Artwork: Illustration
Inspiration
I had two specific pieces of inspiration that I pulled the poses from. These pieces are Le Sommeil (left) by Gustave Courbet, and The Card Players (right) by Paul Cézanne. I used Le Sommeil because it depicts two women in an erotic pose, something that I needed to convey the message behind this piece. I chose to use The Card Players for the other part of this piece because it depicts two men doing something completely normal - they're sitting together, playing cards. I used the differences between these two pieces for the project because it helped to convey a contrast. I also took some inspiration from the surrealist movement, specifically Son of Man by Salvador Dali and The False Mirror by Rene Magritte. I did this to obscure the figures in the piece, in order to make it evident that the public does not really know who they are. The eyes, with inspiration taken from Magritte, represent the audience. They see these two people engaging in sexual activity, and no other parts of their lives.
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Another large part of my inspiration for this piece was sex work, including porn, prostitution, and other similar things. This is a very controversial topic, however, industries built around sex work (ex. the porn industry) play a large part in the objectification of women. Women in sex work are treated as objects of sexual desire. This is especially prevalent in pornography, where a large audience watches someone engage in sexual acts. In many cases, a popular genre of pornography is that involving two or more women. When an audience watches this video, they are viewing women having sex for their own pleasure. This can make them forget that they are watching real, normal people do something that a lot of people do. This was the main focus of my piece - the idea that women in sex work are not treated as people, but as objects instead,
Planning
My first planning sketch was just a sketch where I copied the pose of Le Sommeil. This is what initially gave me the idea, however, I developed it along the way.
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My second planning sketch was a small sketch of the pose I wanted the other part of the piece to be in, which was the pose of the figures in The Card Players. Originally, I wanted the two women to be having coffee together, but I decided to abandon this idea.
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My final planning sketch was closest to what I wanted to be the end result. However, it was not exactly what I wanted it to be, so I decided to experiment.
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Experimentation
At first, I only had the initial planning sketch that I edited a bit. I decided not to use this, however, as it felt incomplete compared to what I wanted. I decided to keep experimenting with the piece.
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In this version of the piece, I started adding more to the background. I wanted something that would make it look less empty, but still have the same meaning and general composition.
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This is the sketch that became my final piece for this project. I added full color, and the parts of the piece that were surreal. I thought this was the best of the experimentation I had done, so I decided to use it as my final piece.
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After transferring this to gouache, I wanted to change the placement of the eyes in the original colored pencil piece. I made small changes, but they impacted the overall composition of the piece.
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Process
The first thing I did was take my final pieces and transfer them onto the boards I was using for my gouache illustration. Then, I gave them a light wash. After a while, I decided to simply start painting instead of putting down a wash. I did the figures first, and mixed skin tones with burnt umber, white, yellow ochre, vermillion, crimson, and burnt umber. I used a variety of other colors for other details. After I painted the figures, I painted the smoke around them, and then moved on to any missing details.
The first thing I did was take my final pieces and transfer them onto the boards I was using for my gouache illustration. Then, I gave them a light wash. After a while, I decided to simply start painting instead of putting down a wash. I did the figures first, and mixed skin tones with burnt umber, white, yellow ochre, vermillion, crimson, and burnt umber. I used a variety of other colors for other details. After I painted the figures, I painted the smoke around them, and then moved on to any missing details.
Reflection
Overall, I am happy with how the gouache piece came out, though I feel like it could have been better. The painting in the second part of the piece is mostly unblended, and while I enjoy that, it does not match the first piece. I feel as though my skills were not great, since this was my first time working with gouache, but I think I improved as I went along. The next time I do a gouache piece, however, it will not be on the same material, since it does not work well with gouache. It rips small chunks out of the board (paper-based), and is hard to blend on it. One thing I think I really improved on, however, is painting bodies and creating figures. This is something I used to struggle with a lot, but I feel as though I'm getting better at it.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
I took the exact poses from the paintings I used as inspiration, and you can see the curved lines and use of unconventional objects of surrealism in my piece.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The research found is very critical of the porn industry and the way sex workers are viewed by their audiences.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have come to the conclusion that, while one may acknowledge that a sex worker is just a person making money, and that sex work is a job, there are viewpoints that are ingrained within a person's brain about those jobs because of the way they are talked about.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea/theme was the contradiction between seen and unseen, and the way porn actresses are viewed as objects rather than people.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
An inference I made while reading through my research was that many people have negative ideas about sex workers simply because of what they were taught.
I took the exact poses from the paintings I used as inspiration, and you can see the curved lines and use of unconventional objects of surrealism in my piece.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The research found is very critical of the porn industry and the way sex workers are viewed by their audiences.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have come to the conclusion that, while one may acknowledge that a sex worker is just a person making money, and that sex work is a job, there are viewpoints that are ingrained within a person's brain about those jobs because of the way they are talked about.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea/theme was the contradiction between seen and unseen, and the way porn actresses are viewed as objects rather than people.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
An inference I made while reading through my research was that many people have negative ideas about sex workers simply because of what they were taught.
Bibliography
- Holmes, Rachel 1994 Selling Sex for a Living. Theme issue “Body Politics” Agenda (23): 36-48.
- Jenness, Valerie 1990 From Sex as Sin to Sex as Work: COYOTE and the Reorganization of Prostitution as a Social Problem Social Problems 37 (3): 403- 420.
- Ritzer, George 2004 Classical Sociological Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill international Editions.
- Russell, Bertrand 1994 History of Western Philosophy. London: New Fetter Lane.
- Satz, Debra 1995 Markets in Women’s Sexual Labor Ethics 106 (1): 63-85.
- Overall, Christine 1992 What’s Wrong with Prostitution? Evaluating Sex Work Signs 17 (4). : 705-724.