Exhibition Set Up

Sketchbook Pages and Early Concepts

 

 

During early development stages thumbnails were done to a more metaphorical outcome, the concept were based on my feelings of never being good enough, my insecurities and my anxiety, the thing I wanted from the beginning was to make the viewer feel a negative emotion of any kind because people can perceive emotions differently.

 

I wanted to base the emotion on real negative experiences I've had as well as my anxieties, an example of this was the murder of Leasowes High School Student Christina Edkins back in March 2013, she was a classmate in lot of my classes, although she wasn't a super close friend, her death affected me greatly as well as making me more paranoid. High school overall for me was not the nice experience for me, and its not exaggerating when I say I was the most bullied kid in the entire year group, everyone except a few friends looked down on me like I was dirt and that always ate me up inside to the point I almost considered cutting at one stage in Year 9.

 I found my sanity and sanctuary in the forms of art and illustration, wanting to better myself I stopped thinking that way over the years following, but the memories still have a haunting affect.  

Research: Is Digital Art 'Real Art'?

Whether digital art is 'real art' has been a subject that has been widely debated over the years, there has been many artists speaking about this topic because it has always had this stigma surrounding it, a lot people seem to be under the impression digital art is a form of cheating when it comes to creating artwork. Majority of Digital artists come from doing traditional work first before picking up a graphics tablet and a lot of the time they use their skills they have learnt in their digital work. the process of learning how to digital paint and draw is the same as using any other medium yet it's a lot more cleaner and streamlined.

There is also often a lot of talk of a disconnect when it comes to digital art, this is due to digital art not being tangible as well as the cheapest of drawing tablets not having screens; you physically have to look at your screen and not look at what your hand is doing. A way to combat this is having a graphics tablet with a screen such as a Wacom Cintiq, it makes the learning curve a lot less steep but it will still be there; from personal experience it took myself a long time to get used to and more comfortable using a graphics tablet. 

The stigma digital art has lingers to this day as many, including professionals don't see it as proper 'art'

Opinions of other artists from their personal experiences:

Quotes from Journals and Articles: 

"what matters most is the end result, not the process employed." - Just Enjoy the Pictures: Hand-Crafted Versus Digital Art by Julie Danielson, The Horn Book Magazine, March/April 2014, Page 44

"Not so long ago another category appeared—digital art. The computer has turned out to be a powerful tool for an artist. It provides a clean workspace, with the freedom to make mistakes. It's so powerful that traditional artists have started to look at it as some kind of unfair extension. One pen instead of a bunch of pencils with different softness, all the brushes that need to be cleaned all the time, charcoal, ink and whatever you'd like to use? One machine for every size, shape and material of canvas, for every color and way of blending? Everything neatly placed on your desk, with the option to save for later? A dream tool for lazy people!"

"Here's the problem: a computer isn't an art tool. It's not a substitute for a brush, or canvas. It's a set of tools that lets you create an image of reality in the same format as photos. That's all. Does it make the creation process more convenient? Yes. Does it make it easy? No." 

- Is Digital Art "Real" Art? Facts and Myths About Digital Creating by Monika Zagrobelna 

Screen Printing

When producing my final pieces I decided to screen print the words in dark red on the top for more impact, the impact of the screen printing gave the final pieces more emotion; because the words are handwritten quickly it gives me the impression of cutting, a form of self harm.
Some people self harm as a form of stress relief, as well as people suffering from depression and other emotional issues who feel as if there is no other way. Cutting is a sensitive subject and the dark red screen print really complements the final images by looking like blood.

More Digital Experiments

Photo:



Digital Painting:

I experimented with how the text should look on top of the digital paintings before having to print them out and screen print on top of them, I wanted to know which was more effective, having the words be white or in colour. After getting feedback from both classes it was concluded the words on top of the digital painting should be screen printed on top and in colour to have more of an emotional impact on the viewer and that the digital painting was more effective when produced in grey-scale.

Photoshop Experimentation

Testing Paint Tool Sai Again

During my first test of SAI I didn't take into account I would be doing it from photo reference of my own emotions on my face, so I had to test out the technique again to accurately see which art program/software I would consider using for the final pieces. After the proper test I decided on Photoshop, even though I could of done with a regular graphics tablet at the university, I thought it was important to produce the work directly on a screen to imitate the connection a traditional artist has with their painting, Wacom Cintiq 13HD was used to produce all the digital paintings on this blog. During one week's session I also considered the emotional impact of working from home, doing that allowed myself to have a lot more of a connection to my environment and my emotions overall increasing the affect my portraits had on me emotionally, however the main disadvantage with working from home was the urge to procrastinate was stronger.






Even though I liked the look of the Paint Tool SAI portrait I thought the finished product was far to rendered for the effect I wanted and because of how 'lightweight' and limited the program was it wasn't able to do A3 size images, only high quality A4, the program had a limited size that it could work to.