Final Reflection

This term of oil painting has been wonderful. Our 3 big paintings were all very unique, each one magnified a specific thing to work on. In the White Objects painting, we were learning about accurate shapes, color, and value. In the next painting we were to focus on texture and value and on the third painting we focused on mood. As the term progressed my skills as a painter improved greatly. During the first painting i struggled with accurate colors, using way to much blue when the entire painting was supposed to be white. In my second painting, things seemed to come much easier. I had some trouble with small details but nothing huge. In my last painting, no huge problems at all came to my attentions, coming to the conclusion that i progressed throughout the term. Oil painting was one of my favorite classes this term and I am so sad it is over. I cant wait to take oil painting at Parson's Pre-College Academy this summer.

What is a portrait?

A portrait is a piece of artwork that portrays the persona of ones self.

In this portrait by sally man we see a very depressing image. The black and white eeriness of the photograph creates a death-like aura. Everything around the girl is very blurry which conveys that the life of this girl is getting very confusing and complicated. The girl is also naked, and at first i thought that meant she was promiscuous but then i saw the solemn look on her face and realized the naked body represents innocence.

Chuck Close

In this portrait by Chuck Close, we can see many shapes creating this one bigger picture. This is representing that there are many things in this man's life that come together to create one person. Weirdly, all of the squares are odd shapes which means this man has odd quirks about him that come together to make a normal looking man.

Marcel Duchamp

Oddly, this piece of artwork is called a portrait. Obviously, due to the confusing wrinkles throughout the artwork the artist is trying to portray the hardships of the persons life. All of these hardships is what make the person, just like all of the wrinkles create the human heads almost impossible to recognize.

A Sense Of Place

In this painting we are supposed to exagerate mood. I have decided to leave a eery and creepy sort of mood. The light coming through the window seems to change by the second so making accurate shadows and accurate colors has been an extreme harship on me as an oil painter.

Observation On The History of Oil Painting

Oil painting has been a lifestyle for people for centuries. Artists such as Jan Van Eyck, Antonello De Messina, Leonardo Da Vinci, Giorgione, Titian, and Tintoretto were all extremely influential on creating the actually oil paint. The modern technique of oil painting was created circa 1410 by Jan Van Eyck. Though van Eyck was not the first artist to use oil paint, he was the first who is known to have produced a stable oil mixture which could be used to bind mineral pigments. Van Eyck’s mixture probably consisted of piled glass, calcined bones, and mineral pigments boiled in linseed oil until reaching a viscous state. Antonello De Messina later introduced another improvement to oil paint: he added lead oxide to the mixture. The new mixture had a honey-like consistency and increased siccative properties. This medium was known as oglio cotto—"cooked oil." Leonardo Da Vinci improved the technique even further by cooking the mixture at a low temperature and adding 5 to 10% beeswax, which prevented dramatic darkening of the finished paint. Giorgione, Titian, and Tintoretto each slightly altered this recipe for their own purposes. Obviously, when oil painting first became popular men seemed to take over. Every artists previously stated were all male. Females were not influential in the beginnings of the oil painting culture. Oil painting mainly took place in early modern Europe. Over time, subject matter has changed dramatically. At first all paintings were of bored looking people or fruit. More modern art consists of more abstract current ways of thinking.

Critique Feedback

Use of color: There is way too much blue used in the "White Objects Painting". The colors in the "Surface and texture" painting are very accurate.



Illusion of Volume and depth: In the "white object painting" things seem very boxy and kind of on top of each other. Things do not seem to have the right amount of space between them. Yet, in the "surface and texture" painting things have come a long way while volume and depth come into life with accuracy.



Composition: both paintings seem to have good placement and objects, neither has to many things or too little.



Improvements: color accuracy has improved tremendously. Actual objects look more precise.

Surface and Texture

This is an unfinished picture of my Surface and Texture painting

Why Oil paint?

Oil paint dates back to Roman times in. Researchers believe oil paint has a big likelihood to have started in west and south east Asia.Surfaces like shields — both those used in tournaments and those hung as decorations — were more durable when painted in oil-based media than when painted in the traditional tempera paints. Most renaissance sources, in particular Vasari, credited northern European painters of the 15th century and Jan Van Eyck in particular, with the "invention" of painting with oil media on wood panel.

Ingredients:

The linseed oil itself comes from flax seed, and this flax was a common fiber crop. Recent advances in chemistry have produced modern water miscible oil paints that can be used with and clean up with water. Small alterations in the molecular structure of the oil created this water miscible property.The oldest known oil paint dates from 650 AD found in caves in Afghanistan.

And finally the real question.. WHY OIL PAINT?

Oil paint is a great tool to create art. It leaves thick, bold, vibrant colors on the canvas which never fades. While using oil paint, shadows and mixing colors comes very easily, and contrast between objects and colors is extremely obvious. Oil paint is also very easy to get accustomed too. Oil painting lets ones imagination come to life. Once a persons hand starts moving, oil paint keeps it going. The magically feeling of watching a painting come to life is irreplaceable. Oil paint also dries very slowly on your pallet, making it much easier to create accurate colors days after already painting.