. Biro tends to be a high risk/reward medium as one line too dark or a slip of the hand resulting in a scribble cannot be erased. However, it provides rapid coverage of the portrait as tens of layers do not necessarily have to be added. As a moderately impatient person, I found this extremely inviting as I could get positive composition results a lot faster than if i was using pencil. Furthermore, white gel pen used to create highlights appears a lot more natural in the composition, giving the highlights that man made and shiny realism.

Word Count - 1507 (not including bibliography)

Bibliography

Kelvin Okafor (@kelvinokafor_art) • Instagram photos and videos

Arinze Stanley • Artist (@arinze) • Instagram photos and videos

Urban Secrets Sky Atlantic HD 4

Chuck Close: A Portrait in Progress

Chuck Close

Paul cadden: Hyperrealism | Of

National Portrait Gallery: Home

The difference between Photorealism and Hyperrealism

Books that have influenced my work

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Search-Press-Ltd-9781844485086-Complete/dp/1844485080/ref=sr_1_1?crid=S62EPJMKR3TL&dchild=1&keywords=drawing+a+complete+guide&qid=1591288081&sprefix=dfrawing%2C+a+com%2Caps%2C135&sr=8-1