Title: Obstruction
Medium: Digital collage
Size: 60.96 cm X 91.44 cm
September 2, 2018
Exhibition Text:
Obstruction is a depiction of the complications one experiences throughout their life and the methods one tends to utilize in order to overcome the barriers that are a result of the complications. This piece was inspired by Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, and Magzdilla.
Critical Investigation
Obstruction's theme deals with overcoming obstacles and the pain one receives from coping with the effect of barriers. This made me research artists who Incorporated some aspects of this ideology in their work. A major influence for this piece was Salvador Dali. Dali's usage of facial features and serious tone to convey his messages about humanity, was really something I admired. He painted vivid details in his composition, which enlightened my composition. Another Vital artist that influenced me was Pablo Picasso. Picasso's style might have been complex to comprehend, but it was very intellectual. I loved how during his blue period he used cool colors to express messages about solitude/sorrow, which greatly impacted my work. Magzdilla also influenced Obstruction, through his work of the Detail of the sad guy. I liked how Magzdilla utilized cool color patterns with warm colors to express a devastated state of a human.
Obstruction's theme deals with overcoming obstacles and the pain one receives from coping with the effect of barriers. This made me research artists who Incorporated some aspects of this ideology in their work. A major influence for this piece was Salvador Dali. Dali's usage of facial features and serious tone to convey his messages about humanity, was really something I admired. He painted vivid details in his composition, which enlightened my composition. Another Vital artist that influenced me was Pablo Picasso. Picasso's style might have been complex to comprehend, but it was very intellectual. I loved how during his blue period he used cool colors to express messages about solitude/sorrow, which greatly impacted my work. Magzdilla also influenced Obstruction, through his work of the Detail of the sad guy. I liked how Magzdilla utilized cool color patterns with warm colors to express a devastated state of a human.
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PLANNING: (INSPIRATION) Sleep was painted by Salvador Dali in 1937. Salvador Dali was a surrealist artist from Spain, he was influenced by fellow artists such as Pablo Picasso, Magrette, and Miro. The element that really drew my attention was the demoralized facial expression in this composition. The tense on the face expresses the serious tone and severity of the factors pertaining to dream. The bare landscape and the utilization of bright hues installs the feeling of a dream. The crutches symbolize how the specific features of the face, such as the nose and mouth are held up together, otherwise they would be distorted. In Dali's Sleep, the face is more so used to express a dream. But in Obstruction, I used this facial expression to highlight the mental strenuous torture one goes through when facing tough barriers. The darker spots on the face also inspired me to incorporate a dark background with a sad color. The Sad Guy was painted by Magzdilla. Magzdilla does an exceptional job of portraying a melancholy tone by using a combination of both cool/warm colors. The swirly lines in between the facial features emphasize how the man is feeling isolated and depressed. The dark blue background illustrates the complexity of being in darkness, as there is no hope. The man's shoulders look like they are shrugged upwards, representing how he is trying to fight negativity. In my piece I used similar facial expressions, with my head titled down slightly to emphasize the darkness. I also placed my arm with my shirt to display how tough it can be to hang on to positivity. The Old Guitarist was painted by Pablo Picasso. Pablo Picasso was an abstract painter from spain. In the Old Guitarist Picasso tremendously demonstrates pain, tragedy, and weakness. The use of pale blue with black near the old man's eyes really emphasizes a personal tragedy, loss of eyes. The texture of the face displays how the man is aged and suffering. The guitar represents how the old man uses music as his catharsis. I was inspired to model the texture of my face after this piece. In Obstruction, I created almost like a solid-3d type of face to explain anger and how strong you become after obstacles. |
Planning Sketches
My first sketch was primarily focused on my facial expressions and position. I wanted to really capture the side of my face, in a very serious manner displaying the severity of the obstacles I encountered. The reason I composed a big sketch was to really comprehend how the facial features need to be spread out and positioned. I made my eye wide open and bold because I wanted to also express how I am trying to face obstacles with a vengeance. The major challenge was constructing the nose, because the nose at side poses are very complex to align proportionally with the rest of the facial features. The shaded regions in this sketch were meant to express the darkness left from the arduous obstacles.
My second sketch was based more off of my upper body features and expressing a different facial structure. The facial structure was influenced by Picasso's Old Guitarist composition. I constructed the face in this particular way to express anger/toughness, because the structure of the face appears to be very hard, which displays how tough obstacles make you as well as the anger that comes with them. As for my upper body features, I made my arms wide out to express how those obstacles wanted to pull me away from being a positive person. The shirt with a slight curve on the right emphasizes how the obstacles were staring to bug me and get on my nerves. The veins in my biceps were to express strength, as I'm trying to avoid these obstacles from pulling me into a negative person
My third sketch I was trying to create fire inside my body to show the extreme amount of anger I had form the obstacles. The fire flames inside my stomach displayed how my soul was burned alive or how I was a living dead soul. The idea was great, but I felt it lacked a little bit of originality and was pretty hard to fit in in photoshop. Also, the flames weren't giving that feeling of overcoming obstacles with the rest of my concept, it felt like more evil than portraying a more serious and melancholy tone.
Process
(Experimentation)
Prior to starting this project I took myriads of photos of myself, and my face. As a person who wants to strive for perfection having numerous photos really helped me pick out the best ones for my project. Multiple pictures were very close to being picked for my side face.I picked the ones were my face was most clear and had a high resolution, because the others had blurriness and spots that made the picture seem chaotic. The ultimate goal was to capture a face with a serious expression that will blend in well with the rest of the composition. As for the front side of my face, I was experimenting with my face up and down. I preferred to pick out the image that expressed my face with a deep feeling of depression. I went along with the picture with my face down as it gave me the best essence of a demoralization state. For my body, I was confused between having my arms close or more wide out. I Eventually went with my arms wide out because it provided the feeling of how the obstacles were trying to lure me in. Also, I prefered backshots for the front face and my body because it was the most clear that way and it expressed my theme more efficiently, in the sense that it captured the entire beauty of the image. Initially I wanted a fire inside my body, but the main conflict was that its wasn't proportional and it seemed very wage/unreal. I also wanted to first make it seem comic and pop art type, but the whole composition was very unclear, dirty, and it seemed hard to identify the central theme with that type of concept.
(Experimentation)
Prior to starting this project I took myriads of photos of myself, and my face. As a person who wants to strive for perfection having numerous photos really helped me pick out the best ones for my project. Multiple pictures were very close to being picked for my side face.I picked the ones were my face was most clear and had a high resolution, because the others had blurriness and spots that made the picture seem chaotic. The ultimate goal was to capture a face with a serious expression that will blend in well with the rest of the composition. As for the front side of my face, I was experimenting with my face up and down. I preferred to pick out the image that expressed my face with a deep feeling of depression. I went along with the picture with my face down as it gave me the best essence of a demoralization state. For my body, I was confused between having my arms close or more wide out. I Eventually went with my arms wide out because it provided the feeling of how the obstacles were trying to lure me in. Also, I prefered backshots for the front face and my body because it was the most clear that way and it expressed my theme more efficiently, in the sense that it captured the entire beauty of the image. Initially I wanted a fire inside my body, but the main conflict was that its wasn't proportional and it seemed very wage/unreal. I also wanted to first make it seem comic and pop art type, but the whole composition was very unclear, dirty, and it seemed hard to identify the central theme with that type of concept.
PROCESS:
1. I took various side profiles of my face to enhance the facial expression I was trying to display
2. After deciding on the pictures, I downloaded photoshop
3. Then, I opened up photoshop and began to set up the dimensions of my collage (24 X 36)
4. After the dimension setup, I opened up my first picture and coped my myself with quick selction tool/cut the background and pasted it into the original sheet
5. Then, I pulled other pictures and used the wand tool to copy the front side of my face to the sheet with the solid background
6. Afterwards, I used free transform to move my face throughout the composition
7. Then, I used the lasso tool to form the 3d faces and lower the opacity to about 45% to make it blend in, used the free transform tool to place them above the head
8. After that, I used the wand tool to copy my shirt and arm to the composition/use free transform to move it in the middle. I began to merge the layers and hid some of the background after using add a layer mask.
9. I made sure that the tone was dark, and I went to color and hit hue saturation and made it more dark to ensure the feeling of rage
10. Then, I changed the background to a dark red color
11. I went to redefine edge to fix up some of the face edges
12. lastly, I just made sure that everything just looked efficient and nice. I made sure that the opacity was just right to provide it with the feeling of a nice composition that connected with my theme.
1. I took various side profiles of my face to enhance the facial expression I was trying to display
2. After deciding on the pictures, I downloaded photoshop
3. Then, I opened up photoshop and began to set up the dimensions of my collage (24 X 36)
4. After the dimension setup, I opened up my first picture and coped my myself with quick selction tool/cut the background and pasted it into the original sheet
5. Then, I pulled other pictures and used the wand tool to copy the front side of my face to the sheet with the solid background
6. Afterwards, I used free transform to move my face throughout the composition
7. Then, I used the lasso tool to form the 3d faces and lower the opacity to about 45% to make it blend in, used the free transform tool to place them above the head
8. After that, I used the wand tool to copy my shirt and arm to the composition/use free transform to move it in the middle. I began to merge the layers and hid some of the background after using add a layer mask.
9. I made sure that the tone was dark, and I went to color and hit hue saturation and made it more dark to ensure the feeling of rage
10. Then, I changed the background to a dark red color
11. I went to redefine edge to fix up some of the face edges
12. lastly, I just made sure that everything just looked efficient and nice. I made sure that the opacity was just right to provide it with the feeling of a nice composition that connected with my theme.
Meaning
A great author once said’’ A good man is one of the most under respected, under appreciated, undervalued, and under recognized.’’ That quote has been the staple of my entire life pretty much. Sometimes you could feel shattered, rather than angry which is in fact worse. You can carry a mountain on your back or travel through fire, but individuals will just perceive it as ‘’expected’’ rather than ‘’appreciated’’. Majority of the people in my life have never witnessed my grind or hard work, all they did was place more obstacles ahead in my path. But those numerous arduous obstacles just released the true animal in me, the type that conquers his prey.
Myriads of times, I have been placed under agonizing, traumatic, and heart-rending obstacles due to my biological/ethnic characteristics. 2 years, 4 hours a day of blood, sweat, and tear in 89 degree weather on the rectangular court, my soul watches it all go away. Sounds great right? I hooped until sobs of sweat filled my body, but when the basketball tryouts came, they cut me due to my racial interference. ‘’Basketball is not your thing, not experienced enough, those were the words that came out of the coach’s mouth. You know what that feels like, when you lose what you love due to discrimination. My heart literally stopped, tears draining down like gutter water, and my mind pondering death. I can vividly remember the next day at school my peers/teammates making racist jokes about me being a terrorist or a threat, telling me how I’m a disgrace.
The most surprising element was how the world builds up pre-existing stereotypical racial assumptions about a person without acknowledging the truth. Eventually, as time progressed I reminded myself that I as a person, I have crossed ways with obstacles before. My mind hindered back to in middle school when I suffered through teacher discrimination and overcame that to be the valedictorian. So I just decided that you know what I have to persevere through these obstacles. Literary in the moment I made a promise to myself that I will kick through obstacles, as I am the animal who fears nothing. I promised myself that I will make an positive example out of myself and not fear failure. The failures/obstacles that I experienced made me feel intimacy towards failure, which made me the rock durable person I am today. Your will/heart is always greater than obstacles, and obstacles are the gold in the mine that you fear to enter.
My work reflects my personal challenges with encountering and overcoming obstacles. I was influenced by the works of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali mainly to express my theme. In my work Obstruction, the various facial features and structures symbolize the darkest elements of my life. The dark red background symbolizes no hope and rage.
A great author once said’’ A good man is one of the most under respected, under appreciated, undervalued, and under recognized.’’ That quote has been the staple of my entire life pretty much. Sometimes you could feel shattered, rather than angry which is in fact worse. You can carry a mountain on your back or travel through fire, but individuals will just perceive it as ‘’expected’’ rather than ‘’appreciated’’. Majority of the people in my life have never witnessed my grind or hard work, all they did was place more obstacles ahead in my path. But those numerous arduous obstacles just released the true animal in me, the type that conquers his prey.
Myriads of times, I have been placed under agonizing, traumatic, and heart-rending obstacles due to my biological/ethnic characteristics. 2 years, 4 hours a day of blood, sweat, and tear in 89 degree weather on the rectangular court, my soul watches it all go away. Sounds great right? I hooped until sobs of sweat filled my body, but when the basketball tryouts came, they cut me due to my racial interference. ‘’Basketball is not your thing, not experienced enough, those were the words that came out of the coach’s mouth. You know what that feels like, when you lose what you love due to discrimination. My heart literally stopped, tears draining down like gutter water, and my mind pondering death. I can vividly remember the next day at school my peers/teammates making racist jokes about me being a terrorist or a threat, telling me how I’m a disgrace.
The most surprising element was how the world builds up pre-existing stereotypical racial assumptions about a person without acknowledging the truth. Eventually, as time progressed I reminded myself that I as a person, I have crossed ways with obstacles before. My mind hindered back to in middle school when I suffered through teacher discrimination and overcame that to be the valedictorian. So I just decided that you know what I have to persevere through these obstacles. Literary in the moment I made a promise to myself that I will kick through obstacles, as I am the animal who fears nothing. I promised myself that I will make an positive example out of myself and not fear failure. The failures/obstacles that I experienced made me feel intimacy towards failure, which made me the rock durable person I am today. Your will/heart is always greater than obstacles, and obstacles are the gold in the mine that you fear to enter.
My work reflects my personal challenges with encountering and overcoming obstacles. I was influenced by the works of Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali mainly to express my theme. In my work Obstruction, the various facial features and structures symbolize the darkest elements of my life. The dark red background symbolizes no hope and rage.
Reflection
The main goal and theme of Obstruction can be easily identified by the audience. Due to this, I would consider this project to be a success. While painting Obstruction I noticed my strengths and weakness come into play. For example, cutting and pasting the images were pretty simple for me to preform. Also, a strength was aligning the body features correctly and changing the tone of the composition. There were also some arduous/complex elements in this project such as merging the layers. merging the layers was pretty strenuous because I had an older version of photoshop and had to adjust accordingly to it. Another complex point was concealing the background elements and making it dark, due to the fact that it required me to merge the layers, add a layer mask, change the hue saturation, and mess with other elements as well. But, overall this project turned out pretty good or better than I expected it to be. I feel like I could enhance my photoshop skills by watching numerous tutorial, so in the future I can produce better photoshops. Also, my idea of placing the fire inside my body failed because it wasn't lining up properly and the concept looked mussy.
The main goal and theme of Obstruction can be easily identified by the audience. Due to this, I would consider this project to be a success. While painting Obstruction I noticed my strengths and weakness come into play. For example, cutting and pasting the images were pretty simple for me to preform. Also, a strength was aligning the body features correctly and changing the tone of the composition. There were also some arduous/complex elements in this project such as merging the layers. merging the layers was pretty strenuous because I had an older version of photoshop and had to adjust accordingly to it. Another complex point was concealing the background elements and making it dark, due to the fact that it required me to merge the layers, add a layer mask, change the hue saturation, and mess with other elements as well. But, overall this project turned out pretty good or better than I expected it to be. I feel like I could enhance my photoshop skills by watching numerous tutorial, so in the future I can produce better photoshops. Also, my idea of placing the fire inside my body failed because it wasn't lining up properly and the concept looked mussy.
ACT RESPONSES:
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your art work?
All of my inspiration artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Magdzilla incorporated melancholic vibes in their piece and I utilized a similar scheme as the facial expressions in my piece were quite serious and blunt. Also the two artists utilized colors that are symbolic towards depression and I worked with red to display anger and aggression, which is similar.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author ( from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author that wrote about Pablo Picasso's work only explained the mysterious in his paintings. There were also mysteries explained about other works form other famous artists. The author only had analysis on paintings rather perspectives or biases, as he wanted the audience to only obtain factual knowledge.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While researching, I learned that Picasso was a peace advocate for the majority of his career, which is why he has paintings which emphasize this theme by him using cool blue colors. Pablo Picasso also painted various forms of art such as Cubism, Surrealism, Modernism, Post-Impressionism, and etc. Vincent Van Gogh was Picasso's greatest inspiration and his work is quite evident of that, as he uses Van Gogh's techniques in his 1901 composition of Mother and child.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central Theme of my inspiration was overcoming adversity/obstacles. My aim was to express how obstacles can really internally/externally demolish an individual. I used Dali because his work was reminiscent of this ideology, as he was able to express in a comprehensive manner.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
The inferences I created were how life is very unpleasant and vexatious. The world/humanity just installs obstacles to block success from certain people rather then appreciating their effort. This was one of the major factors why I used Dali as an inspiration, as his Face Of War composition really focuses on how awful or dreadful humanity can make life sometimes.
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your art work?
All of my inspiration artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and Magdzilla incorporated melancholic vibes in their piece and I utilized a similar scheme as the facial expressions in my piece were quite serious and blunt. Also the two artists utilized colors that are symbolic towards depression and I worked with red to display anger and aggression, which is similar.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author ( from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author that wrote about Pablo Picasso's work only explained the mysterious in his paintings. There were also mysteries explained about other works form other famous artists. The author only had analysis on paintings rather perspectives or biases, as he wanted the audience to only obtain factual knowledge.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
While researching, I learned that Picasso was a peace advocate for the majority of his career, which is why he has paintings which emphasize this theme by him using cool blue colors. Pablo Picasso also painted various forms of art such as Cubism, Surrealism, Modernism, Post-Impressionism, and etc. Vincent Van Gogh was Picasso's greatest inspiration and his work is quite evident of that, as he uses Van Gogh's techniques in his 1901 composition of Mother and child.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My central Theme of my inspiration was overcoming adversity/obstacles. My aim was to express how obstacles can really internally/externally demolish an individual. I used Dali because his work was reminiscent of this ideology, as he was able to express in a comprehensive manner.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
The inferences I created were how life is very unpleasant and vexatious. The world/humanity just installs obstacles to block success from certain people rather then appreciating their effort. This was one of the major factors why I used Dali as an inspiration, as his Face Of War composition really focuses on how awful or dreadful humanity can make life sometimes.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY:
1. Chimera, Paul.(n.d.) Sleep Among Salvador Dali's Best-Known Works. Retrieved September 2, 2018, from http://www.dali.com/sleep-among-salvador-dalis-best-known-works/
2. The Old Guitarist, 1903 by Pablo Picasso. (n.d.) Retrieved September 2, 2018, from https://www.pablopicasso.org/old-guitarist.jsp
3. Painting Detail of the sad guy by Magzdilla. (n.d.) retrieved September 2, 2018, from https://www.deviantart.com/magzdilla/art/Painting-Detail-of-the-sad-guy-376961315
1. Chimera, Paul.(n.d.) Sleep Among Salvador Dali's Best-Known Works. Retrieved September 2, 2018, from http://www.dali.com/sleep-among-salvador-dalis-best-known-works/
2. The Old Guitarist, 1903 by Pablo Picasso. (n.d.) Retrieved September 2, 2018, from https://www.pablopicasso.org/old-guitarist.jsp
3. Painting Detail of the sad guy by Magzdilla. (n.d.) retrieved September 2, 2018, from https://www.deviantart.com/magzdilla/art/Painting-Detail-of-the-sad-guy-376961315