Exhibition Text
Hard Times is a digital self portrait inspired by David Hockney's "Sunbather" and draws its name from Paramore's song "Hard Times" from their 2017 album "After Laughter". Hard Times is a representation of how in difficult times it’s important to find things to look forward to and leave behind what’s pulling you down.
Hard Times is a digital self portrait inspired by David Hockney's "Sunbather" and draws its name from Paramore's song "Hard Times" from their 2017 album "After Laughter". Hard Times is a representation of how in difficult times it’s important to find things to look forward to and leave behind what’s pulling you down.
Planning
Paramore's song "Hard Times", the namesake of this piece, reminded me of Hockney's work with its bright colors and collage-like appearance. The music video for "Hard Times" features many bright colors, both saturated and pastel, similar to Hockney's "The Sunbather". The message of this song spoke to me because of some personal events in my life that happened at the beginning of the summer. I felt like I'd hit rock bottom, like in the song, but it wasn't the end of the world. Its peppy beat and energy reflected how even if things are bad, they get better as long as you work towards it.
Planning Sketches
All of my beginning planning sketches either obscured or only showed half of my face; However, once I took a few pictures to use as reference, the picture with the best lighting was at a 3/4 angle. I used this as an opportunity to practice drawing proportionate facial features from a slightly different angle, as is shown in the studies to the left.
Experimentation
The first elements of experimentation were the falling locks of hair and the shadow they're falling into. The shadow was a pink-purple color set to 45% opacity while different layer effects were applied. The first effect was "Darken", which blended the pink-purple with the blues behind it. In addition, towards the bottom right it began to mute the colors and blend them to where they weren't as clear.
The second effect was "Multiply" which uses the values to combine colors. White is transparent and black is opaque. This granted a nice purple color near the top of the pool, yet had the same issue as "Darken" where the bottom right wasn't contrasting enough.
The third and final effect was "Linear Burn", which had a similar effect as Multiply but kept the lines in the pool much crisper and was the deciding factor in which effect to use.
The second effect was "Multiply" which uses the values to combine colors. White is transparent and black is opaque. This granted a nice purple color near the top of the pool, yet had the same issue as "Darken" where the bottom right wasn't contrasting enough.
The third and final effect was "Linear Burn", which had a similar effect as Multiply but kept the lines in the pool much crisper and was the deciding factor in which effect to use.
Process
Hockney used photos and magazines as references, much to the chagrin of elitists who believed art should be draw purely from real-life observation. The photo I used was taken using a phone flashlight as the primary light source. Drawing from a picture is significantly different from drawing a figure from real life, as a picture has flattened all dimension and cannot be drawn from any different angles. However, a picture won't accidentally sneeze in the middle of your drawing, which is a great benefit.
First, I sketched the general proportions on a square 61 by 61cm canvas on a solid blue background. To sketch I used a solid round brush with opacity control set to pen pressure, meaning the harder I pressed with my pen, the darker the line, making it look like a marker. I also used the eyedropper tool to pick some colors from the original photo and used those to color. I then set the sketch layer to 10% opacity and, on a new layer, lay down a base color for the skin. Using a soft round brush at varying degrees of opacity (ranging from 30% to 100%) and the eyedropper tool, I smoothly blended the face using the picture as reference. The sweater is a solid eggshell color. The wavy lines were drawn with a solid round brush at 100% opacity, then duplicated 3 times and changed to different colors: blue, pink, and yellow. These were layered underneath the first white lines and moved to mimic the lines in Hockney's The Sunbather. The background is a blue gradient with a line of blue pool tiles, also similar to Hockney's Sunbather. The wavy lines in the background were light blue, then the layer was set to "Overlay". Next, the shadow is a layer of purple set to "Linear Burn" and at 45% opacity. Lastly, the hard-light was added using a solid round white brush around the leftmost edges of the portrait. Then, the layer was duplicated and a gaussian blur was used to add the subtle glow |
Reflection
I tend to shy away from self-portraits because I’m self-conscious about how I look and the idea of staring at my own face for hours on end isn’t the ideal way to spend my weekend. It's also because portraits often end up in the uncanny valley region of looking recognizable as the person, but something is just a little bit off. I see it in this piece as well, yet if I were to repaint the entire thing I would still find it uncanny but in a different way.
The falling locks of hair are a representation of how at the beginning of the summer after school got out, I cut off over 8 inches of hair to the hairstyle shown in the piece. It was freeing both literally -- hair is heavy -- and metaphorically. I’d recently gone through a personal ordeal where I had to cut off a trusted friend because they weren’t who I thought they were, and although getting this haircut had been a dream well before that, getting it after this event gave it further meaning. It was a severance of the past that made both my head and my heart lighter.
The falling locks of hair are a representation of how at the beginning of the summer after school got out, I cut off over 8 inches of hair to the hairstyle shown in the piece. It was freeing both literally -- hair is heavy -- and metaphorically. I’d recently gone through a personal ordeal where I had to cut off a trusted friend because they weren’t who I thought they were, and although getting this haircut had been a dream well before that, getting it after this event gave it further meaning. It was a severance of the past that made both my head and my heart lighter.
David Hockney. The Sunbather. 1966.
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Compare & ContrastSimilarities
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Juliana Gessner. Hard Times. 2017.
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ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork.
The Sunbather inspired the use of white lines with overlapping colors underneath the white, as well as the poolside and summery aesthetic.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The approach was neutral and factual, although sometimes praised Hockney for his work.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
We all underestimate each other's problems while complaining about our own, yet everyone experiences different struggles and it's not always easily polarized.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my research and the resulting artwork was moving on and focusing on the aftermath of an event, not the event itself.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I was able to infer that Hockney's look was looked down upon because of his use of photo reference, yet using photo reference is a legitimate technique both in practice and professional work.
The Sunbather inspired the use of white lines with overlapping colors underneath the white, as well as the poolside and summery aesthetic.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The approach was neutral and factual, although sometimes praised Hockney for his work.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
We all underestimate each other's problems while complaining about our own, yet everyone experiences different struggles and it's not always easily polarized.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my research and the resulting artwork was moving on and focusing on the aftermath of an event, not the event itself.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I was able to infer that Hockney's look was looked down upon because of his use of photo reference, yet using photo reference is a legitimate technique both in practice and professional work.
Bibliography
"David Hockney Artist Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. 2017. TheArtStory.org Content compiled and written by Anne Souter. Edited and
revised by Ruth Epstein. Available from: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-hockney-david.htm Accessed 1 November 2017.
"David Hockney Artist Overview and Analysis". [Internet]. 2017. TheArtStory.org Content compiled and written by Anne Souter. Edited and
revised by Ruth Epstein. Available from: http://www.theartstory.org/artist-hockney-david.htm Accessed 1 November 2017.