I am a Student.

As a student at Marietta College, I must finish a capstone. Being an English and Art major, naturally I must do two. Fear not, this blog only involves my complicated thought process of the latter. My English capstone is too much of a mystery to even think about...

Sunday, 12 February 2012

A Very Successful Saturday

Although my plans for Saturday included swimming and playing soccer, I ended up spending most of the day hidden in the basement of the Painting Annex with my music blaring and my fingers covered in charcoal and glue (Note: this is the moment where you think: wow, what a good student). It was an enjoyable amount of time and I was extremely productive. I sketched both Jane Austen and Edgar Allen Poe so now I have all of my pieces officially figured out. All I have left to do is cover them in thermal paper, which I also started doing on Jane.
Poe: he looks a little better now, I was in process when I took this

Austen: also fixed a bit and the background is done.
I've still been struggling with Lord Byron, though. My main concern is out of all of my pieces, his is the most static. Yet at the same time, I want to avoid re-starting him at all costs. His hair alone took four hours to do, and since I already know I'll get to take even longer on Austen's curly locks, I'd rather not have to do Byron again. At the same time, I've been reading a biography about Byron called Byron in Love: A Short Daring Life by Edna O'Brien. What I like the most about it is the style of the book follows a more informal tone, so that instead of simply spewing out the dates and places of Byron's life, O'Brien writes it as if talking about an old friend; chatting up all his affairs and silly little quirks. One such quirk being a lame foot, which I never knew about Byron until reading up on him. He may have been known as the sexiest man alive in the nineteenth century, as long as you don't look at his feet though, I guess.

Ah, but I digress. The point I was trying to make was about Byron's character. Put simply, he fit easily into the "jerk" category. Sure, he liked to go around proclaiming love and going on adventures, but he really only focused on himself. Therefore, it makes sense for him to be in the center of the piece, with his all-knowing little smirk. I feel it's a good representation of his character, but as for the artist in me, it needs... something. I've considered altering the background in some way-- either adding drapery, Greek columns-- which also follow his character, or simply adding new pieces of thermal paper to the background which have a more dynamic composition themselves.
I would like to use these ones for the background, perhaps.

I'm not entirely sure yet, and have been concentrating on my sketches about it or working on the other pieces until I can figure out which way I wish to go. I still need to do an outside critique, so hopefully a new set of eyes can assist me.

Now that I have all of my pieces mapped out though, I can really start thinking about how to display them for the show. As I think I've mentioned, my father has graciously offered to make the frames, which will make them a bit larger, and then I will simply hang them on the wall space I have acquired. I'm not sure of the order, since I have two portrait and two landscape images, but also one female subject, so that might take some thought. I believe I have the time to mull over the small stuff for now, at least until I'm closer to being done with all four. The end is near, my friends, and soon these lovely faces will grace the inner walls of Hermann. I am most excited.
The final four!

No comments:

Post a Comment