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How does texture affect the mood of art works?

To understand this question, I will mainly focus on the texture in painting category. After round of experiments and portray, I feel like the thickness of the pigment, dryness of the brush and the technique applied in painting are the three major determinants of the effect of a texture.

1. Thickness of the pigment: paint with thick pigment can create a really smooth and pure surface, whereas the audience might feel “clogged” and “breathless”, because the thick layer is blocking any oxygen to pass through. A relatively thin layer is easier to control, but the much harder to create a sense of texture and looks more like a plain surface.

2. Dryness of the brush: wet brush can make the texture looks more soft and gentle, whereas a dry brush can create a harsh contrast and useful when depicting harsh objects like rocks and grasses.

3. Technique: the one of most effective way to create a rugged texture is to dot pigments on the surface, and this is the technique I used while painting the rocky road in my summative painting.

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Experiments:

I moulded two clay figures as my experiments. These two studies provides me sufficient skills of moulding and appropriate sense of proportion. Also, I learned what is a steady shape and structure in modeling. For example the shape of the call figure on the left is quite different than the shape I intended to make. This is because it takes sometime for the clay to dry into a permanent form, and the gravitational pull can be influential sometimes.

Process:

1. Mould a piece of clay into the shape of the ear.

2. Mould details of the ear

3. Wait it to dry

4. Use acrylic to paint on the model

Respond:

This is clay model based on the shape of my own ear. I moulded this ear and painted “PATIENT” in thick and black lines. I wish to reflect myself as I see it, because I have realized that I am not a good audience. Sometimes, I’m too stubborn and confident to my own idea, so there is no patience left to the sincere suggestions provided by my friends. Therefore, the shape of the 3D art work is an ear in a pretty large size, because it indicates my aspiration and wish to calm down and listen to others.

I then used black acrylic and painted the word “PATIENT” on the surface of the clay. It can not only create a harsh contrast, but also indicates that be patient is something really urgent and meaningful for me. Additionally, patience is a typical personality that teenagers lack of, so the interpretation for myself can be also generalized to a symbol of a group of teenagers.

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Experiments and preparations:

I did several experimentations about figure, gesture, color and linear perspective. All of them are providing a great help to my final summative price. After doing art experiments, I understood how different colors and values work together to create certain effect. By the practicing portrait, I can master my brush and have a better sense of proportion. Moreover, the study of my final summative teaches me a lot.

The study painting is based on an actual photo which consists of only black and white with various values and linear composition. I find myself struggling with painting details, texture and the proportion of the whole composition. For instance, I place the figure in the painting too high and made it a bit small than the original photo, and the texture of the road is quite different than the actual textural effect. Therefore, I payed more attention to the proportion and texture effects in my final art piece.

Process:

1. Use pencils to find major lines accurately

2. Start with the heaviest values and paint majors backgrounds first.

3. Paint the figure in the carefully

4. Adding details

Respond:

This is a painting based on an actual photo taken in Tongli town in Suzhou. I am fond of wandering through a place like that, and that is why I am so passionate about both the picture and the acrylic painting. In short, there are three major elements that triggers me to paint this art work.

First of all, I I am passionate about applying linear perspective into my work, because we studied this theory a few months ago, and this is one of the most effective trick of applying 3-D illusion on a 2-D space. The road, windows and wall are all following the rule of linear perspective, and it looks really like an actual scenery if the viewer is standing far away from the painting. That is exactly the illusion I intended to make.

Secondly, I the values and textures in this painting is various and challenging. Sometimes is becomes harder if there artist can only use black and white, since the loss of various colors has to be compensated by adding accurate values. In terms of the textures, the road in reality is made of rugged rocks whereas the wall has been painted thoroughly in white. Therefore, used wide brush and painted smoothly on the canvas where the wall take place, and used the brush to vertically dot on the “road”. Additionally, the wall in the middle of the canvas has an outmoded looking, thus, I painted several layers in order to create a dim and broken view.

Most importantly, this painting indicates my dreamy imagination of a Tongli town. I used the words “dreamy” and “imagination” because this is not what Tongli town looks like right now in reality. Tongli used to by peaceful and tranquil town, until more and more visitors are coming and plain villagers realized the opportunities to run businesses associated with tourism. It is almost impossible to find a place demonstrated in my painting anymore in this serene town, because all the road are “choked” by populous visitors. Moreover, there is something more meaningful than an ideal scenery: sometimes, especially in Chinese culture, mentality can be more influential than the surroundings. If a person is holy and sober enough, anywhere could seem as tranquil as a undisturbed valley in the mountain. A lot of famous Chinese philosopher and poets are capable of doing that, and this is also my ultimate goal of life: tranquility.

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This unit is about identity and interpretation. I did two pieces of art works, one is a 2D acrylic painting and the other is a three-dimensional model.