Woman by Megan Latham

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Archipenko Original

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I just wanted to add a note to this research. Whilst Archipenko was not a woman painting a woman, I really liked this piece of work and I wanted to work on the piece itself regardless of the fact that a man drew it.

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Progress shot 1

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Progress shot 2

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Base layer of tones and colours - this is the layer that I worked on top of to start the painting. At this point, there are some things that look a bit out of proportion but with the reference photo it’s things that I fix later on. At this point I am not focused on blending the colours together.

Progress shot 3

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Starting to add the next layer and blend the colour together.

Progress shot 4

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Evaluation of ceramics

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The experience of using clay to create pieces of art was really enjoyable and I looked forward to Tuesday afternoon every week to go and create. I found ceramics very tedious at the beginning of the course and I think it was due to not being able to do what I wanted and having not a lot of personal creative input to the art I was creating. This actually put me of doing any ceramic work for this project but I decided quite late on in my personal project to try it again and I am really glad that I did - it will be something that I will include in all of my future projects as it is a very therapeutic way of creating artwork for me. I am thrilled with the outcome of my pieces and how I was able to represent 3 different body types in my work.
I think if I ever make any torso’s again I would include the shoulders, tops of the arms and the base of the neck to have a more rounded and complete piece. Since I wanted a few pieces out before the end of the project I simply focused on the chest down to make it simpler.
I would also like to experiment with different glazes, and possibly using coloured slips to create different styles of work.

Lino Printing H&S

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There aren’t many health and safety concerns when it comes to cutting the Lino aside form ensuring the tool is always pointing away from you to avoid cutting the skin.

When actually printing, the standard print room H&S applies which includes:
- Apron should be worn at all times to protect clothing
- Gloves are optional but can be worn to protect skin and avoid accidental ingestion
- Always wear closed toe shoes
- Sleeves should be rolled up to avoid ink getting on clothes
- Hair and loose ends should be tucked and tied so they don’t get trapped in the press
- No food or drink in the area to avoid ingestion

Response to Tate women artists using monoprinting.

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During my early research, I read a quote made originally by a critic named George Sala. This inspired me to create this mono print depicting a women’s hands shackled with a paintbrush. I use Lauren’s hands as reference and drew a rough sketch for which I reused and redrew over and over for the mono print. As it was just intended as a response to a quote, I didn’t spend too much time on them but I feel I get across quite a dark and upsetting feeling that many women would have felt during the early days of women entering the art world.

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Initial sketch

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Response to George Sala

Moving on from the response - having fun with monoprinting.

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I drew a pair of breasts and decided to just push my hands down onto the picture - bit of fun. There are a few interpretations of this picture.
One interpretation could be that of a sexual nature; sort of a grope and a feel. On the other hand, it could be of a more informative poster that is used for medical purposes - checking for breast abnormalities.
I didn’t have any intentions for this work and I’m very neutral towards it.

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At the beginning of my project I thought that my project would take a turn in the direction for body image - something it never went to - but I thought having a piece to show different breasts that women have would be a talking point.
For the background texture I used a piece of scrap wallpaper that i pressed into the ink and then pressed onto the paper before drawing the breasts with a pencil.
It’s fun, I like the texture but again, I am very neutral in feeling towards it - I think it would make a cute bag design for a tote but otherwise I’m not fussed by it.

Ceramics Health & safety

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Oil painting/White spirit Health & Safety

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Mid-point evaluation

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Peer Evaluation

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As stressful as they are, I really benefit from peer evaluations as it gives me a little boost to prove I’m even better than the work they’re looking at.
I am always in competition with myself and evaluating is an excellent way for me to put myself in 2nd place by being better again.

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Background Colour

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Adding the dark blue background made such a huge difference - even between these two photos the colours are glowing more and are much warmer. I didn’t actually warm up any of the colours of the skin and the effect is just beautiful. The progress at this point was something I was feeling proud of but I was actively avoiding certain areas such as the hands because I felt overwhelmed by them totally.

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Working on the hands finally.

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I start to forget to take progress shots towards the end of the painting as I am quite engrossed in getting it finished and it is taking up all of my time.
At this point too, the head/neck area was causing some problems so I ended up blunting off the neck with the background colour but it won’t end up staying like this.

Adding a head

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After talking with Lynne, Chris and Lesley, I decided that instead of the work being headless to add a head however I was adamant that I wasn’t going into the details like I did with the body because I want the body to be the focus of the painting.
After about 3-4 attempts I had to consult with Chris and Lynne because I couldn’t see what I was looking at anymore and needed some input from another set of eyes. In this progress shot the hair is too wispy in comparison to everything else and it looks out of place. Also, in the reference photo there are much brighter highlights on my face and it was said to focus on those shapes instead of worrying about facial features or definition. This is something I worked on for another few hours.

Hands and skin texture

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I am REALLY proud of the hands.
They are a good size, I got the shapes of the shadows around my knuckles just right and I am just really happy with how I managed to overcome the anxiety of getting them right.
Something else I managed to do was get skin texture in. On my stomach I have stretch marks and I really wanted to get that texture in but it was daunting and really difficult to split up into dark/light and cool/warm but I ended up just playing around with a few different tones I mixed up and I think it came out great.

Stretch Marks/ skin texture

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I think part of what makes the texture really noticeable is the smooth arm in front of it - it helps a lot and makes a bit difference

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This is the point where I am almost finished.
I worked on the hair to make it more “blocky” and the face a little less defined - this ends up being more refined and the hair slightly different but I much prefer this than what I had on the previous shot.
I also spent time on the surrounding/background. The quilt is something I am really happy with, there is a clear fold, it looks like the body is sunk into it and the shading under the leg and hand gives weight to them.

Final Painting

lat23002219_ — 2024-02-23 15:57:32 UTC

I am exhausted after getting this painting done - the main reason being I gave myself too little time to finish it. I had to pause all the other parts of my project that needed finishing to finish my painting so a major part of my next painting is giving myself time to finish it and not have it encroach on everything else. think in total it took around 30-40 hours to complete so I will be bearing that in mind.

However, I am so happy with the outcome and I am proud of myself for doing it when I thought I couldn’t. This was the first time I have used oil paints so that alone was scary enough but I had also never sized something up this large.

I really wanted to paint a realistic image and I think I have achieved that with the colour mixing I did - I have learned a lot about colour mixing just through this painting and I think next time I paint that element will be quicker.

Something I would improve on vastly would be composition, I wish I had made it a tad bit smaller so I could get some context background in - there isn’t much of that going on in my painting and it’s a shame because I think it would’ve made a huge difference.

I am still teetering on the edge of whether I like the head attached or not. It’s on there now and I won’t be changing it but I think in future I need to learn how to simply suggest the head instead of it being there full on.

Finally, I have really enjoyed painting, it’s something I have thought positively about even though it has been quite a chore to get it finished. I really hope that I improve vastly and produce some amazing paintings that will be a success in the future.

Details to be proud of

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Final Thoughts

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