Kashaye: NCEA L1 Art Blog

This blogpost will contain all of my documentation for the entire process of my Level 1 Art Folio

3 artist models, you are looking for you Art Folio
Shepard Fairey
John Heartfield
Banksy

Why have you chosen them?

- i.e. what parts of their work are you wanting to incorporate into your work?

- List some key features of their work (could be visual symbolism, could be composition layout, could be colour palette etc.)

I chose...

Banksy, because of the feeling and meaning behind his artwork

Cindy Sherman, the portrayal of women through photography

Shepard Fairey, the contrasts of different colours

I also had a look at John Heartfield and Betty Kruger along the way.

The picture on the right is artwork from John Heartfield. I used him as an inspiration to help me create my mixed media pieces. The reason why I was inspired to use him is that he uses such strong and powerful people to help his artwork make a very strong and power-political impact on the viewers. You can see this in my art pieces where some of them involve powerful people like the Queen to make a statement in my work because I see her as one of the most powerful women in the world and that really connects to me as I am a woman too.

I also used Banksy as an artist model because of his deep meanings to his work. The reason why I used him was to convey the social controversy of Gender Inequality using a very simple but complex method. His use of very limited colours and techniques helps express a stronger emotion on what he has done or global issues that have happened. Having him as a model artist helped me make a more complex piece of artwork portray meaning on my portfolio.

Cindy Sherman was also another artist model that I looked at. She was an inspiration because she uses herself as a way to show women stereotype in society. I used her as a figure in one of my art pieces because she shows that stereotypical things that are expected of a woman. I also used her because of her extreme use of colours and techniques in her photography and the way she uses different shapes on her body to really make that difference.

The last person is Shepard Fairey. I chose him to base my art on because he uses real people like Barak Obama to convey a political or controversial idea to the audience. Not only that he also does mixed media pieces and uses women as his focal point which was relevant to my theme. I was also inspired by him because of his colour schemes and how he decided to use them. He uses three colours at the least but builds upon it to create a sculptural effect. This was a technique that I learned and that a semi- applied to some of my works

Term 1:

ART PROGRESS
The theme I have chosen to base my Art Portfolio on was Anti-Establishment. The reason I chose this was to see from an opposing perspective the conventional principles of society against women including 'Gender Inequality'.

This is the layout I have decided to put on my board alongside some sketches of images that I can maybe put on my board. The reason why I chose this layout was to see the progression throughout the first panel. The first three pictures were to introduce the theme. The next two were to get into further detail about my theme and the rest was to show a flow of my theme from basic skills to more complex and well-detailed images. The second-panel layout was to get into greater detail and to add more complex skills. (Tone, texture, patterns, style) The sketches on the side were ideas that I had thought of that would fit my theme. (Eye In Key Hole) This image was to portray a feminine eye crying behind doors. (Sketch 2) This picture was inspired by Banksy's "Sweeping Under The Carpet" artwork. Originally I wanted to change the female maid to a male maid to show the hard work women go through when putting the man in their shoes. The third sketch was a rough one done to show a feminine body figure and put harsh words around the image to create tension. (text-style inspired by Barbara Kruger)

So at the start of the term, I had a rough idea of what I wanted to do for my folio. I wanted to do something along the line of 'Sexuality'. So I have written out my 'WHY' and key ideas that I wanted to persuade on my board as a starter for the year. I have also taken into consideration some visual motifs and styles that I wanted to have throughout the board. I have chosen base my board under the theme 'Anti - Establishment and Propaganda' taking inspirations from Cindy Sherman, Shepard, Fairey and Banksy. I chose to base my art pieces of these artists because of their diverse styles and techniques some being photograph and street art. After documenting my work on a piece of paper, I had come to the conclusion that my initial idea was too mature for after getting feedback from my teachers. We then started to talk about another theme but stayed along the lines of SEXUALITY and decided to do 'Gender Inequality'. I then started to draw out some rough sketched that was fitting with my theme to help get a headstart of what I want to have on the folio.

Also, I started my Art History, which consisted of two images from an artist that I chose based on my theme and talked about how their images showed technique, composition and colour. This was all done on a google document and shared with Mrs Keene.

This was one of the first pieces I did. This piece was inspired by a Cindy Sherman photography I had seen while browsing the internet. The concept of this artwork was to place a kind of scrunched up money note along the side of a woman's face. This was to create the effect that money and women are both valuable but at a different cost. This was initially a rough sketch that I did and it turned out to better than what I had envisioned. It was also something that I just did to make it look like I was doing work lol. (bear in mind some of the art pieces I did was done out of boredom but made it on my board ;)). Panel 1 piece. After looking at the sketch I decided to use Indian ink to enhance the areas with shadow and darkness and used watercolour again to follow the Indian Ink.

Speaking of sketches, I did a rough copy of what I wanted another art piece to look like. Taking inspiration from one of my artist's models, Banksy's -- Sweeping Under The Carpet artwork. My first intention in this piece was to change the female maid to a man maid. The purpose of this was to place a masculine figure in the view of women. How cleaning and cooking were hard. The background was going to be a section of a brick pattern that added style and old school videos to the artwork and the other side was initially suppose to be newspaper text. On the opposite side of the newspaper text, I wanted to add a brick-like texture to incorporate a little bit of the original image just in a different section.

I then drew some more sketches to create more of a visual idea in my mind on how the art pieces are going to flow throughout my board. The sketches are just rough drawings of a keyhole with words that are inspired by the style of Barbara Kruger and Shepard Fairy.

The image on the right is one of my completed artworks done for my board. This is a picture of a female mannequin that was done using a pencil as the outline and watercolour paint. The purpose of this is to show how a woman's body, their most vulnerable part, is often seen to men as an object in our society. It's obviously incomplete and still needs work on. Panel 1 piece.

These three pictures at the top are all art pieces that I had started but never actually completed. The first one was done of a woman body that doesn't really fit in with our society or with how people want them to look so in the picture she is undergoing surgery to try and 'Fit In'. The second one was done during a free period but my teachers really liked the design and style of it that they wanted me to include it on my board. The third one was going to be a mixed media piece using the Queen. Now the Queen was going to be introduced on my board with this art piece and was going to become a visual motif throughout the whole thing. One thing that I lacked this term and later on as you'll see as being consistent with pieces and actually starting one and finishing that specific piece instead of starting all over.

So yeah this was term one, long story short I spent an even amount of time planning, sketching, doing art history, painting, failing and procrastinating.

Term 2:

This term I slacked off a lot and was actually behind on everything. I didn't have the right amount of art pieces that we needed and overall this term I wasn't entirely focused on working properly in this class. I was procrastinating a lot and refused to do work 60% of the time. This term was probably one of the hardest terms this year for this class.

This is 1 of 5 pieces that I did this whole term. I did a sketch first to get the proportions of that hands right. This sketch itself took about 3 periods to do.

The concept behind this was supposed to be a hand reaching for equality with the handcuff being the symbol for both female and male. The colour I used at the top of the image is a shade of purple because I thought this was a neutral colour between the two.

The mixed media piece was inspired by a Michael Mew piece that I had seen online and used him as a reference to this one I had created. I put the Queen there to continue the motif and to also show women as value. The crossword at the bottom was for me to fill in with words that associate with my theme. There is also I light dollar sign bill with a chain around it. I just put it there to show that money is at all the most valuable thing in the world but other things as well. The plant in there is the only thing of colour because I felt that it'll be much better to put colour on there than any of the other ones. Finally, the word at the top says 'Unfair' in Japanese which was done with black Indian ink. I didn't actually use this piece because it didn't fit in with the rest of my art pieces once everything was done and you'll see why.

This was a piece that I created while mucking around. Using the Queen as my general motif I decided to rip the Queen's face in half and draw a manly figure in the middle. After doing that I played around with watercolour paints and starting painting it to see what kind of skin tone I wanted at the shirt colour. The background of this was done by a fellow classmate by accident which I thought actually looked really cool but after getting feedback from my teachers they didn't agree. Obviously, it was incomplete and was a trial because the man in the middle of the Queen is out of proportion. One of my teachers thought the difference in proportions made it look very unique while the other said that it could be fixed. I later on in the term added an effect to show that the Queens's face is opening or like stretching apart. Panel 1 piece.

Now this image was a process. First I found words from in the newspaper that I thought would match my theme. I then cut that out and placed it randomly on wet watercolour paper. After that, I put it through this thing in the art room that allows you to print things on paper manually. After that was printed it was actually printed backwards so then my teacher and I used this machine that inverted the text so that it could be read easily. This was done about 3 times and took a very long time because the machine was being slow. After that, I drew on a face that I had found of the internet and then sketched it using it as reference. I then used Indian ink to do the darker areas like the eyebrows, eyelashes, the inside of the nose, the inside of the mouth and the neck are. I then added watercolour (black) to add a greater effect in the areas I used the Indian Ink. Style inspiration form Banksy. Panel 1 piece.

So this picture was done using the same process as I did on the last image but instead I didn't invert the newspaper. This one was done but never actually used because I didn't know how to use the money that was in the newspaper.

The second image was inspired by Cindy Sherman photography that I had seen online. Her picture was a half and a half or her face with makeup and the other half a clown. I took that into consideration and decided to do the same but the other half of her face being a melting face. I wanted to add words to show the split of the face but left it like that. I trialled with different skin tones to see what skin tone would look the best and how it would look if it was dripping. I trialled several times on this piece (forgot to take pictures of the trials) but I just wasn't satisfied. This is the one that I liked the most because the proportions of the face looked even. Panel 1 piece.

At this point, I was having doubts about myself. Doubts that I'm not going to pass art at the rate I was going. After struggling a lot with this piece I decided to just procrastinate once again. This was becoming a terrible habit that I'd just fall back into if I knew I wasn't doing my best or just wasn't bothered someday. (Not a good look but its the truth)

Term 3:

Now, this was the term when I got my act together and actually started working a lot harder than I did in that last two terms. This term I made a goal to get at least my first panel done.

This art piece was one of the first ones I did this term. I used a messy technique and used a different colour to help create the look. I used darker colours like the blue's and purple's to create a contour around the nose area and eyelid area. I then used lighter colours like the reds and the oranges to try and recreate that highlighted look on the forehead area. I then went in with black acrylic to do the eyes, eyebrows and the two hairpieces. After that dried, I added white flickers of paint on the eyes to help make that eye bit that you see in paintings. Using that same technique, I used it to create more effect on the borders of the paper. The concept of this artwork was to emphasize women perspective on themselves and their society. This piece was going on panel 2.

Now this one was created as a transitional piece from women losing all confidence to being somewhat equal. It is a conference that female and male are in and as you can see at the bottom there is a very light-washed figure of reporters all wanting to talk to the male instead of the female. The initial idea behind this was to show that man's words are more so taken into consideration and action instead of females. Piece for panel 2.

The picture on the right is of a waitress serving money. This art was created using oil paints, watercolour, and a fine liner marker. The purpose of using the maid was to make an indication that women money are both valuable items to man so I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate the two. The background is just a pink and yellow tie-dye effect. Panel 1.

Now going back to this art piece I decided to work on it and add a bit more depth underneath the boob area and the supposed leg area aswell.

This is the final piece of the Half and Half inspired by Cindy Sherman. I did three trials before the completed look. The first one was done using watercolour. I did this to see if it could create the dripping effect that I wanted but also to create build up on the face as well for tone. Then I used acrylic on the second trial. I didn't really like the style. I used oil paints to create the third and final piece. This was easier to use and easier to create that smudged look. I used a drybrush to add the contours on the face to create a more effective look. Because I used oil, I had to wait a moderate amount of time until I was able to work on it and do any finishing touches. After that whole process, I went over some areas with a black marker to get the area into more detail. After painting everything I transferred the artwork to watercolour paper because the original one was done on normal printing paper. Then I worked on the second paper and added a light-washed yellow and pink background using watercolour paints.

For the majority of the term, I was just working on pieces that I had already completed and just add more detail to it and see what needs fixing. I did this too almost every finished piece I had and also did some playing around on the computers digitally.

Term 3 Holidays:

During the school holidays, I made Art a priority because I already knew that I was behind in the amount of finished may I repeat FINISHED art pieces that were required for that term so I decided to go art supply shopping for me to do some at home.

At first, I was going to do a male maid but I had trouble trying to draw the figure of a man instead of a woman. This piece was actually done at home. I found an image of a model woman and used her as a reference for my picture. After copying that I drew a dress on the woman, meaning because I thought that incorporating beauty and hard work would be a really good idea. She is holding a brush and a pan as an indication of cleaning products. She is supposed to be a maid but she also has time to glam up and look pretty. The words behind her are words that often negatively affect women. The brick was by far the hardest thing to do. Looking at a reference on the internet of what brick looks like I successfully copied the basic outline. After that, I mixed red with black to create that rustic brick colour and then used twink to create the lines for each individual brick. After that, I used red and black watercolour paints to wash down the white lines and then reused the twink to ad lines across the wall. After everything was done and dried, I did some sewing on the borders of where the words are because I've added material as on the art piece that was transitioning from the

The artwork was quite the process. I did this one on my phone using a drawing app. I then sent that one to my email and then printed it off from there. From there I went on to draw money notes around it to make it look like a man fully loaded with cash. After that, I made a stencil on a computer that was the Queen. Doing this made it so much easier to just stencil on pictures of the Queen instead of drawing each individual one. After that, I got green watercolour and started to lightly paint the notes, using a darker green to add shade. Whilst the notes were drying I decided to paint the mans face a fear colour and added a background that was only put behind the man's head instead of the whole page. Once that was done I took it to my teachers who suggested that it be printed on fabric. Now that was done and then we decided to spray glue the fabric piece and stick it on to watercolour paper making sure to scrunch it as we go for a more effective look. After that dried, I then went in with some charcoal and water and went into more depths in the areas that have creases. After all that I then used a light crimson watercolour to the go around the edges of the fabric to draw more attention to the actual artwork.

This piece was actually one of the first ones I did at home. The eye in the plant means that women now have a perspective in our society and gives them an indication that they are not seen as a thing as that is the meaning of the flowers. The colour is just a typical reddish, pinkish colour in symbolisation of a woman as that's the colour that tends to associate with women a lot. The background is again watercolour but more so in a splotchy way as there is more reds on one side and more on another. Also on that not now that I have fabric introduced to the second panel I have gone along and done some sewing around the eye and around the closed flower with red cotton.

After looking through google I came across a woman that was dressed like a middle east person. I took reference from this girl a decided to use her body and clothing as an outline. After that, I sketched it out and then added some patterns on the bottom right corner and used scrunched up baking paper dipped in paint to create that effect on the top right-hand corner of the page. After painting the women and the blocks yellow behind her I decided to put the words 'I'M A FREE WOMEN' in the back. I did this because there is a diverse woman in different cultures being treated unfairly.

The picture on the left also has a similar connection because of the diversity in women that were/ are being treated poorly coming together to help bring each other up again. The flowers surrounding the beautiful women show a symbol of a new start and something refreshing.

Not going to lie but this one is by far my favourite. This art piece is pretty much self-explanatory, I mean its I woman getting her freedom back as that's what the 'Statue of Liberty' is there for. Now this image was constructed by three different things. The first one in the face. So I did some research under the search of Women Empowerment and a statue of a face came up that is actually New York City. So I used it for reference as a face. The second thing is the hands. This was inspired by Shepard Fairey. It took approximately 30 mins to get the hands right. And the last is the 'Statue of Liberty'. The drawing of this was very very basic, It was just a basic outline that I did but after painting it grey and adding detail it looked like a lot of time and effort was put into it. After that, I put a sign between the hands and added the word 'Liberty' which means freedom. I then used gold acrylic paint and watered that down then painted the background. Once that was done I did black flickers of paint along the side and then used twink to add highlight and detail.

This is another piece I did during the holidays. There isn't really much of meaning and I didn't end up using it so yeah. This goes in the 'Fail Bin'. The one on the right was a play around one once again and the teachers actually liked the style of the pattern that is running along the edges of the page and so I decided to fix that one up and do it properly because the face was looking a little dismantled lol.

By then end of the holidays, this is what I had completed for the second panel of my board.

Start of Term 4:

So first week back and my art folio was due that Friday. I was stressing so much because I hadn't been consistent with the number of art pieces I was doing each term and just wasting time PROCRASTINATING.

Anyway coming back I had two art pieces done at home. This one was the remake of the one I did above. I did another melting face but instead showed a woman with a melting face and a man with nothing. This makes an indication that man doesn't have to do anything to change but in the views of society, women have to look a certain way. The patterns of there are just cause it looks cool. I did sewing on the patterns again to keep the fabric style consistent throughout the board. The one on the left is also a remake of the one I had previously explained above the only difference being is that I changed the body figure a man in a suit and added stencilled Queens in the background.

The left one is of a melting face. I did this because I thought it would be cool to incorporate the sense that women don't necessarily feel good about themselves when they know they are being judged. This piece itself was done by only using watercolour and twink. I just did buildups on the watercolour in sections that needed tone. After that, I added a pink background to bring out the main art piece.

The picture on the right is the piece that finished my board. This went through the process of getting enlarged to an A3 piece of paper because the original size I did it one was too little.

It literally a woman standing in confidence showing strength and courage. I also decided to do little lines coming off the hand to show a bit more meaning to the picture. Obviously, I put the Queen's face there and did some sewing along with the crown. I then added fabric on the clothing of the Queen and in the corner at the top. After that, I did some stitching to the bottom right corner of the page and the top left corner of the page as well.

The process of painting was difficult. First I layed the first coat of brown that I don't even know the ratio of. Then I started to paint more in the directions of the body. After that Mrs Clemence came and did some detail under the boob and stomach area. (can't take full credit) After that, I took this piece home and they added some more tone to the body and depth around areas that need it. I then went in with a white colouring pencil and lightly used it to create a highlight. This piece was used to fill up space next to the Queen one. Putting a pregnant lady there showed a woman's strength as being pregnant is a lot. I added fabric in the corner and then used the thread to kind of stretch out and create some sort of effect if it is placed in the same direction as the belly. I also added the pattern that I used on the melting woman face one and put it on here making sure it blended in with the threads.

The mouth one was a rushed piece not gonna lie. But it turned it cool as a few people have said to my style of painting is very messy. Anyway, this piece is just the voice of women. And I just did it to fill in space that needed filling.

As you can see at the bottom I didn't follow my initial plan for my board layout, but I like the way this looks.