My Art: Day 2

As I stated in my first personal post, lately I've been working on portraits. This time I decided to work on a portrait of one of my best friends, Anastacia. Now, granted, this isn't the first drawing I've done of her, but it's one of my better pieces that I've created.

The materials I started with are paper of my choice, a .5 mechanical pencil, and a picture of my choice. The picture I used was this:

 

I went directly into outlining the features of her face, hair, and shirt.

 





When I outline, I try to break down the face into basic sectors, laying down lines with approximate distances between the major features (eyes, nose, mouth, chin, etc). Now, normally I would start from the center of the page (in this case, her face) and work out, shading, adding detail in areas where detail is required, but, when I was doing this, I decided to get her hair shaded first (hair happens to be one of my largest challenges). When I shade, I prefer to use charcoal.

 

 

After I finished shading Ana's hair, I went in and darkened some lines, finished outlining her shirt, and then placed some lines where I planed to shade darker for shadowing. After doing this, I decided to go in and color her irises, blending a dark indigo blue, with a bright green color pencil. After getting it to the shade I wanted, I used a white color pencil to swirl and further blend the green into the blue. Once I had them the way I wanted them, I filled in her eyebrows. Also, I went back into her hair, using a white charcoal pencil, I added highlights to her hair, giving it a more natural look, and creating depth. 

 

 

 

The last step for me, with any project, is shading. Shading, quite frankly, is what really brings to life any picture. It adds depth, so that your character or object isn't flat. So, I went in with my charcoal pencil, and handy-dandy cotton ball, and carefully shaded and blended her face and shirt. It still amazes me how much attitude shading in her eye lids and forehead wrinkles gave to this portrait. 

 

 

Hopefully you enjoy this drawing as much as I enjoyed drawing it! Please, if you have any suggestions, questions, or ideas, post below or shoot me an e-mail. Oh! And special thanks to my dear friend Ana, for giving me permission to post this and also, thank-you for being my model!

-Syd

P.S. Thanks to everyone who views my blog, I appreciate it greatly!

 



Low-Brow Art Movement

The Low-Brow Art Movement (also known and recognized as Pop Surrealism), was started by Robert Williams, founder of Juxtapoz magazine, the second-best selling art magazine in the U.S. The Low-Brow movement can be traced back to the creation of "Rat Fink" by Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, in the late 1950s. 

In the late 1960s, the new found roots of the Pop Surrealism movement branched with underground Comix of Robert Williams, R. Crumb, Victor Moscoso, and S. Clay Wilson. One very well known comix was ZAP: 

Some examples of pop surrealism that I found are: 

Camilla d'Errico's "Porcelaine Girl" WIP for Candy Escape Exhibition

"The Game Of Making Structures" by Silvia Pelissero

"An Ape Allegory" by Todd Schorr 

By Jessica Ator 

Many people have debated over whether or not the Lowbrow  art movement is a legitimate movement, but seeing as the world of art is continuously changing, only time will tell. 

For more example of the Low-Brow movement look at these artist and their web-pages:

Robert Williams - http://www.robtwilliamsstudio.com/

Alice Meichi Li - http://alicemeichi.com/

David Plunkert - http://www.spurdesign.com/plunkert/work.html

Amy Sol - http://www.amysol.com/sectionsHTML/news/index.html

Information and Images found at;

http://arthistory.about.com/od/arthistory101/a/lowbrow.htm

http://jorgebarragan.net/jbdesign/2012/09/26/the-underground-movement-of-pop-surrealism-lowbrow-art/

http://atorgrafx.com/illustrations.html#close

http://camilladerricoart.tumblr.com/tagged/Pop-Surrealism

http://www.artltdmag.com/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1246921641&archive=&start_from=&ucat=28&

Thank-you for reading! I hope that I have both interested and informed you a little bit in the Lowbrow movement! Until next time! 

-Sydney Elliott

Artists: Angelina Wrona

Well, today I decided to do a little post about one of my favorite Artists. Her name is Angelina Wrona, and currently she lives in Ontario, Canada. Her artwork is inspired by Japanese animation (other wise known as Japanamie) , early American portraiture and the Lowbrow (pop surrealism) art movement. She is mostly known for her "Senta Mental Dolls". Some of my favorite pieces done by her;

"Water-Lilly" by Angelina Wrona

 

"Single-Again" by Angelina Wrona

 

"Framed" by Angelina Wrona

 

I find Angelina's paintings captivating. Each piece tells a story. Every paintings eyes' are so detailed, in the large style common with anime, that they just draw you in. You can just feel each of her paintings characters' come to life, staring into their eyes' that hold deep emotions, anything from sadness, to anger. 

 

Angelina Wrona also designs custom clothing and jewelry.  You can normally find her at her gallery/store in Merrickville, Ontario. For more information about Angelina Wrona, her paintings, jewelry, and store go to her website at  http://wp2.angelinawrona.ca/. 

 

For further information about the Lowbrow (pop surrealism) art movement, stay tuned for my next blog update! (Which will be, for sure, in two days!)

 

 

Thanks for viewing!

 

-Sydney Elliott

 

 

P.S. Sorry for the wait!

 

 

All information and pictures can be found at Angelina Wrona's website! http://wp2.angelinawrona.ca/ 



My Art- Day 1

Today, I decided to post something that I just recently started. Lately I've been working on portraits because I have a tough time with faces, and bodies. Now, I'm no where near being an accomplished artist...or even an intermediate one. I'm more of a long-standing beginner.  I decided to do a self-portrait of this picture:

I chose this picture because, although it isn't perfect, it's a side of me that most people don't see. Bed head, early morning, when I'm in a super good mood. And I thought it would be a challenge for me to draw. So far I've been right. This is where I am at the moment:

 

 

Obviously, it isn't finished, but it's the beginning. When ever I draw faces, I always start with the outline of the head. Getting down the shape of the face. Normally, I then draw the out line of the eyes, nose, and lips.

 

I'll be honest I absolutely suck at drawing hair, so I typically wait until everything else is drawn and shaded before I even mess with it. Although, in this case, I did get the outline of my hair down as well.

 

Comparing the pictures side to side really helps me see where I've gone wrong and what areas need improvement. Example: Right now my portrait's upper lip is too full and I need to bring my nose out a little bit farther. Also, my right eye (left side of the paper) is slightly larger than the left eye (right side of the paper).

 

Another thing I like to do when I draw faces, is to get a second opinion from someone I know who will be a hundred percent honest with me, and tell me what areas need improvement. For me, that person is typically my Mom. Just remember, don't be afraid of constructive criticism! Try to take advice and use it!

 

Thank-you for checking out my page! Oh delicious ambiguity! Stop in next Monday to see what my next post will be about!

 

-Sydney Elliott

 

P.S. Feel free to post a comment below or send me an email at elliott.sydney@rocketmail.com! Especially if you have any advice for me! Or you just want to ask a question! Thank-you and Stay Tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

The Beginning

Hello! I'm Sydney Elliott, and I decided to create this blog about Art (my art in particular), Artists, and the History of Art. I wanted to get better acquainted with Artists, and what's a better way than to research, and write about the subject that I love so much?

I'll be completely honest, I may love to draw and paint, but I know next to nothing about the history of art, and even less of the various artists of our day.  So I'm going to research my butt off, and find out more. My goal is to create a post every four days. My posts might contain my art (either something I'm currently working on, or something I've already created), a review/information about an artist, or just a general post about art itself.

I'm going to make each post new and creative. What I'm shooting for is entertaining and insightful. Something you can read with-out being bored out of your mind!

I hope that you come to find my blog amusing and a must read! But, if you just view it every now and again, that will be okay too. Thanks for checking it out!

-Sydney Elliott

P.S. If you have any in-put, advice, or if you just have an idea for another post, please don't be afraid to write comments. Or! If you're even braver than that, shoot me an email at elliott.sydney@rocketmail.com! I may not see your email/comment right away, but I will always respond!