David Hockey

David Hockney was born in 1937 and is an English painter, photographer, print maker and stage designer. He is known as one of the most popular and versatile British artist of the 20th century, showing strong influences from Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso.

Hockney found ways of fitting in a personal subject matter into his art. He began with copying fragments of poems onto his paintings, "encouraging a close scrutiny of the surface and creating a specific identity for the painted marks through the alliance of word and image". These messages then lead on to open declarations in a series of paintings made in 1960-61 on the theme of homosexual love. There was then a huge change in his approach in 1963 when he moved to California, where he focused on swimming pools and palm trees.

" Hockney changed from oil to acrylic paints, applying them as a smooth surface of flat and brilliant colour that helped to emphasise the pre-eminence of the image."

Wide Angle Art: Photograghs and Paintings

Zion Canyon, Utah, Oct, 1982, Photographic collage

With this collage you can see how he has managed to show a wide angle using photographs: he took pictures of his feet and then gradually went up until he had picture of the top of the mountains. In the collage I've noticed that the lighting is different - did the sun disappear whilst taking the pictures? did he come more than one time? Also I like how the further up the view the more photographs there are showing what was around him. This is probably because there's not much going on on the ground, however, he did manage to include some marks in the sand showing different textures.

Sitting in the Zen Garden at the Ryoanji Temple Kyoto, Feb 1983, Photographic Collage

With this piece you can see that Hockney was trying to fit in the entire garden and it warps a bit to fit in. Like the Zion Canyon piece, it has blank gaps in the composition. This might be because Hockney accidentally missed pieces whilst photographing or the pavement isn't a main focus.

Place Furstenberg, Paris, August 7th, 8th, 9th, 1985 Photographic Collage

This is a very large composition that have many photographs on top of each over not fitting neatly, making some areas much more abstract - especially compared to the first two compositions above.

Pearblossom Highway, 11th-18th April 1986 no.2, Photographic Collage

This piece, unlike the others is fully complete - there is no gaps. Like the 'Place Furstenberg' composition, it is very abstract and warped. However even though these pieces are warped there are still clear and recognisable. I feel like this one does not show a clear wide angle, unlike the others. This is because you don't have the fish eye appearance happening in this composition.

Chair, Jardin de Luxembourg, Paris, 10th August 1985, Photo graphic Collage

Unlike the other wide angle pieces done by Hockney, this one is inverted, making the closest thing to you smaller and the furthest larger. So the pictures were taken around the chair.

Interior, Pembroke Studios, London, 1986, Photographic Collage

Like the 'Pearblossom Highway', this composition is very broken up, and I find to be even more complicated (showing more signs of cubism). However you can still see that this is a wide angle, due to seeing how much space it covers.

A Walk Around the Hotel Acatlan Mexico, 1985, oil on 2 Canvases

This wide angle painting covers a large view which makes it curve. Unlike the photographic collages, the paintings curves are much smoother. Hockney also incorporates the inverted technique like what he did with 'Chair', on the bottom part of the pillars and the table. The painting also is much more successful in showing the fish eye effect.

Tyler Dinning Room, 1985, 14 colour lithograph

This drawing appears to show a slight wide angle, as it tries to fit everything around the table by inverting the size, so again small in the front and big in the distance.

From looking at Hockney's work it has helped me understand wide angle compositions much better and how they manage to fit together. This will now help me on making my wide angle drawing.

Bibliography
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/david-hockney-1293
David Hockey, Editor Dr Andreas C Papadakis vol 4 No 1/2-1988
David Hockney: You Make the Picture, paintings and prints 1982-1995, Paula Melia

Daffodils

Because I am evolving a flower I drew from to something completely new but still shows relativeness, I've decide to look into daffodils. I remember last Easter being told about hoop petticoat daffodils and saw some my self. Even though they are part of the daffodil family they look very different in appearance compared to the common daffodil. For instance, the bell-shaped part of the flower are much bigger and curved with the petals around it small and thin, whereas on the common daffodils the petals are much fatter and curved. The stem of the hoop petticoat are very thin and are more rounded, they are also very short in height. In general the common daffodil is bigger all round, apart from for the bell which is smaller than the petals. The bell of both daffodils is the main feature and is what makes the flower recognised as a daffodil. I need to remember to consider this when evolving and creating relatives for my flower, to have something that doesn't change too much throughout like possibly the shape of petals.





Pictures from:
www.ausgardener.com.au
www.oxfordeagle.com

Observing Natural Forms

From the new project we have been set for only this week I've decided to look at some artists work for inspiration and how I can go about with presenting my drawings of natural forms.

In Giovanni Civardi's book, Drawing: A Complete Guide, He talks about graduation of tones on leaves and shells. He mentions how leaves show very fragmented chiaroscuro where there would be small light parts contrasting with the small shadowed parts, suggesting the fine textures of the leaf. He also talks about the shell's shiny surfaces and how we have to observe it to work out how the light reflects on smooth and rough surfaces. I found his comments and drawings rather useful and will definitely be thinking back to them in future when I do more observing drawings as shading using very dark and very light tones help with showing the structure of the object - also try out cross hatching as it might make drawing tone quicker.
 

In both of these drawings you can see that both objects include folds and twists creating strong shadows with were the light source can't get to. Even though they aren't heavy in detail it manages to show enough information of the objects appearance and form.

I also found Leonardo da Vinci's observational drawings on plants rather interesting as they held a lot of information. For instance in all three of these drawings I found in the book 'Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Works' he would include and make clear all the features of each plant in one drawing with accuracy: leaves, fruit, flower, stem, thorns, etc. This is something I had to try and achieve with my own drawings, however I found da Vinci had presented the plant well by only drawing a segment of the whole thing - so instead of drawing the entire plant he only took a section of it which includes all of its features. When I was drawing from a plant I got overwhelmed by how busy it was, whereas if I focused on just a section I would of found it a lot easier- maybe try breaking part of the plant off.

 The two plant drawings done in red are much more fuller studies compared to the study of the pea pods, and also show much more information to the whole plant rather than a section, whereas the pea pods focuses on the appearance of different angles of one object. It also looks at different stages of opening. If I possibly have time I could possibly try observing flowers which close up - compare the differences.