Illustration
Positive
Title: Looking to the Future
Size: 36 cm x 27.5 cm Medium: Digital Illustration Completion: March 2019 Exhibition TextLooking to the Future was a digital illustration created in the application FireAlpaca created to show how our education can open doors for us and allow us to have many different opportunities despite how hard it is to complete. The piece was inspired by Norman Rockwell's Art Critic.
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Planning
Inspiration
“Rockwell and Modernism: The Case of ‘The Art Critic.’” Crisis Magazine, 16 Mar. 2015, www.crisismagazine.com/2015/rockwell-modernism-case-art-critic.
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Norman Rockwell's Art Critic was created in 1955 for an edition of the Saturday Evening Post, a newspaper company Rockwell created for regularly. This piece was created because Rockwell wanted envied the people who praised the Mona Lisa because "he had never felt such passion". The piece depicts a man, or rather an artist, carefully examining the piece in an art gallery.
For my piece, I wanted to emulate the main components, including the figure looking through a window to her future. The painting on the wall that the artist is looking at will be replaced with the window and the artist will be replaced with a student. |
Norman Rockwell was an American artist in the 20th century whose art was featured on a multitude of media, including magazine covers, cards, and calendars. His work covered a range of themes, but all depicted aspects of American life. Many of his pieces had a very utopian feel, depicting a perfect American society, with everyone getting along and people at peace.
Some of his most famous pieces were inspired by President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1941 address, in which he talks about four basic human rights: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. This four part “series” was printed as the front cover of Saturday Evening Post for four consecutive weeks. Freedom From Want was published at the height of World War II, which further increased its popularity. In many of his pieces, Rockwell had recurring themes of a “perfect American society”. He famously said, “I paint life as I would like it to be”. While many of his pieces portrayed an everyday American lifestyle, he painted them with the ideas of the American dream behind them. This utopian society that was presented showed his hopes for a perfect, peaceful country that contradicted the chaos that was happening throughout WWII. His illustrations were also played a large role in the motivation of both citizens and soldiers during WWII. Their perfect depictions of society gave people at home and overseas something to fight for. Throughout his life, Rockwell witnessed many different art movements, including impressionism, cubism, surrealism, and abstract expressionism. His work, however, was mostly illustration. Because his medium was unique at the time, it allowed his art to stand out against other artists. |
Person. “15 Things to Know about Norman Rockwell | Christie's.” 15 Things to Know about Norman Rockwell | Christie's, Christies, 6 May 2018, www.christies.com/features/15-things-to-know-about-Norman-Rockwell-8714-1.aspx
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Sketches
These were my planning sketches I made before creating the piece. I printed off the two inspiration pictures and glued them into my sketchbook so I could have them to see the placement of the figures in my own piece. My notes for the project are also included. For these planning sketches, I wanted to focus on how I was going to get the detail like Rockwell's piece across in a digital medium.
Experimentation
For experimentation, I had to really work on my technique for how to do the shading in order to get the kind of detail that Rockwell has in his piece. I also had to work a lot on getting the skin tone right. To do this, I had to layer colors on top of each other to build the depth.
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Detail of face
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Detail of shadows
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Process
1. First, I created a new layer on top of my reference picture and turned the opacity down so I could see where I was drawing. Then, I began zooming in on certain places and tracing the outlines. Then, when the whole picture was traced, I made the first layer not visible so I could just work off of the sketch I made.
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Reflection
Critique
Overall, I like how my final piece turned out. Originally, I wanted to do this piece using colored pencils to make it look more like my inspiration piece, but I really wanted to continue working digitally because I really enjoyed it the last time I did it. It took me a long time to complete this because the line details took a long time. I think if I were to do this differently in the future, I would spend a little more time creating more details in the shading on the figure, especially on the pants, because I think they could look a lot more realistic. I do really like the way the overall piece mimics Rockwell's though with its own twist on the meaning. I was really worried about getting the person to look correct with the proportions, but because I had a reference picture to look at, it made it really easy.
Compare and Contrast
Similarities
Differences
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“Rockwell and Modernism: The Case of ‘The Art Critic.’” Crisis Magazine, 16 Mar. 2015, www.crisismagazine.com/2015/rockwell-modernism-case-art-critic.
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ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork.
Rockwell's Art Critic deeply influenced the overall use of space and form in my piece. The perspective of the Norman Rockwell piece and my piece are also the same.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author wants to convey the importance of school in creating opportunities for the future.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I can conclude that the people who have good things worked hard for them. The culture surrounding a school environment can be very stressful, but hard work pays off.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my inspiration was how important education is to your future. Working hard in school no matter what will create a good payoff.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I could infer that hard work pays off, and it's important to put everything into what you're doing in order to get a good result.
Rockwell's Art Critic deeply influenced the overall use of space and form in my piece. The perspective of the Norman Rockwell piece and my piece are also the same.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author wants to convey the importance of school in creating opportunities for the future.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I can conclude that the people who have good things worked hard for them. The culture surrounding a school environment can be very stressful, but hard work pays off.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my inspiration was how important education is to your future. Working hard in school no matter what will create a good payoff.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I could infer that hard work pays off, and it's important to put everything into what you're doing in order to get a good result.
Bibliography
Person. “15 Things to Know about Norman Rockwell | Christie's.” 15 Things to Know about Norman Rockwell | Christie's, Christies, 6 May 2018, www.christies.com/features/15-things-to-know-about-Norman-Rockwell-8714-1.aspx.
“Rockwell and Modernism: The Case of ‘The Art Critic.’” Crisis Magazine, 16 Mar. 2015, www.crisismagazine.com/2015/rockwell-modernism-case-art-critic.
“Rockwell and Modernism: The Case of ‘The Art Critic.’” Crisis Magazine, 16 Mar. 2015, www.crisismagazine.com/2015/rockwell-modernism-case-art-critic.