Further oil studies and digital repainting.

last week's post (featuring the digital repaint of my hysterectomy study) was a start of something interesting. I'll be exploring this further in this post, using different styles and techniques and various other Photoshop bits to see how i can produce more effective paintings of one of my best studies (so far) of the current 'Traces' brief.

Original study of mastectomy scars. This study focuses on using complimenting colours to emphasize shading, contouring and depth.

Using colour bending brush, blur tool and corresponting colours to repaint the basic image. Theres a nice fluidity to this peice although a lot of the depth is lost with the paint's texture.

I really like this! I used the 'watercolour' filter. The filter is fairly self explanatory and works really well. It reminds me of one of Francis Bacon's paintings as it creates a lot of depth and most of the green tones are lost, making it very fleshy and raw.

Here I have just used an angled brush tool to give an impression of the colours. I have mixed feeling about this. I dislike how flat it has become however i really wish to explore this kind of paint application, perhaps usiong oils with no medium or thinner with a palette knife to give it more depth and texture.

Digital studies of studies..?

If such a thing exists. 

Original oil painting.

Quick Photoshop 're-paint'. I feel there may be potential here... Apart from looking like and LSD fever dream this piece is quite delicate whilst difficult to  look at due to 'too soft' blending and edged that make my eyes bleed. 

More to come, stay tuned!

Port Folio Prepping.

This post will be detailing my best bits produced from the course I'm currently on. I shall not be adding final pieces  more so studies and bits from my sketchbooks as without them, the final pieces have no meaning and it fairly worthless. I feel that the (good) grades I've received this far are reflected  in the critical analysis and practical skill displayed in my sketchbooks which make them better than the final pieces, to me at least.

The current project is 'Traces', exploring what this could mean to an individual. I chose to explore the traces of my gender, looking back on it from the hindsight in the future. What would be left behind from surgery, what was the process into changing into the correct person, what was the story behind this transformation. As my project expands, I'll keep you updated, its ever expanding as into a full blown instillation.

Study of mastectomy scars. Oil paint. The focus of this painting was to capture raw emotion featured in Francis Bacon's paintings by using exaggerated colours and marks. I feel that it has captured it somewhat as the model has blue and yellow pigmentation as if dead or scared or conversely as if cold, unconscious and has been prepped for the incision with iodine. The figure of the model is obviously meant to be a male which speaks through his broad shoulders, strong neckline and jaw, however his stance is awkward as if trying to adjust to his new gender and ribs jut out quite far (which is just part of the model's body as they have been broken from attacks), which pull in his waist quite far giving the impression of being incomplete and obviously at this point of gender reassignment, the patient may not have had the 'bottom' surgery, chest contouring and may not have even started testosterone yet.

Study of a hysterectomy, the removal of the uterus. Oil paint and fabric. This study is an effort trying to capture a realistic process that would almost compliment the expressive scars painting. However I feel the fabric is a little out of place, more mixed media studies in progress.

Study of internal female reproductive organs. Oil paint. I find that just from observation, it isn't completely obvious that the subject is of organs, more sort of symbolic shapes and patterns. The peeling of the paint, a fortunate mistake, adding an interesting texture on top of (kinda) smooth blending.

Basic Photoshop editing.

Here is the orginal drawing, prior to photoshop manipulation (do excuse the deviantart watermark, I like to keep it on there to try and combat plaugerism). Today our task was to explore these basic techniques and analyse their outcomes.

This image, shows what changign hue, saturation and brightness can do. I personally quite like it, its gone kind of a vintage sepia colour and the heavier blue guiding lines help emphasize dramtic movement in his hair and soft feminine features.

 Here I've used the 'cutout' filter. I quite like the way it's made him almost 64bit, but then again he looses a lot of his soft features and the shading is lost because it was too subtle to be changed in the filter.

This is the inverted colours of the original image. I quite like it as its just an interesting adjustment where nothing is lost from the orginal image. However if I wanted to have this effect I would've drawn on black paper in the first place.

Here I have adjusted the 'curves' of the image. I don't like this, it weighs the image down in the wrong places (around the face) and looks too 'dirty' compared to the quite delicate original image.

So whilst most of these didn't really work for this particular image, I certainly would consider using photoshop to enhance future pieces. After completeing the four set experimentations I decided to have a play with more photoshop manipulations. 

Layer transparency. This is just my own experiment using multiple layers. I really like this, despite its simplicity, its a very nice effect making the subject very ghostly and reminds me of Alexsy Titernko's photography.

If you would like to see more of my work, please do feel free to check out my deviant art.
http://biohazard-harree.deviantart.com/

And if you'd like to see some of Titerenko's wonderful photography and graphic design here is a link.
http://www.alexeytitarenko.com/