Dry Point
Ciudad De Angeles
Ciudad De Angeles
20cm x 15cm Oil on Paper September 2017 Exhibition Text: Ciudad De Angeles is a Spanish translation for City of Angels, and illustrates a large city skyline on the side of a body of water. Inspired by the Cubism Art Movement. Components from artworks like Marlin Vera's Cubist Blue City and Unforgettable by Joelle Blouin influenced how Ciudad De Angeles turned out. My aim was to depict the rapid growth of cities and urbanization, and to imitate Impressionism scenery all while using cubism techniques, but also veer off from the traditional 2-Dimensionality seen in cubism artworks and go with a 3-Dimensional image. |
Inspiration
Cubism is a visual arts movement from the 20th century that introduced collage into painting. During this time the world was changing rapidly with new technologies such as photography and aviation. In response to that, cubism was perhaps one of the most influential in it's century and commonly known as the first abstract style of modern art, was created and developed in 1907 by Picasso, and Georges Braque. This art movement is thought to be inspired by African art and its expressive style. Cubists made their artworks fragmented and 2-Dimensional to highlight flatness instead of depth. This new custom was a big change from the ordinary fixed viewpoints which were a popular custom since the Renaissance. Different views of objects or figures , also called planes, working together to create one piece was the reason most Cubism pieces seemed abstract and fragmented. Artists from this movements aimed to reflect on the modern world by develop of new way of seeing how the world changed rapidly in the early 20th century. Cubists therefore abandoned perspective and the customary ways of art copying nature, but wanted to emphasize the 2-Dimensions of the canvas. Cubism is compromised of 2 phases, analytical and synthetic cubism. Analytical cubism was in effect from 1908-12 and consisted of interweaving planes or objects with muted tones of black and grey. Synthetic cubism took place from 1912-1914 and was made up of more basic shapes and brighter colors as opposed to analytical cubism. Cubism had an international impact, leading to the creation of Futurism , Dada, and Art Deco as a response after it ended in 1914. I plan to use this information as an inspiration because the world is still changing rapidly like back in the 20th century. The same ideas and response to the changes and events from back then can still be applied to modern times.
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Joëlle Blouin - Unforgettable
Blouin, J. (2014, July 04). Joëlle Blouin Portfolio. Retrieved October 02, 2017, from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/156218680799624083/
Marlina Vera - Cubist Blue City“Art-Marlina Vera.” Pinterest, www.pinterest.com/adriekock/art-marlina-vera/?lp=true.
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The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Cubism.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 28 Dec. 2016, www.britannica.com/art/Cubism.
Cubism Movement, Artists and Major Works. (n.d.). Retrieved November 02, 2017, from http://www.theartstory.org/movement-cubism.htm
Tate. “Cubism – Art Term.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/cubism.
Cubism Movement, Artists and Major Works. (n.d.). Retrieved November 02, 2017, from http://www.theartstory.org/movement-cubism.htm
Tate. “Cubism – Art Term.” Tate, www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/cubism.
Planning
Sketch #1 is an extension from "Sunrise on Plainfield" the block print, which is partially German Expressionism. As seen from the thick lines and desolate tone, sketch #1 is German Expressionism. This sketch is meant to convey a foggy gloomy night at the park, and shows relationship problems and regret.
Sketch #2 is more Impressionism but still has some gloominess. This sketch is supposed to be the lake on the left, a small line of rocks in the middle, sand on the right, and a hill in the back ground accompanied by a gloomy gray sky, The endless lake horizon on the top left symbolizes that theres no limit, but the gloomy sky reminds you that no matter how far you made it in life the past is still there. |
Sketch #3 is the Cubist sketch which depicts the urban sprawl of a city along the lakefront. Most of the extraordinarily shaped buildings represent technological and architectural advancement in the recent decades. The lake is in the foreground with lines to exemplify small occasional waves, the rock-lined shore in the center, and the towering high rises in the center and background.
Tools
Process
Process
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8. I grabbed the soaked paper and dried off the excess water
9. Then i grabbed a piece of white paper and placed the plate's uncarved surface onto onto it
10. The soaked paper goes on the carved surface as neat and geometric as possible, and then altogether covered with a rubber sheet
11. All those things are then passed through the compressing roller which presses the soft wet paper into the ink filled lines of the plate, thus leaving the print on the wet paper
12. After the soaked paper has been compressed with the plate, the dry point need to dry and then its complete.
9. Then i grabbed a piece of white paper and placed the plate's uncarved surface onto onto it
10. The soaked paper goes on the carved surface as neat and geometric as possible, and then altogether covered with a rubber sheet
11. All those things are then passed through the compressing roller which presses the soft wet paper into the ink filled lines of the plate, thus leaving the print on the wet paper
12. After the soaked paper has been compressed with the plate, the dry point need to dry and then its complete.
Experimentation
Similar to the block print, dry point also uses the method of printing ink or paint onto papers. Therefore, i had some confidence due to the past experience with block print. Cutting lines into the plate was easy at time and very difficult at others. For example, when cutting in a new are the cutting tool would glide smoothly wherever my hand directed it. But as the plate got more and more dense with lines, the cutting tool would abruptly stop, or deviate due to the already-cut lines. Visibly seeing the small fine lines was a challenge. I had to hold the plate up to a light or on a dark surface in order to distinguish the lines from the plate. On the first attempt of dry point, my hands had ink which left fingerprints on the print paper. The second experimentation didn't go well either because the paper slipped while it was being compressed.The outline of the plate margins never seemed to print on the paper boldly but at the third experimentation i decided to stay with because of the fine detail that caught onto the paper.
Critique & Reflection
The process i used to create my dry point was somewhat connected to the inspiration. Cubisms artworks are 2-Dimnesional and are made up of fragmented planes whereas mine was 3-Dimensional, and did not include fragmentation. My artwork however did include geometric figures similar to those of the inspirations. Overall i'm satisfied with the results of this dry point. Some challenges were getting the cross hatching to stay in the boundaries of certain lines because the point of the cutting tool would fall into lines that were already made. Another challenge was trying to decide on the density of crosshatching for the body of water in the dry point, i was afraid to make it too dark or too light because i wanted to conserve the color i had in mind which was gray with calm smooth lines. The easiest part was scratching new lines into the plate, straight lines and curved lines were easy to make as long as they weren't overlapping other lines. When having to print the image onto paper, an obstacle was placing the paper onto the plate geometrically perfect. Occasionally the dry point plate and paper would slip and move on each other while being compressed which would ruin the outcome of the dry point, therefore we would have to try again with another paper. An improvement i would go back and make would be to make the skyscrapers two dimensional in order to have a stronger connection with Cubism.
Connection to the ACT
1) Clearly explain how you are able to to identify the cause-affect relationships between your inspiration and its affect upon your artwork.
In both inspiration artworks, buildings, and a body of water are shown, aswell as geometric figures and a sense of rapid growth in humanity. These component mentioned previously that are found in cubism, are included into my Dry Point.
2)What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Judging off all of the websites I visited to gather information, all of them were very informative with formal writing styles and summaries for that topic.
3)What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I generalized that Cubism had a very big impact on other countries, thus causing a response in the form of new Art movements. Cubism was also the first abstract movement, brought collages into painting and was inspired by African art, specifically masks.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme for my research was Cubism and the effects of urbanization.
5)What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
From the research, i came into conclusion that Cubism is a very important movement due to its impact and connections with other art movements and its style of depicting the changes around the world in a new way never seen before at it's time.
In both inspiration artworks, buildings, and a body of water are shown, aswell as geometric figures and a sense of rapid growth in humanity. These component mentioned previously that are found in cubism, are included into my Dry Point.
2)What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Judging off all of the websites I visited to gather information, all of them were very informative with formal writing styles and summaries for that topic.
3)What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I generalized that Cubism had a very big impact on other countries, thus causing a response in the form of new Art movements. Cubism was also the first abstract movement, brought collages into painting and was inspired by African art, specifically masks.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme for my research was Cubism and the effects of urbanization.
5)What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
From the research, i came into conclusion that Cubism is a very important movement due to its impact and connections with other art movements and its style of depicting the changes around the world in a new way never seen before at it's time.