Quality of Media Application

McAvoy uses a mix of 1880’s period techniques and graphic illustrative techniques. For example, the shading and blending in the skin and background are similar to ‘Self Portrait’ by Henri-Edmond Cross or ‘Portrait Mademoiselle Irène Cahen d`Anvers’ by Auguste Renoir. These works are similar to ‘Made up of Different Lines’ by Marylin McAvoy because of the impressionistic intentional shaggy brush strokes. Impressionism is a style I really enjoy experimenting in, and I want to learn from these artists how to achieve the best results in this genre. The use of empty unshaded dark areas like the hair, top, long-sleeved gloves, and corners of the background all create a graphical illustrative effect that I previously mentioned. The flat black spaces allow the viewer to more easily digest the painting and make the more rendered and fluid areas more prominent.

Use of colour and Tone

In ‘Immerse’ and ‘Tess Looking Back’, McAvoy uses blue and yellow/orange as her main colours. These colours are almost complimentary on the colour wheel. Although they both have the same colour palette, they both create very different moods. ‘Immerse’ uses cooler hues and lighter colours. This makes the artwork feel otherworldly or even metaphysical. In Contrast ‘Tess Looking Back’ has much darker shades and warmer hues. This makes the art feel grounded and organic. In ‘Made up of Different Lines’ McAvoy uses once again, 2 colours: Blue and red. What I notice is that McAvoy does not take the blue and red to ever make purple in ‘Made up of Different Lines’. McAvoy profusely uses green by mixing yellow and blue in ‘Immerse’. This makes me realise that McAvoy intentionally sets out how she will use colours and shades before starting her painting. If I make a plan of how I want to paint something beforehand, then I can really think deeply about the choices I make. I can even make a small thumbnail of the artwork before and try out the colours I chose and how I use them so that I can make mistakes before starting my piece. In “As the Red Fades from your Dress”, McAvoy uses a complementary palette of red and green, with hints of green and blue. As I further observe this work by McAvoy, I notice that she hardly mixes red and green together. This is because these two colours are opposite on the color wheel, thus making them desaturate one another/making it a muddy grey. In the skin, the shadows are very saturated. I believe this is done by limiting the amount of colours you are mixing. The more colours you mix together, the more muddy it becomes. Therefore, I suspect McAvoy made a brown by mixing purple and yellow, and using this to darken the skin colour chosen. This could very much be a wrong hypothesis, but without McAvoy, I would not be pondering these possibilities.