Gerhard Richter (colour/photos)

Gerhard Richter

Overpainting - Photography



  

1990 50 cm x 60 cm

Oil on gelatin silver print

I've been taking snaps of my life/drive to college for a topic regarding street photography. I found the images rather boring in all honesty and this made me think of ways I could connect them with the world of college and my art. What does it matter? Well I'd took the time to take the images and thought of how precious my time is. I had thought that the snaps could make a nice image to cover my workbooks or sketch books. I could stick them down to add colour and interest to something that maybe is the mundane or plain like a normal sketch book.

Why did Richter do overpainting of his paintings?

I found out after watching https://www.gerhard-richter.com/datadir/videos/m4v/20.m4v, that the photographs had been snaps he had took himself and then after creating an abstract canvas he'd dip the photograph into the oil paint to see what was produced. Kinda like a monotype print. Some of the marks were very thick and some vein like. The colours were of many shades and I wondered if colour was thought about when deciding which picture he would dip. Did he just leave it to chance?

This image has the primary colours and is bold.  I feel this is pulling the older image into the future.

This image I feel has more of a Analogous Colors underneath, with the grey tones on top and the direction of the printed paint I think it gives a sense of speed and movement which is interesting.

This image is more monochromatic and it is very much a mix of two very different designs. The top is modern and very photo like the bottom is abstracted and I cant help but see a war sense trapped in history in the way the paint had been dipped and pulled upwards. the light in the ceiling does move the eye around the image and the angle of the grey/brown brings the eye across and down to the bottom. I really like this image and I think for me is speaks of hope and humble beings.

What does the colour theory said of this ?

Blue is considered beneficial to the mind and body. It slows human metabolism and produces a calming effect. Blue is strongly associated with tranquility and calmness. In heraldry, blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity.

 White means safety, purity, and cleanliness. As opposed to black, white usually has a positive connotation. White can represent a successful beginning. In heraldry, white depicts faith and purity.

Dark red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.

Brown suggests stability and denotes masculine qualities.

So I guess thinks in these colour meaning do identify with the things I thought - leadership, courage, calmness  masuline quailites, vigor. piety.

another sense of speed I feel here. almost hurried and of importance

Here the way the paint is covering I feel panic and smothered like its taking my breath away....

This one I think is calming and makes me think of friends and a sunny day. I like the nature feel and it has a natural order of community and leadership and love

This one while similar as the above image has a different feel to it, like a trapped caged presence. The way the dark red comes in and around the main picture creating bars and box features. The  orange and blue being complementary do jump against each other but are so small they dont overpower the image. The dark red is sickly against the blue I feel and think its to do with the tones.

 Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust

Dark red is associated with vigor, willpower, rage, anger, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.

Brown suggests stability and denotes masculine qualities.

Reddish-brown is associated with harvest and fall.

The two images look like they could of been taken on the same day but the top makes warmer tones with the colours added given a sense of happier and healthier feelings. The second is more autumn and moody. I do like how he has taken very normal snaps and they have turned out so much more interesting. I'm not sure I would of given any of the photos as much attention as I have today. Maybe that is something to think about and try with my colour theory and my normal boring images.

Modroc cancer cast! (E)

Environment

explore it said!

So last week I had a little go at paper making and it gave me the wanting to create a jumper. The paper in question had fibre's in it and it had a nice soft touch. The way the fibre was presented gave a holy look and I liked that when you held it against your skin you could see the skin. The creamy colour with the flesh gave an organic feel. 

A jumper, a paper jumper..... Well my lovely mind began to play out the idea of this and for days I couldn't help but think of things and ways to create this idea. Not like I would wear it anyway! The fashion world does not wow me and while I do like texture and textiles I've no idea what even goes into making a jumper, knit or item of any sort. 

A cast could be a starting point and I began to look back at the ideas for brick men. The shape and size of the human body, this made me again remember how fragile my aunt looked a couple of weeks ago. A shell of the women she was. 

I always seem to link my art world with what is playing on my mind at the time. Cancer! The big C..... The fight and the power it has,  tiny cells changing and morphing.  I found wonderful and some what beautiful colours in my searching regarding the cancer cells 

Looking at the cells under a electron microscope

What is not to admire with nature here. 

My idea became so exciting. I was left buzzing with wanting to make and create a cast of a body/ bodies. Using the fibre paper - soft fragile monochromatic,  kind of skin like sculpture. With these wonderful biomorphic shapes threaded inside, pulsing and dancing with vibrant colour.

I'd done a cast with hand for another subject and wondered if a modroc cast could be used as a template for my paper cast. Lets see what happens! Explore 

some editing with hue and negative and the cast looks different

I have also thought about shape and form. This hand made with wire isn't the best but it was a quick reference point to my beginning of observational researching. 

Again another lets see what happens, this time with string/cotton wrapped around fingers etc.

Above image I'd like to sew and incorporate an image with, maybe a hand in detail 

This time I've done my own leg, trouble is with only one layer of modroc its not really setting hard enough to cut off and I'm left sitting in a cold cast, wondering if I'm slightly insane haha... Might have to break my own ankle to slide this one off... I do now feel sorry for those who have had to have a cast.

I've really had fun thinking up ideas and I'm really excited about the idea of this work. Can I execute my ideas? ~ If my leg cast is anything to go by well lets just say I'll need some good old luck.

Pin interest ideas below

cells?

 

Pastel still life (1)

Using soft pastels for the first time. My first attempt I felt frightened to make the marks.. I really didnt know how the pastel would blend or rub. It started off very boxy and I think i was over rubbing and losing the good bits I had liked.. Plus I didnt realise till the 2nd try that the pastel mixed well to make another colour.. ie,  pink, brown and purple made a darker muddy colour for shadows. 

Look at the colour difference between my two shoes here (above and below)

I like doing this as it made me look at the Negative spaces.and angles. Plus how colours sit next to each other.. Also not overworking your marks.. Will try and make time dor more. 

Positive and Negative Prints

Positive and Negative Prints

 

Holding up some perspex I drew round the jar and cup at arm length. I was surprised at how much detail I could capture. Timing was another bonus as it took only seconds. If I'd took my time I think this could make a more interesting finish.

first print just basic

last print background etc

Drawing by eye(below image) took a little longer but I enjoyed the challenge of getting angles correct and trying to create depth and tonal shades.

Like the contrast in colour here and the way you have to consider the mirror image when printed. I did a flip image from my photo.  Do like the way you can extend the digital image to suit different designs.

Did more examples in class too.

otto Dix

self portrait 

   Otto Dix

German artist and Printmaker






      










Above is the Self Portait of Otto Dix, this print is very caricature like and I feel he looks stern and of importance with his expression. I'm not sure of his background and I'm really looking at the basic information with the work only.

Below is a print of a women (wife maybe) If you notice the softer appearance and more portrait like finish. I do like the bold hatching and marks left around the women's neck and chin. The contrast of light and dark work well without being to heavy.  Closing my eyes slightly I like how the light in her hair and cheek bone flow and this makes the area jump out. I do believe this artist to have a real understanding of how the tonal value can change the feel of mood of an image. The top one I notice the marks are more thicker/harsher and charcoal like, while the bottom image is soft light and angled to show where the light hits the top of her head and face.

mrs otto mueller

War Series

These prints are a lot darker and I find myself wanting to know much more. The images create a sense of terror and doom. Many images are a black/dark background to set a mood or a feel of a long night. This must be a good way of creating a deadly or dark sinister mood. Like the colour red being of danger or warning.






 

I'm not sure if this is a bad copy, but it looks like pointillism Does the burr make this effect I wonder? 

The above 3 look very different to the below image. The above remind me of the goya prints I looked at last year.

goya print

These prints (below) look like the same person but look at the different marks and feel. The line drawing style does give a sense of a torture person still but the dark one creates a world in which the viewer really has to look to understand what is going on. The more you look the more you find out. Look at the hand and how you can see each line the artist has gave to create tone and shadow, the cloth farbic has another level of work involved with regards to coverage and timing.  Maybe with the time in the acid bath (if thats what was used ) I dont like the way the flesh has been shown.  I feel it doesn't sit well with the overall image, to dark.

    



Here I noticed the the overlaying that gave greater marks to create dark/shade. You would of have to have studied and documented your finding to know which marks made what etc. The time in the acid and processes.

I think while we no longer do acid dipping and stuff, my own finding of doing etchings helps me appreciate the time and findings these artist have given.

I think I'd like to go back to doing a self portrait for my printmaking and try to do the different feels a mark can create. Last year I'd done the below images but while I was happy with the examples I dont think they gave a sense of eerieness.  I think that by looking at Dix, Goya and Dores etching I could try and be more confident with my outcome.

my background has no texture of feels of anything, something to consider maybe

I dont think by adding red as I did gave anything to my work! I now have a starting point and I'm excited to jump in to my finding. I think background helps to play a part in the overall look too.


Anyway more about artist.



I think Dix has really imersed himself into the stories of these horrors and tortures of gas and war. Many things were censored and wartime reporting was spared from its ghastly details. I don't think this artist could of just made up many of the details without researching the horrors. In a time that people were maybe

Erase that last bit............. upon reading the artist was in the war, as it turns out during the war, Dix kept a diary and a sketchbook with which he chronicled his experience. They provided material for a major work of fifty prints called simply, The War.

 Dix was profoundly affected by the war. He described a recurring nightmare in which he crawled through bombed out houses. His experience with war and its aftermath became a dominant theme in the art he produced after 1914. He had before the war been an apprentice for an landscape painter and in these years I'm sure he knew the importance of drawing and sketching. I think for him the art would of  been an escape and afterwards some kind of release. Powerful images and executed with a sense of calm amongst the chaotic stillness captured.



   



I enjoy how all these prints are so different but with each on as serious as the next, soldiers and men going to war, at war or dead.