Choice Watercolor
Title: Rainy Day Crouch
Size: 40.64 cm x 30.48 cm Medium: Watercolor Completion Date: April 27, 2023 Exhibition Text: My watercolor piece takes inspiration from August Macke and his watercolor pieces. I used watercolor paint and brushes on an illustration board. I tried to use his style of bright colors in block-like structures and incorporate his minimalist look on people and objects. I wanted to capture his vivid color use and the subject of the environment playing a big part in his pieces while figures are smaller and not in focus as much. This piece is meant to emphasize the importance of the environment. |
Inspiration:
Artist on Focus: August Macke
The artist that I chose to focus on for my inspiration is August Macke. I mainly looked at his watercolor pieces such as Fashion Window and Donkey Rider. In his works, Macke tries to capture these scenes from people's everyday life and make them more colorful and vivid to help people see beauty in the world around him. In these pieces there is an outsider looking in on the scene. Whether the scene is people looking through a window at clothes or a person riding on a donkey strolling around. When seeing these pieces, while there are specific parts that do quite clearly stand out, it does seem as if every part of the painting is the subject of the work. Every little detail that is added into the pieces is meant to be there as the main subject. The pieces have a sense of unity. Looking at these scenes you get a sense of extreme calm and gentleness. The paintings make people step back for a second and just breathe. The artwork was created so that people could look at it and then just admire the beauty of this everyday scene. To hopefully see these and get the viewer to start seeing the actual world around them in a new unique way as well. The entire piece is emphasized by the artist. I plan on doing similar things with my work. I want to have a subject but almost make it lost within the rest of the piece to let the viewer admire this everyday scene that I will have. I want to be able to convey the importance of the world around us just as Macke does. In order to accomplish this, I need to use watercolors to the best of my abilities to match his style. Most of it are just blobs of color right next to other blobs of color with some areas having some borderlines but not many. I need to capture some of these specific parts, so that I could convey the beauty of the world around us in my own way. |
Planning:
When I was getting started with this piece, I had an original outline. I wanted to specifically look at Macke’s Fashion Window piece, showing a person in this grand environment typos. I wanted to show a person admiring the world around him. To do this, I decided to go out on a walk on a rainy night. While out, I had my sister take random pictures of me in different positions just being me in this natural space and position. I made sure to get a wide variety of images in different areas. I was also sure to capture me looking away at other areas.
On the walk I ended up taking over 100 pictures and I had to be sure to narrow it down to specific ones only. I eventually narrowed it down to nine photos that all captured some kind of emotion or just everyday scene, or admiring the world around us. I looked through them carefully and went through them all. I eventually narrowed it down to just 3 images that all show me looking around at something to more closely match my inspiration and ended up choosing the one of me crouched down by the fire hydrant. With the picture now in mind, I was able to start moving on to the actual making of the project.
Process:
To start off my watercolor painting, I pulled up my reference image and just started roughly sketching out where the lines and things would go. I needed a rough layout for everything before I could move on to complete a better drawing of it. I had to mess around with the exact placement of the tree and me a couple of times but I eventually found a layout that satisfied both me and the picture. I then went back over it and drew the sketch in more detail. I had to be careful not to draw too dark so that when I did lay down the watercolor it wouldn’t show through the watercolor. Once finished, I lightly went over everything with my eraser just in case, and then got to painting.
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I first decided to do the sidewalk. I had to remember that August Macke has some exaggerations when it comes to the color in his piece. I decided to really lean into that. In order to make the sidewalk a color that was close, I decided to take a layer of blue with a thin layer of black paint over it to darken it down a bit. This ended up looking a lot better than I thought it would so I continued to paint the other part of it like that as well with the blues and blacks. When I got done with that I moved on to the middle left side grass. Looking back at the reference image, the grass seemed to have some green in it but mostly had some yellow patches. In order to do that effect I literally just added on some green and yellow paint together. I also decided to add in some brown, and then another layer of black. I then moved onto the fire hydrant. It wasn’t that difficult to do as it was mainly just red.
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After getting that done I started moving around more working on the tree and the grass around the fire hydrant, with brown dirt patches in the grass. I then started adding more and more color to the area around the top. Around that area is where I started to get a little more abstract and vivid with the color choices not being exact. That was part of my goal however so that I can make this gloomy rainy day scene bright and happy. I slowly started to add more and more detail to the piece like lines in the grass, or details on the fire hydrant itself as well.
I lastly moved onto the rest of the house and the sidewalk as well as minor other details. I eventually finished it off and had my watercolor completely done.
Experimentation:
It had been some time before I had used watercolors so I had to do some simple experimentation with how they looked. I originally noticed that sometimes, because of the water I had on my brush or because I was spreading it out too much, it was coming out lighter than the actual color was. To help me understand this color fade I decided to draw a palette of each of the colors. I was also unsure with how it would react exactly on the illustration board so I took some unused parts that I cut off and painted on those a bit to see how the watercolors worked exactly.
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Further experimentation I had done revolved mainly around experimenting with the watercolor paints on the side while I was painting so that I could see how different colors blended together or how they would look next to each other. I would also try thinning out the watercolor paint on my brush to see what exactly that does to the color. When doing that it made the color less intense which was helpful for me in some situations.
The last bit that I really experimented with was detail work. At first I had just painted the area of the fire hydrant red and kept it that way. I thought it would still look alright and in place but the more I added to the overall scene, the more it started looking wrong. I then decided that I should add some extra detail work to it. I used the smallest brush that I had to make sure that it didn’t look awkwardly big and started adding in detail. It was looking a lot better so I started to move on to other parts of the painting. Again however, as I added more detail to other parts of the painting it still looked off. I realized that I had not added many curved lines to it and it looked really flat. So I added in some curved detail lines and it looked much better.
I also did some similar experimenting with the side of the main background house. Looking at the actual image it was made of bricks. When I painted it originally it was just solid. Something about it felt really off. So, I tried to add in some of the detail with the bricks. As I was doing so, I accidentally made some brush strokes that were too big or long. It started to look a little wrong but I kept doing it and eventually made it look normal and good.
Critique:
Similarities:
There are many similarities that can be seen between my source material and my project. For one, they are all made from using the same materials of watercolor paint. The colors that are being used are also very extravagant and vivid despite the normal scene looking dull. Macke and I are adding in this splash of color to help show the beauty of this scene rather than the dullness of it. We are both showing how important the world around us is. Looking at what the subjects of the works are, while they are bigger, do not take up much space and also fills up not a lot of space on the overall picture either.
Differences:
There are also differences that can be seen between my inspiration and my work. In Macke’s work, as things get further into the background he tends to drop off on the detail of those objects and just make them spots of color. While I did do some of this, I also ended up adding in some extra details to areas in the background such as detailing on houses and other things of the sort. Another difference comes from his coloring of aspects in his painting. He is using a wide variety of colors in different areas by using all of his palette and mixing. In my piece there are a variety of colors, however a lot of colors had to be similar to each other because of the limit of how much and what type of material is needed.
There are many similarities that can be seen between my source material and my project. For one, they are all made from using the same materials of watercolor paint. The colors that are being used are also very extravagant and vivid despite the normal scene looking dull. Macke and I are adding in this splash of color to help show the beauty of this scene rather than the dullness of it. We are both showing how important the world around us is. Looking at what the subjects of the works are, while they are bigger, do not take up much space and also fills up not a lot of space on the overall picture either.
Differences:
There are also differences that can be seen between my inspiration and my work. In Macke’s work, as things get further into the background he tends to drop off on the detail of those objects and just make them spots of color. While I did do some of this, I also ended up adding in some extra details to areas in the background such as detailing on houses and other things of the sort. Another difference comes from his coloring of aspects in his painting. He is using a wide variety of colors in different areas by using all of his palette and mixing. In my piece there are a variety of colors, however a lot of colors had to be similar to each other because of the limit of how much and what type of material is needed.
Reflection:
I feel as though this project turned out quite nicely. I have not worked in since I was very much younger and I feel as though it still turned out quite nicely. As an artist, I further developed my skills using the watercolor medium. The inspiration for this project is August Macke and his watercolor pieces specifically. My inspiration does connect to my piece as it is also in watercolor and shares a layout that Macke would use in one of his works. They are both sharing the same theme revolving around the importance of the world around you and its effect on art. The biggest challenge I had with this piece is working with the actual watercolor paints and having to get used to them again. This project ties into projects with its use of the world around you to help show how great of an impact it has on people. My favorite party was finally seeing the piece done and put all together. It was satisfying to see all of the colors popping out and showing life in this calm scene.
Connecting to the ACT:
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
There is a cause effect relationship seen between my piece and my inspiration in the medium of the pieces as well as the layout and coloring of the scene. Macke uses vivid colors in his watercolors so I did the same. I also chose a layout of a person looking at something.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach of August Macke on his work is creating an environment that one would see everyday and trun it into something beautiful to give the message of admiring everyday situations.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Generalizations and conclusions I made is that Macke has chosen to analyze the beauty of these everyday scenes and not focusing as much as the people individually but as a part of the whole.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme is admiring the world around you and how it affects art.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made inferences about how Macke had made different pieces.
There is a cause effect relationship seen between my piece and my inspiration in the medium of the pieces as well as the layout and coloring of the scene. Macke uses vivid colors in his watercolors so I did the same. I also chose a layout of a person looking at something.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach of August Macke on his work is creating an environment that one would see everyday and trun it into something beautiful to give the message of admiring everyday situations.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Generalizations and conclusions I made is that Macke has chosen to analyze the beauty of these everyday scenes and not focusing as much as the people individually but as a part of the whole.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme is admiring the world around you and how it affects art.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I made inferences about how Macke had made different pieces.
Citations (MLA):
“August Macke (1887-1914).” August Macke, German Expressionist Painter, Blue Rider Group (Blaue Reiter), www.visual-arts-cork.com/famous-artists/august-macke.htm. Accessed 11 May 2023.
“August Macke - 128 Artworks - Painting.” Www.Wikiart.Org, www.wikiart.org/en/august-macke. Accessed 11 May 2023.
Dyson, Gokce. “August Macke: Short and Colorful Life of a Promising Artist.” DailyArt Magazine, 2 Jan. 2023, www.dailyartmagazine.com/august-macke/.
“August Macke - 128 Artworks - Painting.” Www.Wikiart.Org, www.wikiart.org/en/august-macke. Accessed 11 May 2023.
Dyson, Gokce. “August Macke: Short and Colorful Life of a Promising Artist.” DailyArt Magazine, 2 Jan. 2023, www.dailyartmagazine.com/august-macke/.