Painting
The painting directly reflects what the artist feels or doesn't feel, even if it's just a commissioned portrait. You can examine the ways in which the artist portrays the eyes, the hands, or the background, the colors/expressions, and much more. So, I want to be able to develop visual perception and a critical eye towards images, finding my own gesture by exploring different expressive forms through painting
Artist: Laura Ocampo Campo
Technique: Canvas painting, Grisaille
Year: 2022
Understanding the Stain
Composition
The quote 'We do not know what kind of people we truly are until the moment of our death' is a statement Itachi makes to Kisame on the day they met. A person who deceives their comrade does not deserve a dignified death, and you won't know what kind of person you truly are until your last days, revealing your true nature at the moment of death.
As an image reference, I chose the scene from One Piece where Ace sacrifices himself to save his younger brother, Luffy, who was about to be killed by Sakazuki's fist.
Regarding the composition, the sharp black spikes pierce through a spectrum of shapes and colors, suggesting nonexistence and mortality.
The graphic interplay between color, form, and figure aims to open the door to a profound spiritual expression.
Apart from the character differences determined by internal tensions and specific formation processes, the native source of all lines is force. The collaboration of force with matter produces the vital element, expressed in tensions. Tensions reveal the internal characteristics of the element. The element is the result of force on the material. The line is the clearest and simplest case of this formative work. Such work proceeds accurately and normatively, thus enabling and deserving precise and normative use (Inharmonic - warm/harmonic - Inharmonic/cold). Therefore, the composition is an organization of the living forces contained in the elements as tensions.
Grisaille
The underpainting is the monochromatic version of the painting, upon which the final color layer will be applied. Grisaille is straightforward, and the darks seem more realistic to me than other approaches. Painting in grisaille allows you to focus clearly on values (the degree of light or darkness) without the added complexity of color. When working in full color, it's easy to misjudge the true value, especially with intense and saturated colors.
It would be easy to look at the pink of the lips and assume they were quite intense. If I were to start painting it in full color, I might make the mistake of painting it with a value that's too high. However, with color filtered out, it becomes clear that the pink is rather soft, all mid-values except for some highlights. By focusing solely on value at this stage, it becomes easier to make them accurate.
