To view my other MIAD piece, just click the
the button to the left of this text... |
Artist In Focus: Harry Campbell
Campbell is a modern day artist that uses an illustrative and futuristic symbolism to really bring a piece together, perhaps linking it more into an overall deeper meaning. The four pieces to the right are some of the many pieces of his work that inspired me the most while creating both of my pieces. Since I've decided to dwell into the community of Teens, both through the Social Media Community and IB Community, Campbell seemed like a good inspiration. He's good at using symbols and colors in a way that conducts a message well enough while pulling in an audience to analyze his work. I adore the art style, it immediately caught my attention, so in my pieces I will try to use the simplistic hues while drawing things with a delicacy.
I'm working with the Teen Community as my focus where things can get overwhelming and intense so having a fragile and "alone" style to my work will be better for the messages I'm displaying. Teens are put on the spot everyday, say through social media or even by the school related responsibilities they're give, so every intricate detail should feel "on the edge" or "fragile". This is a reason for my white backgrounds in my final products and why the detail is simplistic; It all draws back into the teenage mind. |
These four art pieces are by the artist Harry Campbell. These are involved in his portfolio, found on his official art website, yet that don't have names for the pieces. Click on the images to get a closer look! “Harry Campbell.” Harry Campbell, www.harrycampbell.net/.
|
Planning: |
|
Sketch/Journal Page 1. Sketch/Journal Page 2.
Sketch/Journal Page 3. Sketch/Journal Page 4.
"Can you think outside of the box?"This quote, which is casted out onto my piece as well, links to the original creativity influenced idea of "thinking outside of the box". I wanted to point out how schools that work under the IB system suggest this rule, telling a student to do all these things to express themselves, yet become hypocritical with all the regulations and expectations that a student must meet as well. It's a lot for most students to take it, so I wanted that to be expressed in this area of the Teen Community.
|
Planning Sketches & Notes:Four pages taken right out of my Art Process Journal, you can see them to the left and right of this text, were where I did most of my brainstorming.
Both pieces had a combination of three planning sketches. This was because of how, when I initially started planning, I focused on one solid piece, thus creating three sketches for it. However, two of the three became ones I quite liked, so they were used in the development of my final product.
Starting off on the first page, if you narrow your sight more towards the bottom right corner you'll pick up on my initial idea. It was residing around the first concept that rung in my head, the IB Education Community, and even though the idea was soon scraped, I decided to implement it on here as a good starter. The scissors, ideally being blue and white to symbolize the IB colors, would gradually cut out the qualities and colorful personality of the hand holding it. I wanted it to symbolize the way students are cutting out their dreams and creativity for such a structured, demanding school system. They were making grades and scores their only goal, shoving off aside all of the wonderful quirks they built over years. "Cut it out!" was a piece I ended up scraping, however, as stated earlier.
Leading into the sketches that shaped out my final product, you can see these ideas & sketches shown on Sketch Book pages 2-4. My final product, given the name "Outside the Box", is a piece that views a box in the center of a plain white background. Again, the white would represent the feeling of standing alone and lost as a teenager, but in this piece I incorporate in other types of hue to express an overall concept. By using the additional blue and white color schemes of IB, I crowd the box in the center with hints of the IB system; Kind of like the student is the box and everything crowding it being the structured ideals of the IB system. I made the tape around the box look like fragile tape, but, instead of that, it spells out some of the IB Learner Profile traits. Everything, really, that isn't the brownish box in the center correlates straight to the control IB has on everything a student, the box, does.
|
I needed a box that I could use as a base, so I grabbed whatever was closest to me... which was this 40 bag box of chips I had casually had at my bedside. Conveniency at it's finest, I know, but also great for modeling art off of. I put a few books I had lying around on it's edges to symbol "school work pile-up" and so forth. You can see all of this in the photo to the right.
|
[ the image to the left of this text ]
So, my first job was to create a pleasing enough background for the silk screen to later be printed onto. This meant that digital work was in order. I began with coloring in, with a paintbrush tool, all desired areas with blue. A blue that was used directly from the IB symbol. |
[ the image to the left of this text ]
I moved into different hues: Red, yellow, and green. With these colors, I filled in portions of the box with paint splatters. I correlate paint with art, thus drawing into creativity, and since they're only barely there on the box's surface it may symbolize the containment of creativity. That's what I wanted to go for. |
[ the image to the right of this text ]
This was the original final product of the piece. I was critiqued in a few points, so this has changed a tad when compared to my final product. I put the text "Are you able to think outside the box?" so people would understand that there is a box in the middle, and that the quote is a main focus of what the artwork means. |
[ the image to the right & left of this text ]
The next step was incorporating the ideas given in my critique and placing it into my final background. - Jason recommended that I place the text from earlier in a box formation around the center piece. It was to create a more isolating and "walls closing in" type of approach to enhance my original concept. I ended up doing that. - I also took the blue ground splatters away from the background, so there would be room for my stencils to be silk screen printed on. |
Similarities May Include...
- Both of our pieces have a single colored background. In Campbell's artwork, he usually intends on using plain backgrounds to put a main focus on whatever's in the center of the piece. I tried to incorporate the same with mine.
- There's a box look to both of the pieces. Mine is more straight forward: A box covered on top by books. Campbell uses a lunch box in his. - Our pieces quietly have the idea of "School". Campbell uses a more ad-like approach, a back to school guide, while mine links more into the IB School System. |