Assessment task 2: Conceptualising your own work Lisa Honeywood

Lisa Honeywood

Matt Moseley

Word count: 630

                                     My skulls drawings

Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Study of Anatomy”

                                                               

In this essay I will be discussing an artist that has influenced my ideas and work. I will explain why the artist’s work interests me and what I believe are the ideas behind his work and how he expresses them through visual means.

I have chosen my skull drawings, which have been influenced and reflect the work of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Study of Anatomy”.  The ideas behind his work were simply to record the scientific observations that he had discovered while studying the human anatomy and he was communicating these findings through visual means. This was part of his formal training which began with his apprenticeship to Andrea Del Verrocchio, his teacher insisting that all his pupils studied anatomy. This led to a passion for understanding the make up of the human body which he felt would improve his drawings. Later on therefore, he was given permission to dissect human corpses at the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence. He also had the opportunity of looking at animal forms.

 Da Vinci’s work interests me because of the way he was not only an artist, but he was also a sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician and more and used all these skills in his artwork and that he was open to new experiences.  This is shown in his art, with accurate drawings of different studies and records.   I also have an interest in his work because it seems in all his studies he has approached them sensitively and with a lot of expression.  The material he used to create his studies is pencil, which give his drawings a detailed and specific look, making shadowing easier to create and making smaller details easier to sketch.  The techniques that Da Vinci has used on his drawings include cross hatching on big shadowed areas giving the picture a more realistic depth to it. He also uses interesting angles when drawing his skulls, not missing any part of the anatomy.

The skull drawings I have created are influenced by Da Vinci’s work. I have an interest in drawing skulls, because of their composition and form. I also wanted to draw skulls as many artists use this traditional object in their artwork including Picasso’s “Goat’s skull, Bottle and Candle”, Paul Cezanne’s “Pyramid of Skulls” and Damien Hurst’s “For the Love of God” and I felt it would improve my artwork and therefore wanted to create my own original drawings of skulls. Skulls have intriguing shapes and angles on them and they also seem to give the sense of age. I also believe they have an eerie feel to them giving you a sense of wonder of what their life was like, and how they died.  I have tried to create them as observational studies, trying to exaggerate the positions in which I could draw them.  I used simple materials as Da Vinci did, including watercolours, pen and pencil which I think give the most realistic feel to them. I tried adding texture to my work as Da Vinci has created in his studies which give his work a personal “trademark”. Although his work is very scientific, I believe it still has great depth to it. It feels as though he has tried to add an artistic touch; he seems to have real enthusiasm in his work and created several thousand sketches for each study he had produced. This shows his real commitment to his subject.

In conclusion studying Da Vinci’s work has been an inspiration to my own. I will be using his influence in more of my work, particularly the in depth observational drawings.  I will also apply other skills and knowledge in areas other than art into my work.

Analysing and Comparing Two Images Lisa Honeywood

Analysing and Comparing Two Images

Lisa Honeywood

Matt Moseley

Word Count: 592

In this essay I will be analysing and discussing in detail two images. I will be describing the two individually, relating to their context as well as their formal element and expressing my own opinion on their meaning.

The first piece of artwork is Francis Bacon’s “Self Portrait” (Appendix 1), created in 1971. I think his self portraits created in this period of time refer to the suicide of his lover George Dyer in 1971, where his work seems to have a theme of death and depression. The painting is obviously a portrait of him which reflects great emotion and this is expressed in his brushstrokes. These are thick, textured and intense which seem to be symbolic and reflect the emotion in the image of horror and suffering. They also make the image very abstract. In his work he uses dull and dark colours. This creates an eerie atmosphere and makes the audience pay greater attention to the depth of the meaning, rather than the element of the colour. The dark background brings the image forward and makes it the centre of attention. It also intensifies the mood of the whole picture. The face is contorted, twisted, and half shadowed which was seen as shocking and grotesque by many people. It gives a sense of sadness and maybe how Bacon sees himself or how he was feeling in this period of time.  The facial features are enlarged, especially the eyes which are a main focal point. They  are the first thing you see and they seem to show sadness .You can see that he has a glazed look and seems to be looking into the distance which gives the sense that something is on his mind.

Bacon was greatly influenced by Eisenstein's images in his film “Battleship Potemkin”.  He was particularly interested in the Odessa Steps shot of the schoolmistress's broken glasses and open-mouthed scream. You can see the open mouth image first in his Abstraction from the Human Form, in Fragment of a Crucifixion, and other works including his famous Head series. You can clearly see his influence in his self portraits where he continuously referred back to the film for inspiration.

The second piece is a still from “Battleship Potemkin”, created by Eisenstein (Appendix 2) in 1925. It relates to the mutiny that occurred in 1905 during the Tsarist regime when the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin rebelled against their officers. This image is a close up of a man’s face, which is similar to Bacon’s “Self Portrait”. It is shocking and refers to the suffering and pain of the massacre in the film, just in one snapshot of the face.  The use of no colour in the film is also similar to “Self Portrait”. Using less colour brings out the meaning of the picture. Again, you see the big facial features, particularly the eyes, which are widened. This gives the sense of horror and shock, which is also seen in Francis Bacon’s work. The man’s hair in the image seems wild and untamed, reflecting the chaotic feel of the whole film. There is also a darkened background and a shadowed face which brings him to the centre of attention. You can see the overall theme of shock and horror in this image which has influenced Bacon’s “Self Portrait”.

In conclusion, both works of art have similar aspects showing the same emotion of horror and sadness, and you can see the definite inspiration that Bacon has used from Eisenstein’s film to influence his work.