Graphite drawing - Floating
Title : Floating
Size : 18in x 24in Medium : Graphite on watercolor paper Date : May 2022 Exhibition Text :
My intention in creating this piece was to give a sense of uneasy peacefulness. Although the descriptions are contradictory, it’s something I feel in times when the future is uncertain, but nothing bad has happened. Inspired by Miles Johnston, I wanted to reflect his surrealist style and graphite techniques. I find that his paintings are very calm, but have a lingering feeling of discomfort, which I want to show in my own work.
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Inspiration :
Going into this piece, I knew somewhat what I wanted to do, but had no point of reference to base it off of. I looked through a lot of different graphite artists until I eventually found Miles Johnston's work, which was exactly what I was looking for. Johnston has a very distinct style, and was super appealing to me and what I wanted to do. While his work is realistic, it has a sense of magical realism that is shown through the way he depicts his figures. It's all very creepy and shows a very twisted idea of reality, with his figures distorted and broken depending on the piece. One example of this that I really like is the drawing titled "Contemplation,"(to the left). In it, a woman is shown sitting alone at a table leaning her head on her hand. But, instead of looking normal, her head is upside down. Other then this, the entire piece is very realistic, but the fact that the change in anatomy and the figure is presented so casually is somewhat off putting. I am also really drawn to the lighting and rendering in general of Johnston's pieces. Most of them show very realistic and sometimes harsh lighting situations, and they are executed very well. There is a lot of contrast between very dark values and very light values, which helps in the process of drawing a realistic form on a 2D piece of paper. I also really like the shading and contrast between hard and soft lines, which helps to distinguish shadows and emphasis certain elements, such as the detail in the hair or clothing.
The piece that I want to pull from the most is titled "Self Reflection," (to the right), which shows a man's body holding up his head and making them face each other. When I looked at it originally, I really liked the idea of looking at yourself from another perspective, or "self reflecting," as the title implies. I think the fact that the head is removed from the body, but the body is still "looking" at its face is also a really interesting way of getting this point across. When thinking about how I would create this piece before finding Johnston's work, I thought about drawing in mirrors or photos, but this is just a much more impactful way of showing the message that I wanted to. Though I do plan on changing a lot of the environment and adding more personal details, I am really intrigued by the pose and want to replicate it in my own work. I also want to make this somewhat of a self portrait, and take reference photos from the same angle in order to make sure it is showing myself and my experiences. In this piece specifically, I really love the way gore, or at least the body being taken apart, is handled. I found that many artists that have similar ideas as Johnston rely on gore and body horror to show the gruesomeness that some of these thoughts and ways of thinking have. In these works though, Johnston relies more on the shock factor of, say, someone holding up their own head. It doesn't need to use blood or injuries, and instead creates casual, almost peaceful, scenes that would otherwise be seen as gross or scary. When I create my own work, I want to keep this idea of casual shock, and allow my techniques and subject matter to carry the message like Johnston does in his own work.
Planning :
Planning for this piece was a bit of a struggle because I had a ton of source material, but not really an idea of what I wanted the outcome to be. To get through this, I did a lot of mini thumbnail sketches of studies of Johnston's work. Although I didn't want to make a direct copy of any of his, I wanted to pick up on different elements until I was able to put a bunch together into something I was happy with. These sketches were pretty simple, just with pen and some basic values, and I wrote down what I did and didn't like about each one. Once I got to the third piece, "Tempest," I knew I wanted to explore the idea some more. I messed around with a lot of different ideas, changing the composition, background, subject, etc, and eventually landed on something I was happy with and wanted to flesh out as my final piece. Once I knew this, I got to working on my reference photo. It took a lot of effort to create since the piece consisted of many elements, but it mostly just came down to taking a lot of photos. Like Johnston, I planned to create something in graphite and kept that in mind while taking photos. Since it would be all black and white, the colors of the photos didn't necessarily matter, but the values did. Because of this, I made sure to take the pictures in a well lit room that would bring out the contrast in the shadows and highlights. I didn't want it to ever be too light or too dark, because it would be very difficult to make out the different features while drawing, as well as in the final piece. Once I had the lighting sorted out, I just took a lot of pictures of my face at different angles. I also took one facing forward and looking up, which would be the center figure. For this one, I focused a lot on my posture, and wore clothes and jewelry that I would on any given day. For the surrounding faces, I focused more on how my face and expressions looked. I again wore makeup that I would any day, and kept my expressions neutral. Once all these photos were taken, I imported them into procreate and started to edit them together. I began with the figure and faces, making sure they were all symmetrical and even. I also blacked out my face in the center, and added some hairs in front to add depth. After that, I did the background. It was fairly simple, with water and a cloudy night sky, so I just imported photos and adjusted them ever so slightly to make the perspective and colors cohesive with the rest of the piece. I only had to draw one element in by hand, and that was cords connecting the surrounding faces to the one in the middle. I only actually drew one, and then copy and pasted them so that they would all be exactly the same. Once this was done, I moved on to creating the final piece.
Process :
SKETCH
To begin the process of creating this piece, I had to start with a pretty solid base sketch, as it includes many complicated and detailed elements that I could very easily miss. The size of the paper was too big to trace from transfer paper, and too small to project onto effectively, so I ended up using a grid method. I started by drawing a 1" grid on the paper, and then overlayed a grid of the same size onto my reference photo. This technique also helped me to keep the scale of the sketch as accurate as possible as opposed to projecting which can warp the image or tracing which is not always exact when printing out the sketch. Once I had both grids set up, I drew the sketch onto the paper, adding as much detail as possible without adding any values or shading.
To begin the process of creating this piece, I had to start with a pretty solid base sketch, as it includes many complicated and detailed elements that I could very easily miss. The size of the paper was too big to trace from transfer paper, and too small to project onto effectively, so I ended up using a grid method. I started by drawing a 1" grid on the paper, and then overlayed a grid of the same size onto my reference photo. This technique also helped me to keep the scale of the sketch as accurate as possible as opposed to projecting which can warp the image or tracing which is not always exact when printing out the sketch. Once I had both grids set up, I drew the sketch onto the paper, adding as much detail as possible without adding any values or shading.
FACES
When starting the shading and rendering on this piece, I thought the best and easiest spot to start were the faces, as it was by far what I was the most comfortable with and what I had the most experience with. From start to finish throughout this whole piece, I kept the reference image up on my phone to always check back on and make sure the values and details were as accurate as possible. When looking at the photo of the faces, I had to pay a lot of attention to very subtle shifts in values, because I found that was often the difference between the likeness being accurate versus completely off. Since the drawing wouldn't be relying on any type of outlines, I began shading very carefully, working from light shades to eventually much darker. After getting a lot of the base values down, I started with the details. I went over what was left of the original sketch in places like the eyes, mouth, and hair. |
CLOTHES/JEWELRY
The clothing was probably the most difficult part of this process, as it wasn't a texture that I had ever drawn before. I usually stick to smooth, basic fabrics, but this one was knit instead. Because of this, I had to pay attention to the detail of each thread and how they were woven together, without making them so detailed that it took away the focus from the rest of the piece. At first, I tried individually detailing and rendering each "rope" of the sweater. This took way too long and didn't really look cohesive as it came together, so I erased it and tried something new. What ended up working was drawing out rough guidelines for where each rope would go, and then rendering the sweater as a whole. After this, I was able to add in more detailed to each one, worrying less about rendering and more about the details.
The clothing was probably the most difficult part of this process, as it wasn't a texture that I had ever drawn before. I usually stick to smooth, basic fabrics, but this one was knit instead. Because of this, I had to pay attention to the detail of each thread and how they were woven together, without making them so detailed that it took away the focus from the rest of the piece. At first, I tried individually detailing and rendering each "rope" of the sweater. This took way too long and didn't really look cohesive as it came together, so I erased it and tried something new. What ended up working was drawing out rough guidelines for where each rope would go, and then rendering the sweater as a whole. After this, I was able to add in more detailed to each one, worrying less about rendering and more about the details.
WATER/SKY
The final step of this piece was to finish off the background. It was a pretty repetitive process, so I worked on it in bits and pieces throughout the rest of the piece, but still had a lot left when everything else was done. I started with the sky, which was a very tedious process. I took the darkest pencil, which was 6b, and pretty much just scribbled all over the background. I then used a large blending stump to blend it all into a dark, even tone throughout the whole sky. To create the clouds, I used a kneaded eraser and sort of blotted it in the areas that I wanted to be lighter. I started with large areas, pressing very lightly with the eraser, and slowly got smaller and continued to make lighter sections until it got to a point I was happy with. With this done, I worked on the water. I used the grid as a reference as to where the hard edges were and made a light sketch of them onto my paper. From here, I filled in the dark shapes and blocked in the values before doing any blending. I found that the water was almost entirely made up of shapes and hard edges, as opposed to soft edges and gradients. Though there were some, I was able to blend them after adding in the initial blocks of value. |
Experimentation :
The very first thing I experimented with before starting the final piece was swatching all of the graphite pencils that I would be using. Though I have done some pieces in graphite before, none of them were finished and they primarily consisted of a basic no 2 pencil. With that said, I wanted to make sure I was comfortable with using the new ones and understood their uses before starting the final piece. I did initial swatching, and just tried each one out and labeled them to look back on. I then created a gradient with each one, using a blending stump to make it more even. In doing this, I was able to see the different between all the pencil, with the hardest lead being the lightest and the softest lead being the darkest, and then used this to apply to my further experimentation and eventually in my final work.
Just to make sure I was completely confident in my graphite use, I created a mini self portrait before the final one. To do this, I took a picture of myself and did the grid method, just on a much smaller scale. I practiced different blending techniques, mostly using gradients and blending stumps. I also wanted to practice applying hard and soft edges to the details, and paid a lot of attention to where these would be placed. I did this for the whole face and hair and worked with it until I was happy with the outcome. I also made sure to do the background as well, because I wanted to make sure I was comfortable with drawing textures and surfaces that were not just skin and hair. Once I finished this piece, I was confident enough to begin the final, and took all the techniques and applied them to my process.
Just to make sure I was completely confident in my graphite use, I created a mini self portrait before the final one. To do this, I took a picture of myself and did the grid method, just on a much smaller scale. I practiced different blending techniques, mostly using gradients and blending stumps. I also wanted to practice applying hard and soft edges to the details, and paid a lot of attention to where these would be placed. I did this for the whole face and hair and worked with it until I was happy with the outcome. I also made sure to do the background as well, because I wanted to make sure I was comfortable with drawing textures and surfaces that were not just skin and hair. Once I finished this piece, I was confident enough to begin the final, and took all the techniques and applied them to my process.
Critique :
Similarities May Include :
- My work, as well as much of Johnston's, is created using graphite. Though not all of the inspiration pieces are created in graphite, I pulled a lot of my inspiration from his pieces that did.
- subject
Differences May Include :
Reflection :
This piece is one of the first that really pushed me outside of my comfort zone in terms of subject matter, as I've never really done anything in a more surrealistic style. Although I was fairly comfortable with my medium, I had to manipulate my skills and techniques in order to create something that was in line with my expectations. My inspiration, Miles Johnston, is a great example of how traditional realism techniques can be utilized in a surrealist manner, and I tried my best to create something with the same eerie feeling and almost realistic style. One part about this process that I found particularly challenging was the sheer number of textures and materials that I tasked myself with drawing and rendering for the first time. I had used graphite many times the past, but my experience with it pretty much ended with portraits and occasionally very basic clothing. Because of this, rendering things like water and a knit material was very unnatural to me and I had a difficult time figuring out how to make it accurate. By that point, I had gotten so far in the piece and was pretty happy with the progress that I didn't want to take the easy way out and make the textures look lazy or low quality, so I did a lot of experimentation until I eventually got an outcome I was content with. I was also able to use some previous projects and experience for this piece, mostly in the medium. I don't have a ton of experience using graphite on full, finished pieces, but I have done a lot of portraits that helped me grow in my techniques and abilities, which I was then able to apply to this most recent piece. Though I did have to adapt when drawing new textures, having the previous knowledge helped me immensely. My favorite part of this process was probably the planning. As previously stated, drawing in a more surrealist style is completely new to me, but I really enjoyed the overall experience. It was really fun being able to essentially draw whatever I wanted, and not being confined to certain rules or guidelines that typical portraiture might come with. Instead, I was able to push my mind to the limits and come up with a unique, much more interesting concept then mare portraits I've done in the past. I really appreciated the lack of complete reliance on technical skills, and letting myself think much more outside of the box. My least favorite part was probably the repetitiveness that came with many of the elements. The majority of the process was taken up by drawing in the water, sky, and sweater. Once I found a rhythm in each section, it was easy to complete but took an extremely long time. It was definitely worth it in the end, but it became difficult to focus on the outcome of the piece when it felt like it would never be finished. Overall though, I am extremely happy with how this piece turned out and it is probably one of my favorite to date. I really hope viewers can see the time and effort I put into it, as well as come up with their own interpretations as to what they think it represents to them.
ACT Questions :
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
My inspiration for this piece was Miles Johnston. I utilized on his use of graphite to create a high contrast between light and dark values to portray different forms and objects throughout the piece.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Self reflection and questioning is a very important part of life, and can allow you to live with a better sense of self and have better awareness of the life around you.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have learned that looking at the occurrences and events in my life from an outside perspective have allowed me to better understand why certain things happen and how to change my actions to be happier.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
Johnston's work is created to show important experiences in one's life and display them in an abstract way to give a different perspective and allow the viewer to reflect upon them and relate to their own experiences.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
High contrast between light and dark values, especially in a black and white piece, is very important to create the illusion of form on a flat surface, and allow for a more realistic looking drawing.
My inspiration for this piece was Miles Johnston. I utilized on his use of graphite to create a high contrast between light and dark values to portray different forms and objects throughout the piece.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Self reflection and questioning is a very important part of life, and can allow you to live with a better sense of self and have better awareness of the life around you.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have learned that looking at the occurrences and events in my life from an outside perspective have allowed me to better understand why certain things happen and how to change my actions to be happier.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
Johnston's work is created to show important experiences in one's life and display them in an abstract way to give a different perspective and allow the viewer to reflect upon them and relate to their own experiences.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
High contrast between light and dark values, especially in a black and white piece, is very important to create the illusion of form on a flat surface, and allow for a more realistic looking drawing.
Citations (in MLA Format)
Johnston, Miles. Contemplation. 2020. Graphite on paper.
Johnston, Miles. Self Reflection. 2019. Graphite on paper.
Johnston, Miles. Self Reflection. 2019. Graphite on paper.