Project #1
Death of an Olive Tree
48cm x 61cm Graphite and Colored Pencil on Bristol Paper August 2018 Exhibition Text This piece was made to portray the issue that is Deforestation that occurs throughout the world. The title Death of an Olive Tree, is a mix of Vincent Van Gogh's Olive Tree series and a song named Death of a Strawberry. |
(Click to enlarge pictures)
Planning
Inspiration
Instead of going with my typical route in the realm of Conflict, I wanted to branch out into a new subtopic this year. The topic that I had thought about portraying was Social / Political Conflicts. While I have done some works about some political conflict in the past, I did not want to do something so blatantly political. My plan was to focus on different issues seen throughout the world. For this piece, I wanted to focus on the impact of deforestation on the world. After deciding on my general topic, it took me a while to figure out what artist to look at. After searching for a few days, I remembered to look at my favorite artist of all time, Vincent Van Gogh. I immediately went to his large collection of Olive Trees paintings. Due to the sheer amount of these paintings, it took me some time to find the one that I would mainly use. I eventually decided on Olive Trees in a Mountainous Landscape. I chose to make use of this one because of the large concentration of trees throughout the painting, as I knew that I could make use of that aspect.
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(Click to enlarge pictures)
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Planning Sketches
As I typically do, I like to write out my ideas onto paper to help collect my thoughts. I planned to keep my general theme and stick to illustration paper for my medium. Painting is not something that I plan to do again for some time. I discussed the deviation from my typical plans within the theme of Conflict. I hoped to showcase the issue of deforestation, I wanted to use deforestation because of how big of an issue its become, more so the illegal actions of it. For years, it has been a big issue in South America and causes a lot of conflict between different people. This lead me to use Van Gogh's Oliive Trees; as throughout his life, he was deeply connected to nature. I also included a rough sketch of a Van Gogh Olive Tree.
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As per usual, I created a full sketch of the main inspiration in order to get a better idea of what I am getting into. This sketch helped me get an idea of the size configuration that I would need to use, as the original dimensions are far more square in comparison to the paper I was using. It also just gave me an idea on how to shape each of the different aspects.
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This was the final sketch, I used a printed out picture of the piece to help guide my precision for this sketch. I created a grid over both the picture and this sketch paper. I started out simply by creating the outline of the road and the olive tree on the right. I then worked out where to place the stumps of the cut-down trees, which mostly ended up being in the same spots. I had no plans to really change the the shape of the skyline or mountain range, but there were some changes later on.
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Process
Experimentation
One of the first experiments was the details on the trees and stumps. On the far right tree, I included a little indent on the trunk, to make it seem as if it was being chopped down. Another set of details was adding the tree rings on the stumps and some branches within the leaves.One thing that I had been unsure of was how to divide the grasslands from the mountain areas. I ended up just doing a rough green grass outline in the end. The next thing I experimented with was leaving the outline of each piece and coloring over it, which I really liked in the end. One minor thing I had decided to do was change the overall color of the sky to something a bit darker, as to make in seem as if it were later in the day. The final thing that I ended up experimenting on was the mountain range. In the original piece, all of the mountains were different shades of blue. For this piece, I wanted to follow that pattern but change that color to brown, as to allude to it already being deforested in that area. |
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Process
Sketching: The sketching for this started out rather simply. I began by creating a grid on the paper, making a total of 30 different squares. I then started on the general outlines of the pathway and mountains. Secondly, I created the clouds in the skyline. Next, I moved onto the tree stumps dotted throughout the piece. I went from left to right, creating a small bit of shadow next to each stump. After this, I decided to add a felled tree in the center, as I felt the coverage was lacking. I then went onto drawing in the rest of the trees.
Sketching: The sketching for this started out rather simply. I began by creating a grid on the paper, making a total of 30 different squares. I then started on the general outlines of the pathway and mountains. Secondly, I created the clouds in the skyline. Next, I moved onto the tree stumps dotted throughout the piece. I went from left to right, creating a small bit of shadow next to each stump. After this, I decided to add a felled tree in the center, as I felt the coverage was lacking. I then went onto drawing in the rest of the trees.
Drawing and Coloring: I started out with the stump in the bottom left corner, using gradation from dark to light to give some depth to the object. I continued on dong this all throughout the stumps, erasing the grid lines as I went through. I then went back to each of the stump and added some violet marks in each of the stumps. From there, I used three shades of green to create the leaves on all of the trees. At that point, I did the rough outlines of the mountain line and pathway in green. I then used a few different shades of brown for the path and blended them together with a white pencil. I then used a few shades of green for the fields. Next, I used multiple shades of blue and purple in the sky and blended them again. From there it was a mix of many different colors for the clouds and mountains.
Reflection
Overall, I was rather pleased with the outcome of this piece.
ACT Responses
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
Vincent Van Gogh was known for his deep spiritual connection to nature, which helped me in my decision to use his work.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I feel as if Van Gogh would have a deep interest in this topic, because of how important nature became to him.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My overall theme is conflict, but for this specific piece was focused on Social / Political Conflict
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Vincent Van Gogh was known for his deep spiritual connection to nature, which helped me in my decision to use his work.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I feel as if Van Gogh would have a deep interest in this topic, because of how important nature became to him.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My overall theme is conflict, but for this specific piece was focused on Social / Political Conflict
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?