Project 2
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Sisters of Fate
Watercolor, India ink, and acrylic on bristol board 30.45 cm x 11.45 cm; Tryptic October 2020 Exhibition Text My piece "Sisters of Fate" represents how angelic life and death can be, and the questions that come with it. Questions such as; is there a preset fate for us all? Why am I, in particular, here? and many more. These myths of fate and destiny are obviously not true, but we like to think they are. We like to think each one of us has a purpose even if nothing's going according to ones chosen plan. We sometimes accept these personal life plans not working out as divine intervention leading us in another direction. Though, should we do this? |
Planning
Inspiration
I was mainly inspired by the greek myth of the three fates and the idea that everyone has a predetermined fate. In the greek myth of the three sisters of fate, they are the daughters of Zeus and Themis, and are made to assign individual destinies to mortals at birth. As I was playing with the subject I wanted to depict more of a life to death sort of meaning. Weaving their red string of fate through flowers that represent life, death, new beginnings, immortality, or love.
The flowers to the right are Amaranth, Cypress flowers, Peach blossoms, Plumeria, and Ylang Ylang flowers. The Amaranth, in myth, is a deep red or purple, a never fading flower, and a symbol of immortality. This flower does not die as all other flowers do. Cypress stands as a symbol for sacrifice, death, and mourning. The peach tree symbolizes longevity. The plumeria flower represents birth, love, spring, and new beginnings. Then, Ylang Ylang, in Wiccan tradition, symbolizes love and self-confidence. |
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Planning Sketches
In the beginning of this project, I was going to make a small tryptic and have flowers representing new life, longevity, and death or mourning in each respective triptych part alongside the respective sister. The color tones were going to go from warm to cool tones based on the meaning of each. Of course after I was done with ⅔ of the piece I decided to scrap the entire thing and make one larger piece.
I still had the sketches I used to graphite transfer the three sister figures (right), so I used them again since I still liked their poses. Instead of the nine flowers I had planned on including in the first piece I narrowed it down to five since I wanted the flowers bigger than the sisters but in the background. I also wanted to make them more detailed and colorful. SInce I was going to make the background way more detailed and colorful I needed to make the sisters more neutral tones, so natural colored skin and plain white dresses to pop out from the muted and colorful background. |
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Process
Process
Inking
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Experimentation
When I first started this piece I was going to do a small tryptic with lots of color but not that much detail. The complections of the three fates would be green, blue, and red tones and I was going to paint the flowers in greyscale. After completing most of that I decided to scrap the whole thing, and make one bigger piece after I realized it would be too busy of a composition for such a physically small format.
I used the same poses for the sisters as in the original idea because I liked them. I decided to make the figures less colorful and the background very colorful. I experimented with layering watercolor and exaggerating the colors of the flowers. I also challenged myself to only use a reference picture to ink the flowers and not use a pencil undersketch. I think it worked out even better than I expected! |
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Critique
I personally really like this piece, and think it's a strong addition to my portfolio, though I do have a few critiques. The composition doesn't sit well with me, theres something about it that I don't like very much. I feel like it could be the middle sister's pose, as well as the shapes of all three of their heads or how I drew their hair. Another thing I wish I could change is that the leaf on the Amaranth goes off the page and is the only thing that does, this was my only mistake when inking without doing an undersketch first. My last critique is that I should have done a better job of making sure when going over the tread again with acrylic that I kept the line more uniform, since theres some spots were it gets pretty thick.
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Comare and Contrast
Similar
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Reflection
Overall, I feel as though this piece is a great addition to my portfolio, and is different enough from my other work to be recognizable. I actually really enjoyed the process I went through with this piece. Because the amount of times i've wanted to start over on a piece but couldn't is unreal. I didn't use an artist inspiration with this one because I searched for an artist that would fit my own personal aesthetic but failed to. So, let's just say I'm my own inspiration with this piece.
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
I was majorly influenced by my personal life, as I am effected by these uncertain times, so I wanted to put a little trust in faith.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
My research was searching through the language of the flowers.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I've come to appreciate a little more the fact that not just one or two cultures put different meanings to different types of flowers.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The idea of fate and how this belief affects ones perception on life and death.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
There's so many niche meanings to lots of different types of flowers, it even matters how the flower is presented.
I was majorly influenced by my personal life, as I am effected by these uncertain times, so I wanted to put a little trust in faith.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
My research was searching through the language of the flowers.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I've come to appreciate a little more the fact that not just one or two cultures put different meanings to different types of flowers.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The idea of fate and how this belief affects ones perception on life and death.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
There's so many niche meanings to lots of different types of flowers, it even matters how the flower is presented.