Illustration :
Exhibition Text :
My piece "Beauty is Pain, Darling" is an illustration using colored pencils combined with the inspirational people of fashion illustration Rene Gruau and Alfredo Bouret. The piece depicts the world in which a woman who tried her hardest to do everything society wanted only got hatred because of it. This represents the situations in which people do not let women have anything for themselves and always cause a fuss when they succeed.
: Artist Inspiration :
My first thoughts within thinking of any illustration I know was that I was always intrigued by fashion illustration. When doing my research I had found some of the works of the illustrator Alfredo Bouret, an achieving illustrator after his arrival in Paris in 1948. Alfredo's works looked very stunning to me, I was really interested in the way he captured forms of outfits with simple colors that didn't exactly needed shading. I wanted to take that form and include one of the designs he had done into an actual person, but with such simple colors I didn't exactly know how I would cover a full board with this, that will be shown more through the process. Next was my main obvious inspiration to the piece and the look of it.
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A work I found while searching through Alfredo was a piece that looked really familiar to me, looking into it Rene Gruau's pieces were very exciting to look through. Rene had the ability to take a few strokes and turn it into a nice illustration that gave depth to beauty and style. Rene was known for this style and was prominent through the fashion scene of the 50's-60's. I really enjoyed looking at that style, so one of his works became the center of the entire piece, I would combine that with Alfredo's works to turn it into something entirely new and showing a new story. Still there was the main problem, even though I would filled most of the colors, there was a form of style I was missing, a more modern one. Through the help of my sister I was able to find my style inspiration.
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The medium I was going to use was colored pencils, something I hadn't really enjoyed using in the past because I wasn't really a coloring person, but more a sketching person. A nice style my sister had shown me is from several artists found on pinterest, but one in focus is an instagram user "Roxartss" (or Elena Rossato as her bio puts her name). Looking at this way colored pencils was used looks extremely fun to do, and as I experimented with the work, I really enjoyed using colored pencils this way because it connected within my sketching style. As if I was able to create something I likes from something I wasn't a big fan of. Each color goes within the natural form of the body, even with using colors never found on the face, you still get the illusion of a person within coloring. The art form would really focus on the main features of the face likes the eyes, nose, and mouth. This was how I would shift an old art form into modern art, what's more modern than something in the present?
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: Planning Phase :
My first instance of planning went between getting a concept of the form of fashion illustration and seeing how my various inspirations created shadows, use of shading and certain colors. I wanted to get a feel for this as for the illustration, I had no clue as to what I was going to go for at first. Later throughout the planning, I found and created the story I would create using the model of Alfredo and combining it with Rene's stunning side profile. I was trying to put in picture how some people prioritize beauty over everything, and the concept of being perfect/being made to be perfect, as if the illustration would come to life to be appraised by others, but eventually discarded. I wanted the theme disruption of self. (as in the varying thoughts between people's self-confidence and self-esteem) Within that I was suited between my inspiration and was going on to next ideas. |
The rest of the page, however, connects into my ideas between creating a story within two different images. I was wondering what I would do between the two and this eventually grasped within my future concepts. The two pieces were to create a positive character and a negative character. I was working between someone who had felt betrayed by the society she was created by, or someone that had to abandon their dreams because of the world around them. They all focused on a prominent theme, the tarnishing of self-image and I wanted to put that into the work. One of the ideas for my work was to create it as if it was a fashion poster, seeming like she finally got on the cover, and eventually on the other part of the piece would be her ruin, a sadness left in the past and tracked over by others that took all her hard work and degraded it because of who she is as a confident woman. The format of colored pencils was included more at the end of the work. |
Lastly was the final moment of concept before going into the experimentation of colored pencils. I wanted to get a final concept into what I am actually doing, just to clear up the thoughts behind the messy last page. This was the creation of the girl, a woman designed to be perfect and had worked up all her life into growing into what society wants of her. As this success seemed unstoppable, her courage and will would eventually be broken between those that just love to spread hate for no reason. As this gets to her, she feels regret and loses her own confidence, living into the shadows for the rest of her life. As the concept of story was finished, so was the combination between Rene and Alfredo's work's. I was going through the combination and separation between the two, as she was a confident person, and would lose that confidence while her hair loses its ponytail. This was the final instance of the concept and this was part of the most fun thing to do within the entire project. |
: Process :
Firstly I had started the process into creating the base outline onto the illustration boards, I was able to print out the concept of the woman and use graphite paper to line out the form of the woman and her outfit. Through this, I was able to get the woman both onto their respective areas looking towards another. The graphite paper would leak the tracing onto the side of the illustration board and I was ready to get started. This was a big relief because I was very concerned with how I was gonna get these onto the board without it looking completely tarnished and ruined by using measurements on the board itself, that isn't my strong suit. |
Next was the start of the coloring, a lot was going through my mind during these parts but I knew one thing for sure. Lighter colors on the left, darker colors on the right. I started off with the face details using prismacolor colored pencils and blending them within the different varieties of red that I had. Between this I was also looking at my inspiration, and following with how they placed colors and certain areas. I started with the mouth on both pieces and went from there. I used the different bright colors to outline the face, the jaw-line, and other areas. I used light blues and yellows on the left, and purples and blacks on the right side. The face was kept the same relatively to keep the feeling it's the same person, with a few differences. |
Now I will talk about the clothing shading and background of the piece. The background was really iffy but I used light/a darker blue to cover the sky and shading between the different clouds through the area. (the other side used darker colors as it moved on to the other piece) With the clothing, I wanted to keep a bright-aesthetic on the left as to signal for her bright confidence and on the left there would be less white spots as she's left within the darkness. As we can also see, I would stop the outline of the sky for a grey because the illusion of her perfect confidence was fading, as if it was stopped by the negativity. I used bright colors of pink for the rose on the left, and would eventually use darker colors to show wilting on the flower to the right, this would also represent her confidence. Before that I focused a bit on the hair falling down and finalized the project within the hat.
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: Experimentation :
As I had never really done with any of the other projects before (which was a problem I needed to solve) I actually experimented with incorporating the use of colored pencils into my own work. Usually I would color over my own sketches, which never really worked out, but with the style, I actually did the very opposite. I would start off with colored pencils, I would get everything on there, and then shape up the details with a variety of different colors that my inspiration had done. After a while, I started to understand how they work with the materials given to them. They would also choose colors that went with each other along a rainbow-like spectrum. As red would go into orange, orange would gradually go into yellow, and so forth. |
Another thing was experimenting with colors on my own. As I had depicted earlier, I would choose similar colors that the artist had done on a variety of their works. Though, what if I choose darker colors, would those mix well with the others? I was enjoying this very well as unexpected. So I went on and tried it out, it wasn't half bad. Next I would move on to the main thing. One other thing I would like to include is experimenting with putting the project on the board. I worked with graphite paper, as my process said above, but before I tried outlining what I wanted on the piece, but nothing worked until my actual plan with the graphite paper. |
: Critique :
Differences:
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Similarities :
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: Reflection :
With huge confidence, I can admit that this was my most fun project to work on so far throughout the entire year. That was really crazy specifically because I was not a big fan of the idea of using colored pencils within my work. There are a few mishaps that happened within my piece, but everything from the planning to the creation was extremely fun to do, not just because it's finally getting brighter outside. When researching for the illustration I was really concerned with what I was going to do, but I actually really enjoyed the concept of creating a story within using characters and concepts from different fashion illustrators and connecting that to the real world. I was able to use my self-management skills to plan out the whole process, and finalizing of the project, which I am really proud of considering my rush to get other projects done within the past. I was also very glad with the opportunity I was able to learn from colored pencils. Within looking on Instagram, I was really excited when testing out the use of colored pencils within the art form I was inspired in and I believe I included it well within the piece. I believe my inspiration is very obvious and the project in general was very exciting to do.
Being more specific within the actual project, I have a love-dislike relationship with it. I really like the piece and think the way I played out the different art forms went well when including them within the piece. Except, some thing I had done with the piece was really questionable to myself. For instance, I had included the form of clouds to be portrayed into the background, but I think they are very distracting and in some way disrupt from the piece itself. I do think I was able to capture one dark side and the other light side, but I think with darker colors i could've created a better distance between the two. I also believe there are many ways to actually take in my piece other form my actual story, and as much as i'm into theory of what the work is about, I wish the story was a bit more clear to the viewer. On a positive note, I really enjoyed the concept of setting up the piece and like how it had actually turned out in the end. As said before, I really grew within the making of this piece and I really believe I explored new options with colors throughout the piece. In the future, I would really enjoy doing another form of illustration perhaps when I get better at painting, or even using colored pencils again, it was enjoyable.
Being more specific within the actual project, I have a love-dislike relationship with it. I really like the piece and think the way I played out the different art forms went well when including them within the piece. Except, some thing I had done with the piece was really questionable to myself. For instance, I had included the form of clouds to be portrayed into the background, but I think they are very distracting and in some way disrupt from the piece itself. I do think I was able to capture one dark side and the other light side, but I think with darker colors i could've created a better distance between the two. I also believe there are many ways to actually take in my piece other form my actual story, and as much as i'm into theory of what the work is about, I wish the story was a bit more clear to the viewer. On a positive note, I really enjoyed the concept of setting up the piece and like how it had actually turned out in the end. As said before, I really grew within the making of this piece and I really believe I explored new options with colors throughout the piece. In the future, I would really enjoy doing another form of illustration perhaps when I get better at painting, or even using colored pencils again, it was enjoyable.
: Connecting to the ACT :
- Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork?
Within seeing my inspirations I was able to clearly make a defined piece within the working of colored pencils as the medium and a form of illustration from the past. It was as if I was combining the past and the future.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Alfredo and Rene both made beautiful illustrations of women during their respective period, I'm sure they were just going off of what they were seeing instead of making a big concept role on treatment of women, so it's hard to exactly say their beliefs.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While researching I was able to find a way different people took in fashion at the time, and many of the illustrations looked very simple and crafty, so it showed the past of fashion.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I was really into the concept of fashion illustration because the style looked very nice and I always just took a deep interest into the way people had designed prominent senses of style in past times compared to style now.
5. What kind of inferences ( conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning ) did you make while reading your research?
I was able to find out way more things about fashion illustration than I thought, I was able to see the various work's of others and connect within their forms and style while working within the project.
: Citations in MLA Format :
“Gruau Collection Is René Gruau Heritage.” René Gruau Official Website, http://www.gruaucollection.com/.
Alfredo Bouret, https://www.alfredobouret.com/.
Just Looking Gallery. “10 Influential Fashion Illustrators from the1920's to the 2020's.” Just Looking Gallery, Just Looking Gallery, 2 Feb. 2021, https://www.justlookinggallery.com/blog/2021/1/23/10-designers-that-changed-fashion-illustration.
Alfredo Bouret, https://www.alfredobouret.com/.
Just Looking Gallery. “10 Influential Fashion Illustrators from the1920's to the 2020's.” Just Looking Gallery, Just Looking Gallery, 2 Feb. 2021, https://www.justlookinggallery.com/blog/2021/1/23/10-designers-that-changed-fashion-illustration.