Title : Past or present?
size : Medium : pencil,colored pencil on tag board completion : May 2022 Exhibition: In my piece, Past or Present? I wanted to show the difference between the past and present through the use of settlements. The past is a town inspired by the wild west and media such as Red dead redemption and the artist Albert Bierstadt. while the present is based on large downtown cityscapes. |
Inspiration : My inspiration is Albert Bierstadt. Albert Bierstadt was a German artist from the 1800s (1830 - 1902). Bierstadt's paintings mainly focus on the western part of America like California. It's a part of the neoclassicism art movement so it focused heavily on more realism than some other movements.
Another Inspiration is Red Dead Redemption. Its five fictitious states are based on Louisiana, Texas, and other southwestern US states during 1899. The past town is very loosely based on what I recall seeing. More specifically the town is based on the town of Valentine, Annesburg & Strawberry. The first two are very "straight" like mine, and Strawberry is located by a forest of pines which is where my town get's it from. (Strawberry on left, Valentine on right) right most A stormy night in the rocky mountains by Albert Bierstadt |
planning: From the start, I wanted to do a past/present theme. Making a city would likely be one of the easier ways to convey this, and I wanted to make a city as well. So I started by going back to project 2 planning as it was originally supposed to be this piece. The idea to make a modern urban city and a medieval village were both there.
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I quickly decided to ditch the mountain idea. While good in concept, I was unable to properly work with it while making it look good. Because I lacked experience & forgot how to properly do 1 point or 2 point perspective, I decided that I wouldn't do that, for the city at least. I thought that the city should be a horizontal street which would allow me to connect to the past through a side street.
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Process/experimentation: I began by making the city very rectangular and geometrical. I used a straight edge to make the Buildings as straight as possible along with the street. I used the straight edge to get the windows on the buildings. The buildings take up most of the sky to block out the blue to better show the difference between the two.
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Making the town started with making the road roughly line up with the street of the city. Making the town a parallel to the city was a last-minute decision. The original idea was to make its main street vertical rather than horizontal. I then made buildings going along the road. Making the small campfire was also a last-minute decision to somewhat fill the space and add some variety.
The city part is quite flat and the buildings are mixed together. This was intentionally done once I realized that most of my grays would look very similar to each other. This better shows how the past is different than the present. I purposely left most of the buildings blank because they were not as important as they were not the focal point of the specific side of the piece and to save a small bit of time but not much in the grand scheme of things.
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Critique/reflection: The past side looks alright. It has a decent amount of detail and effort. there's even shading which is an improvement over my last piece. However it is quite barren overall. The downside to my piece is the present. The city is barren and poorly colored. I did not enjoy making this side. It was a draining process to complete it and if I were to remake it I wouldn't enjoy it. Overall it's kinda weak but I personally would think it would be stronger if it was the past, but that would defeat the purpose and meaning of the piece.
Compare/contrast :
Compare: Both are zoom-outs of landscapes. Both are done in more traditional mediums. both have very similar "origins" that being the western USA.
Contrast: The inspiration is focused on landscapes that are seeming untouched by man, while my art is focused on Towns and cities. My art is a diptych while his art is mostly singular style paintings. My art depicts more current buildings which my inspiration would never have been exposed to.
Compare: Both are zoom-outs of landscapes. Both are done in more traditional mediums. both have very similar "origins" that being the western USA.
Contrast: The inspiration is focused on landscapes that are seeming untouched by man, while my art is focused on Towns and cities. My art is a diptych while his art is mostly singular style paintings. My art depicts more current buildings which my inspiration would never have been exposed to.
Connections to ACT :
1.)The cause and effect relationship between my inspiration and my work is the scenery. Both the scenery and the inspirations are focused on mountainous regions.
2.) The overall approach is paint nature. While he also made it to make money, he also liked to capture the beauty of the west.
3.) The generalization is Bierstadt that loved the natural beauty of western America. Most of his art is related to the vast canyons and cliffs of California and the other places around there.
4.) The central idea was to capture the beauty of the west. Most of his artwork focused on landscapes of the area of the west coast area.
5.) The inference that I saw was that Bierstadt loved the western part of America. Because he was an immigrant to America, it was likely drastically different from where he came from.
1.)The cause and effect relationship between my inspiration and my work is the scenery. Both the scenery and the inspirations are focused on mountainous regions.
2.) The overall approach is paint nature. While he also made it to make money, he also liked to capture the beauty of the west.
3.) The generalization is Bierstadt that loved the natural beauty of western America. Most of his art is related to the vast canyons and cliffs of California and the other places around there.
4.) The central idea was to capture the beauty of the west. Most of his artwork focused on landscapes of the area of the west coast area.
5.) The inference that I saw was that Bierstadt loved the western part of America. Because he was an immigrant to America, it was likely drastically different from where he came from.
Citations :
https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.6707.html
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/albert-bierstadt-410
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Bierstadt
Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar Games
https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.6707.html
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/albert-bierstadt-410
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Albert-Bierstadt
Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar Games