Ceramics

I decided I would experiment a bit and do some ceramic work, I have recreated a statue of zeus but used a drawing I had done of the statue as a reference point.

I tried to give the piece the same effect I had given the drawing, giving an 'unfinished' look to it.

The piece isn't as successful as I had imagined it to be, the structure of the face lacks a realistic quality to it which gives it an unprofessional appearance. for example, the cheeks, nose and eyes don't have the same strong structure that it should, also the hair and beard didn't turn out how I had imagined it , I tried to give it a thick wavy appearance but once again it didn't  work out, it instead has the appearance of clay worms. 

FMP Evaluation

Evaluation

The Final Major Project is founded on a biographical subject, based on the story of a person, place, art movement or a historical event. I thought about the things I am interested in and the things that make me who I am, after making a list of all of these things, I decided that the best thing for me would to base my FMP around Greek mythology.

I have had a huge interest in Greek mythology since I was very young, I find the stories and art extremely fascinating, and throughout my childhood I have read the stories and have been engrossed by the statues built to exalt the deities and the people who have inspired the arts which have echoed through the centuries.

 From the small vases to the giant statues built to worship the gods with precise and intricate details, so I will be exploring the stories and recreating them and the structures through my art work.

I built up a huge collection of images and materials to create a series of collages, using printed images, book pages, magazines and other things, I then researched a selection of different collage artist and created my own style of collaging technique, I didn't really use collage in most of my work, although I found it interesting, I prefer to put detail into my work myself and rely on myself to create an image.

I used several different mediums in my work.

Photography

Although only used the photographs as a visual reference, photography has been extremely useful during my project, being able to capture an image and recreate it as my own, such as I have done in my final piece, I used the images of a tutor to create a reference point and paint him as a the God of War Ares.

Graphics

I only did one piece of work regarding to graphics in my project, using one of my photographs of Matt I have edited the image using several effects on both Photoshop and illustrator. I have cropped the image to give it an intriguing composition, darkened certain sections to emphasize them and give the image an effect of a painting to give it a very dark and serious painting. I don’t exactly respond well to the graphic side of art as I prefer to create an image in a more traditional way otherwise I may have continued to create more digital images.

3D

I attempted to recreate a statue of Zeus using a drawing I did of a one of his statues, the piece didn’t turn out exactly how I had imagined it, the quality of the piece was poor, I feel if I had more time to practice or create a series of structures I could possibly have made a very successful piece, unfortunately the duration wasn't quite long enough and I had been concentrating on my painting.

Drawing and painting

My strongest point of my artist abilities are my drawings and paintings, I find it easy to structure an image and capture the tonal and line qualities, specifically more with portraiture, I find it interesting how a person’s body language and facial expressions can capture the emotion of a subject, for instance, the slightest movement in someone’s eyebrow or cheek can change the expression of happy to sad or angry to surprised, it intrigues me to attempt to capture this. This is why I chose to do my final piece as a large portrait of Matt representing the God of war, Ares, using acrylic paints on canvas. The image was fairly successful, I feel I have captured the emotion of anger I had tried to, I have also avoided cluttering the image with a background to keep the attention on the main subject, and I believe the composition of the piece allows the subject to seem ‘mighty’ and ‘godlike’. Although I have only had good reviews and appraisals from my peers and tutors, I feel the image could improve, in no specific section, I just feel I could have done better.  

Myrrha an Cinyras

One of the pieces I had previously posted was one of Myrrha and Cinyras, after looking back on the image I had done, I have realised that it looked unpleasant and cluttered, the drawing of the figures look unprofessional, the paint work was poor as there is no concept of colour or tonality, the bordering looks shabby and the image is cluttered. So I decided to recreate the image in a different way,

The image is of the same concept, that Myrrha has ran into the forest after tricking her father into incestuous activities,  and the gods heard her cries to be punished, and turned her into a tree.

I believe the second image is a lot more successful than the original, the composition gives it a greater effect of a solid structure, and I have avoided cluttering the image with unnecessary items which draws focus to the main feature.

I have added certain things to give the image to give the appearance of a tree, such as the leaves at the end of the woman's hands and in her hair, and the look of roots entwined with her lower legs.

Hermes, Aphrodite and Athena

I have recreated an image of Hermes statue in pencil.

I am very pleased with the outcome of this image, I think the shading and composition give the main figure more depth, with the main figure being in the left corner and the strong lines on the right side of it, it almost borders the image and draws the eye to the detail in the shading.

I also did a sketch of my own version of Aphrodite birth rising from the sea.

and recreated a statue of Athena in the walker museum in Liverpool.

i took the photograph of the statue att this angle to try and capture the solemn look in her face and to try and capture the  complexity of different tones in the structure

12 Labours of Hercules/Heracles

One of the most popular stories from Greek mythology is the saga of Hercules/Heracles 12 labours, I used this to my advantage and illustrated them in different mediums, some painted, ink work, sketches and water soluble pens and others.

Some I am more pleased with than others, either because I thought the visual work was better or worse or that the image had not turned out the way I had planned. Some of the images don’t illustrate the story precisely, but show certain aspects of the tale.

To get a better understanding of the story and to save having to write it i will add a link to each aspect of the story for you to read yourself.

Nemean Lion

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/lion.html

I used a mixture of different mediums to illustrate this feature, conte crayons on sugar paper and acrylic paint.

I chose to blend the colours of the sugar paper and cartridge paper to give the image some depth, and by not putting too much detail in the drawing of Hercules and the lion and leaving a space in the top left corner, I have avoided cluttering the image.

Although I like the lion it took some work to get it to the way I had imaged it, I had to redo the nose of the lion and found it challenging to get it to the size and shape to make it look accurate, but even now I feel the nose is slightly off.

The Lernean Hydra

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/hydra.html

I thought I might try to recreate this story and give it the same effect as the old vases, unfortunately, the image didn't come out as I had hoped. The composition of the image isn't quite right, there isn't any spatial awareness, if I was to redo the image, I would maybe avoid doing it in the style I have done, as it doesn't look aesthetically pleasing, and I would definitely change the placement 

The Hind of Ceryneia Diana's Pet Deer

                                                                                 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/hind.html

I used an image of two deer rutting, I then removed one of the deer and replaced it with a drawing of Hercules, painting in acrylics.

The Erymanthian Boar 

                                      http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/boar.html      

  

I used an image from a vase and changed it slightly drawing in pencil to recreate this feature, I used a stronger line to define the space between the shoulders of Hercules and the boars back, and I have also subtly added the king hiding from the boar in a vase in the background.
  

The Augean Stables

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/stables.html

Using an image of Arnold Schwarzenegger, I have drawn Hercules stood in front of the water as he directs water to the stables below, using the water soluble pens I tried to give the effect of water splashing off of the body and wrapping around him as he stands strong in the current. I chose Arnold Schwarzenegger as basic structure to the drawing not only because of his physique, but he also played the role of Hercules in, ‘Hercules in New York’ 1969 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065832/?ref_=sr_5

The Stymphalian Birds

    
I used an image of a statue dedicated to the tale of Hercules, I like the way that the light and dark spaces of the statue were accentuated by the sun and chose to do it in conte crayons and sugar paper to emphasize it.

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/birds.html

 The Creten Bull

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/bull.html

I chose to do a less detailed image of the Cretan bull, as I like the images that are used to advertise or to be used as a logo for football teams I used an image I found similar to a team and remade it in my own style, using ink, I the added the Greek patterns through ought the piece to make it more interesting

The Man-Eating Horses of Diomedes

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/horses.html

I found it quite difficult to portray this story, and as I struggle to draw horses it proved challenging. I tried my best to find an image I thought best represent a man eating horse, eventually I decided to use a normal horses face and drew it in pencil,

I would like to redo this image if I have time as I am not entirely happy with it.

Hippolyte's Belt

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/amazon.html

I used inks to do this image, I thought it would give it an eerie look to it.

The Cattle of Geryon

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/cattle.html

I used three images of Greek helmets to do this image to represent the three headed attacker in the story

The Apples of the Hesperides

I am very happy with the way this image turned out, i tried to show the stress of heracles when he was forced to hold the skies, using a selection of different mediums, such as charcoal, pencil, ink and paint

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/apples.html

Cerberus

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Herakles/cerberus.html

i used three seperate images of dogs to do this piece, by getting the images and blending them together i think i have created a successful portrayal of the cerabus.

David

The statue of David is one of the most renown pieces of sculptural art worldwide, next to the statue of liberty and the statue of Zeus at Olympia.

As I enjoy using sculptures as a reference to draw from I chose to use this and try to capture the expression on his face 

I also decided to paint it from another angle

Final piece

I have used the images of Matt, which I used to do the smaller paintings to create a large painting around, 6’x4’ using acrylic paints,

As I forgot to photograph my progress and have no images to show the development, but I started out by stretching up a canvas and drawing the image I had chosen of Matt to the size I wanted and added slight detail before painting the piece.  

I am extremely happy with the final outcome of the piece, I believe the choice of colours and paints was almost perfect, with the acrylic i was able to layer the colours and give several different textures and tones to certain areas of the image, for example the eyes and the beard.

with the beard using the layers to give of the affect of real hair rather than a stuck on beard, and the shading and highlight around the eyes wouldn't have the same affects.

the only part of the piece I believe could use some improvement is the mouth, every time I attempt to paint a mouth it never seems to look quite right, this is something I will attempt to improve.