Lee Cormack - Fratricide by

Theme - ANGER

lcormack2 — 2025-04-20 06:30:28 UTC

I chose the theme of Anger for my final piece as it is a feeling that I experience often and commonly find it difficult to express. I wanted my theme to be very all encompassing while still having a very clear idea, which is why anger was so appealing to me as it can be depicted in many different forms while still causing the viewer to feel the same emotions as the piece.

Inspirational artists - Maciej Hoffman

lcormack2 — 2025-04-20 06:30:55 UTC

Maciej Hoffman is an oil painter and one of my biggest inspirations for my piece. he uses techniques of contrast using mainly greyscale colours with the main focus on the colour red. he also uses very gestural brush strokes to create a messy and stressful appearance to many of his pieces. Most of his works relate to a feeling of anger and angst, capturing it through those intense focused red sections and almost nonsensical structure of his pieces, symbolising the erratic and uncontrollable urges of rage.

Techniques

lcormack2 — 2025-04-20 06:49:18 UTC

I chose a few techniques that I wanted to express in my final piece that were inspired by my inspirational artists found earlier.

Chiaroscuro

Chiroscuro means 'light to dark' basically meaning very intense and dramatic shadows with bold highlights that makes the piece feel real and vivid.

Contrast

I wanted my piece to pop out of the canvas and be very intense and i knew i could achieve that by using complementary colours that would look good next to eachother but also seperate them very clearly from one another.

blending

I wanted to make my piece feel natural in the way that the colours sat together and transitioned into one another so i put a large focus on blending and combining colours.

experiment - 2

lcormack2 — 2025-04-20 06:49:38 UTC

My second experiment was very influenced by the work of Marciej Hoffman as i tried to capture the messiness and contrast of his pieces. this experiment was done alla prima in one sitting and overall i have a positive opinion on it. however, i also have criticisms of it.

The nose

I focused alot on trying to perfect every other part if the face before moving on to the nose, the time by which the one brush i had been using for the entire piece had become a mix of all shades of green and ended up making it this muddy shade of undefined green. i dont hate it, but i used this as a reference to start using multiple brushes and cleaning them between uses.

The messiness

looking at the experiment now i realised after doing it that i didnt really appreciate the look of unfocused and unsmooth brush work in my own pieces and that i would have prefered to make the colours much more blended and less harsh. i could have done this using linseed oil, but while i was creating this experiment i didnt have access to any.

Experiment - 1

lcormack2 — 2025-04-20 06:49:54 UTC

in my first experiment, i was trying to figure out how i would do the colours of my final piece, my first idea being a monochrome colour palette, which i did in this experiment as blue. i have many criticisms of this piece, though i do believe it is decent.

the material

when i did this experiment, i painted on carboard. in many of my personal and previous pieces i enjoy painting on cardboard as it is a smooth canvas and is much more solid than paper, also blending easily. this did work for this piece aswell, however the cardboard had many wrinkles and bumps in it which i feel did not reflect well on my experiment.

The gaps

in this experiment, i was busy more just trying to finish it and i wasnt attentive to the gaps between colours and the blaring show of background behind them. these gaps and spaces annoy me very much and i intend to fix them in my final piece.

Background

I didnt do a background for this experiment, though i should have considering that i intended to do a background for my final piece, not enjoying seeing the bare cardboard as a backgrounf.

Proportions

while it is not the most important to the judging of the actual art skill, I would like for the proportions in my final piece to be more natural and nt as skewed to one side.

reflection

lcormack2 — 2025-04-20 06:50:46 UTC

Overall I like my piece as it accurately reflects the emotions I was trying to express, being self sabotage and anger taking control. While painting, I didn't really have a plan as I was going, taking each section piece by piece and ending up with what I thought was right in the moment, now I believe that this wasn't exactly how I would do it now. One thing I don't like about my piece was the overall lack of contrast that I was aiming for, I was able to capture it in the skin, the greens and blues I hoped would come out in my characters but this was messed up in my execution of the clothing and hair, which made my piece much more orange and brown which i do not like as it provides no pop out from the red background and almost makes them blend into each other and the back. If I were to redo this piece I would opt to make them wear some kind of dark emerald to really separate them from the rest of the piece and work on separating the distinct colours to make them really pop against each other. I incorporated my inspiration from Maciej Hoffman through the vibrant red background as well as the anger weaved into the piece. If I had gone with his more free and messy style of brushwork, I believe I would have enjoyed the piece better, despite what I had thought during my experimentation. I also incorporated my inspiration from Artemisia Gentileschi through my use of Chiaroscuro, I believe i could have been more intense with my use of the technique but I still ensured that it was used in areas i believed could use darkening, as well as my gestural pose of violence which she very much so enjoyed doing in her own pieces. I really loved adding the small details as it made many parts of the painting defined with a sharpness that really brought the piece into the eye. I did these with a single hair from my head as I had no brushes thin enough to do the small details I desired. In future, I want my next piece to be even bolder and more intense, with bright contrasting colours that make someone's eyes hurt just looking at them, that invoke real emotion and make someone either want to cry or run home screaming. I want deep shadows and powerful lights with a smooth finish and not to be showing a single hint of the canvas beneath it.

glossary

lcormack2 — 2025-04-20 06:51:06 UTC

Theme

Express

Clear

Idea

Depicted

Emotions

Piece

Element

Appearance

Anger

Hatred

Symbolise

Concept

Painting

Similarity

Inspirational

Artist

Maciej Hoffman

Techniques

Contrast

Greyscale

Colors

Red

Gestural

Brush strokes

Create

Messy

Feeling

Intense

Focused

Nonsensical

Structure

Symbolising

Erratic

Artemisia Gentileschi

Painted

Unique

Personal

Perspective

Cultural

Societal

Period

Inverted

Comment

Nature

Vibrant

Chiaroscuro

Bold

Dramatic

Realism

Blending

Light

Dark

Shadows

Highlight

Vivid

Real

Pop

Complementary

Natural

Transition

Focus

Combining

Experiment

Monochrome

Color palette

Blue

Material

Cardboard

Smooth

Canvas

Solid

Reflect

Background

Proportion

Skewed

Alla prima

Nose

Brush

Mix

Shades

Green

Muddy

Undefined

Reference

Cleaning

Unsmooth

Brush work

Harsh

Linseed oil

Process

Reflects

Control

Section

Skin

Characters

Execution
Clothing

Hair

Orange

Brown

Dark

Emerald

Separate

Distinct

Incorporated

Weaved

Gestural

Violence

Details

Small

Sharpness

Hair

Thin

Invoke

Deep

Powerful

Reflection

Statement

Struggles

Skill

Develop

Visualise

Feeling

Symbolise

Innocence

Joy

Life

Inserting

Personality

Beliefs

Art

Immerse

Embed

Opinions

Elements

passionate

Ideas

lcormack2 — 2025-04-20 07:00:52 UTC

My very first idea for this piece was supposed to be an element of self hatred and anger at ones own appearance. it was originally going to be of a woman staring into a broken mirror in envy to symbolise her hatred for her own looks and her self, however i ended up choosing another option. this was the concept of one literally murdering themself out of anger.

Title

lcormack2 — 2025-04-20 07:08:16 UTC

I chose the name for my piece as 'Fratricide' as it means to kill ones own brother or sister, which in my painting is used to represent the killers own murdering of themself as 'brother' can often be used as a term to denote similarity or literal genetic relationship. this also brings a personal meaning to the painting as it means that the violent one has some kind of relationship to the copy of themself they are murdering.

Inspirational artists - Artemisia Gentileschi

lcormack2 — 2025-04-20 08:02:15 UTC

Artemisia Gentileschi was a very influential artist to me as many of her pieces were painted to represent anger and trauma. she used her works to present a unique personal perspective on the cultural and social norms of the period, norms which she often intentionally inverted, using her position as an artist to comment on the male-dominated nature of society and to place an alternative focus on female agency. in most of her famous pieces she uses vibrant colours and a technique of chiaroscuro to create a bold dramatic look to her paintings and add a sense of realism which I intended to use for my own final piece.

Statement

lcormack2 — 2025-04-21 01:48:00 UTC

I chose the theme of anger for my piece due to my numerous struggles at the start of this year and all throughout it so far. I have been doing art for a long long time, but painting is more of a recent skill for me to develop so I am still learning and in the process of getting better. I made my painting to visualise how exactly I have been feeling and acting recently, a way to symbolise self sabotage and betrayal of one's own hand as is what i feel like I do at every turn and every new chapter of my life, feeling like I am always making the wrong decision, letting my anger control me and kill the innocence and joy that I try so hard to cling to in my life struggling with depression and anxiety. My own feelings are a major influence in most of my art, so it can be expected to be seen in many pieces to come, I always enjoy inserting little pieces of my own personality and beliefs into my art and I hope that it always comes through. I love using bold colors that are vibrant and intense enough to cause eye pain from just looking at it because it really helps me immerse myself and embed the intensity of my emotion and opinions into my art. I feel as though all of these elements were represented in my piece, and I hope to be trusted when I say it WILL happen again. And next time it will be even more intense and passionate.

process of my final piece

lcormack2 — 2025-04-21 02:02:45 UTC

Process 2

lcormack2 — 2025-04-21 02:03:17 UTC

process 3

lcormack2 — 2025-04-21 02:04:05 UTC

Process 4

lcormack2 — 2025-04-21 02:04:36 UTC

process 5

lcormack2 — 2025-04-21 02:05:11 UTC

i adjusted the face

process 6

lcormack2 — 2025-04-21 02:05:59 UTC

started on the clothing, hated it.

process 7

lcormack2 — 2025-04-21 02:06:58 UTC

made the colours less light, using a layer of red and darker browns

process 8

lcormack2 — 2025-04-21 02:07:44 UTC

more intense shadows and more blood

process 9

lcormack2 — 2025-04-21 02:10:10 UTC

very tiny details

process 10

lcormack2 — 2025-04-21 02:11:11 UTC

finished piece, darkened the background to define it

'Fratricide' by Lee Cormack

lcormack2 — 2025-04-21 12:08:03 UTC

finished piece