Zach Jeantete -
The idea that I enjoyed to portray in my artworks was simplicity. Combining the simple aspect of shape and line and then turning those shapes and lines into something that the viewer and I have experienced before. This mostly has to do with cityscapes and urban pieces which has more linear behavior. The artworks that incorporate natural scenes has more complicated behavior such as lighting, motion, and detail which I try to intertwine with the urban setting artworks. This is why simplexity is the characteristic that I believe is most prominent in my artworks.
To accomplish this idea of realism I used different medias and tools in order to explore which kinds of medias work best and give the illusion, depth, and detail of realism. Colored pencil and pencil was my go to medium which was successful for the artworks I created so far such as in the art piece, “Late Night in Kyoto” and “Walking on the Pier”. During the second half of my first year in art I switched to digital art which I really enjoyed including platforms such as Krita and Procreate. Both Krita and Procreate are mediums that I would like to explore deeper into in my second year of art. In the natural scene of “Peace at the Pond”, using a digital platform made creating the illusion of light much easier to achieve compared to using colored pencil which was an advantage. The simple shapes could be brought to life using complex natural behaviors such as reflections and motion which I thought was a challenge especially when using a medium such as colored pencils and pencil. Through this process, Nathan Walsh has been one of my biggest inspirations for realism artwork and working with cityscapes and attempting to work with the behavior of light and nature which is the biggest techniques that were prominent in the artworks that I create. That’s the main reasoning behind incorporating both natural settings and cityscapes because they both having different characteristics and behaviors when it comes to light and movement which I attempt to illustrate in my artworks.
The two different scenes I created of cities versus nature give different perspectives and different techniques that can be used to make an art piece that relates to realism which I enjoyed experiencing this year. Having more access to different mediums in year two of art will really help me choose which medium works best for the art pieces that I am trying to create.
Late Night in Kyoto, 19 cm x 27.9 cm
colored pencils, pencil
This artwork was based off the art movement of Realism. I wanted to focus on the details that are required in order to make a artwork look realistic and colorful. Based off my research I was able to find a type of realism called photorealism which is when you take a photo and try to recreate it as best as possible. This piece takes place in a city in Japan which I chose because of how unique the layout of the buildings were. more opportunity than in our country which makes it more interesting and makes more room for different colors and approaches when creating buildings and small details. The night theme is something that I like to practice with especially when drawing or creating the illusion of light which I tried to do in this artwork. Line was an element that needed much attention throughout this artwork as it was what created a sense of depth and replication of a real life scene.
Walking on the Pier, 19 cm x 26.6 cm
colored pencil, pencil, cottonball
The purpose of this drawing was to create depth and an image that resembles a city realistically. My intention was to create shapes that resembled a city and then add details to make it more realistic. I tried to compare my art to Nathan Walsh who is an artist I tried to replicate who does realism paintings of cities and architecture. The most difficult part of the process was replicating light and replicating waves to where it looks realistic enough to give the illusion of depth which was my goal for this drawing. I went for an evening time period to create light in each building in order to add more detail and make the drawing more lively and realistic.
Peace at the Pond, 4961 px x 7016 px, digital artwork (Krita)
My intentions for this artwork was to replicate behaviors that happen in nature by using a different medium that I have never used before. This behaviors such as light, reflection, and motion played a big role in trying to create an art piece that replicates a real life scene. I do enjoy working with scenes that involve night time and sunset as I find them more unique and gives more opportunities to use color and light which was what I was attempting to accomplish in this artwork.
One Path, 27.9 cm x 35.5 cm, colored pencil, pencil, cotton ball
This art piece was an attempt at shading and working with proportions and scale in a natural setting. This is another instance where depth was one of my goals and attempted to achieve this goal by created different sizes of objects which in this case was the road, cliff, and mountain ranges in the back. I enjoyed creating small details particularly in the cliffside where I practiced shading the most. Smudging the lead with a cotton ball helped create a more realistic and natural look which is what I was looking to do in this art piece.
Night or Day, 27.9 cm x 24.1 cm, gelly roll white pen, black ink pen, pencil
This monochromatic piece was my first attempt at a two point perspective drawing. It is another cityscape scene and attempted to add fine detail to each building to give depth and texture to the walls of the buildings and create the illusion of space within each building as well. Also the angles in each corner of the windows, buildings and road also helped achieve this sense of depth as well.
One Way, 5.7 cm x 34.3 cm, alcohol markers, pencil,
colored pencil, cotton ball
This was another cityscape themed artwork that worked with a new medium which was alcohol markers. The goal was to make the lighting within the piece more vibrant by combining the use of colored pencil and the alcohol markers which was somewhat successful. The contrast was a bit too aggressive but sketching the scene helped improve upon my one point perspective drawing skills.
Neighborhood Walk, 22.86cm x 30.48cm, watercolor, pencil
This watercolor piece is the first watercolor piece I have done and I thought it came out well. The blending of colors made the sunset setting look realistic and gave the illusion of light which was my goal for a majority of my art pieces.
Light Between the Dark, 21.6 cm x 19 cm x 29.2 cm, cardboard, black construction
paper, light source, hot glue
This was my first three dimensional piece that involved some planning and experimentation with manipulating cardboard and hot glue. For this piece I wanted to create buildings that could give off light from a light source placed in the middle. At this point I think I have experimented with a variety of ways that light can be seen or used but how successful these techniques were are debatable. It is another night time theme and also monochromatic which the contrast is appealing to the eye.
City Life, 35.56cm x 27.94cm, pencil
This piece I stayed away from color in order to focus on more detail and depth of the buildings and roads. This part of adding detail to each building is my favorite part of the process.