Topic Three: Rhinoceros, Part Three, Portrait and Propaganda

Topic Three: Rhinoceros, Part Three

Portrait and Propaganda

 

I chose to do the assignment on my mother. As soon as the assignment was given, I already had a multitude of ideas and immediately started sketching thumbnails.

I knew right away that I wanted to do a bunch of pieces in different mediums; everything from collages to videos. Unfortunately I was unfamiliar with most of these methods and did not have time to learn them all. I also initially wanted to display my mother smiling in her portrait and then have my propaganda piece depict her as a stern, authoritative figure. I still wanted my message to be structured the same and similar in concept "The mother you should be" but I realized (as we discussed in class) that because society really only has 1 way to positively depict mothers and motherhood and what it should be, If I did depict my mother as this strong woman who ruled the household with an iron fist (and she does, our household would fall apart without this woman) that she would be interpreted as "Bitchy" because that is how society currently always depicts women in authority to be. So I shifted tactics to more of a "Super mom" theme because I truly do not know how she does all that she does and she loves Wonder Woman and I see her as a hero and I figured that would be the best way to go while still getting the message across.

 

I went home, printed the propaganda technique sheets, and then asked my mother for family photos with her and family (children in particular because children make peoples hearts melt because if you don't like children you're a monster and if you love them then you're a saint somehow). She gave me a good few (both physical and digital) to work with. Shown Below.

 

I also took a few photos of her myself (which she refused to pose for and is giving me stank eye in all of them) and used them as the main portrait figure pieces.

 

I also took a few of her sweeping but I cannot find them for some reason...?

Anyways, it was a challenge turning this expression into something neutral or positive and it was even more difficult attempting to get her to pose how I wanted.

 

 I did get more or less the key pose I wanted of her pointing. I wanted this pose specifically because I knew it would almost make her look like she was scolding you  (as a mother would to a child) but I also wanted it to be reminiscent of the "We want YOU" Uncle Sam military posters.

 

Speaking of that, It is actually the pose I chose to start with. I of course wanted  the American Flag in the background because, you know, "'Merica", and "Patriotism" and somehow that translates to the US Flag and Bald Eagles.

Propaganda Piece 01

 I taped off the lines/edges but they still bled a bit. I decided to continue with the piece and go back and fix it later.

I drew my mom in the pointing pose right on top. I then painted it with acrylic.

In case you can't tell (though I'm sure it is evident) I am not much of a painter.... It was really difficult and required a lot more layers than I thought it would and honestly it frustrated me. Not that I have never used paint before, I have, but only a handful of times on blank canvas, which is different than on already painted paper.

I did underpainting and shading and layers (which granted is very normal but again frustrated the hell out of me) and then added star stickers I bought to the flag. Then I decided to re-tape it and go back in to fix the stripes and lines in the flag.

 Paper tore but no biggie, I got this, right? Right. It is under control.

 THIS IS WHERE THINGS WENT HORRIBLY WRONG! I Should have listened to the omen...

 I re-taped the figure. I typed up words I wanted to use in a delicate font then had to flip it in paint then went to FedEx to print it out on a laser printer.

 I also went out and bought Gesso. Don had mentioned a gesso transfer technique during a critique. I HAVE NEVER USED GESSO. So I looked up the technique on YouTube. I arranged the words how I wanted, did the transfer, used a tooth brush to get rid of the paper the next day. Not perfect but not bad for a first try. CLEALY YOU CAN SEE THE PROBLEM IS THAT I JUST COVERED UP THE FLAG WITH GESSO. For SOME REASON that must be that I AM INSANE, I was under the impression the gesso dried CLEAR. IT DOES NOT! Lesson learned....

 Then I took the tape off and it ripped up the acrylic (cursed thing...) and (Again I must be a crazy person) I had already mounted the image and putting on the gesso made the paper curl and distort under the weight of so many wet materials. I had to pull it off the board. Then I tried to sand off some of the gesso with my sand paper. It didn't work, just made it worse.

 At this point I had a decision to make. I could either stick with it or start over. Only at this point I was running out of time and I didn't think I would have time to wait for the gesso to dry again and still do the other things I wanted to do. I had to roll with the punches. So I decided to lean into the wear and tear worn look. I actually didn't hate it and tried to enhance that look.

 I redid the flag on top of it and attempted to mount it again if only because the paper was just way too wonky.

 

Portrait Piece.

 This one I wanted to keep simple because I wanted it to be as neutral as possible.

 So I drew it out, did my wash and under painting in water color. YES, I did mess up the proportion on this image and yes my mothers left shoulder is an inch and a half too long. Yes I will be cropping it but I only noticed after I finished it and I had a size requirement to meet.

 I used Crayola (I HATE THIS BRAND!) AND Prisma Color color pencils on top of the water color and kept the background and color palette simple.

 

Some people made certain comments during critique and they were pretty spot on. My mother is a republican, a police officer, had me at 16, has 3 children, somehow manages to keep our household running while still upholding certain gender role traditions, and was totally not afraid to whip out the dreaded boomerang chancleta on anyone. This information about who she is, is why I made some of the choices I did including the images used and so much patriotism and hero stuff.

 

This Is my brother Darian, he is a 15 year old jock but I love him and I made him help me with my homework because he has the nicest handwriting in our house. He was using a napkin to keep straight lines. I had to go out and buy tracing paper and I had him write certain words and phases on the sheet.

I then did one myself in a different style of writing so that I had some variety.

 

 I placed them on top of each other to create layers and a relationship between the 2 "font" types while also filling the gaps between each set of lines.

I then printed out some images I wanted to use. I printed them in black and white and went over them in ink, drawing over and exaggerating certain features. I did this because it comes out better in the darkroom.

I used them to create a shadow-gram or photo-gram (thank you Mr. Talbat). The tracing paper is actually a technique Tanya told me about and I wanted to explore. Unfortunately I just could not get the look I was aiming for. I tried different times on the enlarger and layering the materials differently. I did this 12, TWELVE, 12 times. Finally I was able to find a balance of something I wanted by the end of this experimenting. I wanted to show that there is a depth to by mother and that these are some of the things that make her who she is.

I had 2 that I wanted to use specifically, one with and one without words. I then scanned them both and chopped them up on paint then fankensteined the pieces I liked best between the two in order to create a different relationship between the figures and words.

 

Finished Pieces

 (Sorry these are side ways, I could not get them to post straight for some reason).

 

 

Collaging and Scanned Pieces

 

So I scanned all the pieces I was using for my photograms. I did 1 run of just the objects and figures. This way I have one copy that is clear and clean. Then I did another of the same figures but in this run I used construction paper in the background, which I cut and cropped and arranged to make the shape of another flag and layered it in between the tracing paper sheets. Then once I scanned it, I added a filter to change the tonality and give it more of a social media/Facebook vibe. My mom loves Facebook. I wanted to keep with the same figures I used for my photograms but just because I enjoyed the mark making but also because I wanted there to be some sense of consistency throughout all the pieces. Pretty picture doesn't mean much if it can't tie into the other images.

 

Then was the physical Collage. I scanned the painted piece and cut it out to use as the main figure in this piece but I actually used the exact same strips and pieces the I used in my scans and photograms. This way it ties into all the pieces. I used rubber cement to put all the layers together. I thought the black and white images blended nicely with the colors. And I even added gesso to the white stripes to give it an additional texture and tie it in further to the painted piece.

Digital Pieces

I actually had never used photoshop before this semester. I know, I know, I am behind in the times. Lea is in my Comp 1 class and she is so quick and proficient, she looks like a pro to me. But in class we were learning some photoshop techniques because we will be doing digital collages soon and I thought It would be great to have a digital and physical collage for this.  Unfortunately I do not have progress shots of this and I can't really paste all the individual layers on here but I can...vaguely explain what I did. I got a picture of a flag blowing in the wind offline (through some "for noncommercial use with editing filter searches) as well as some sky images. Then I cut and pasted just the flag and laid it over a sky image which I added a filter to. Then I used the... gradient tool...? I think...I order to get the blue and white at the bottom. Then I lowered the opacity, erased some of it and blurred the rest so that it would mesh well with the flag. The I cut and pasted the figures from the images my mother gave me. Some I kept the same and some I lowered the opacity on. The image in the upper left corner I purposely lowered the opacity on the that you could see the stars from the flag come through on her skirt! She is so cute... Obviously I did the giant central image of my mother first in order to organize the other images around and behind her.  Then I started overlaying the text. It took me a while to find something I was satisfied with. I surrounded the central figure in yellow and lowered the opacity to give her an almost halo like glow and I added it to those central words as well so that they would stand out more and read as extra important. I was going to do it to all the words but I think that would have been overkill. I printed that version then went in and added 3 filters to the central image and printed that image as well (on special 5star Epson paper). I mounted the non-filter piece and put the filtered one below it so that they would have a relationship.

 

 

 Pieces I did use (Minus 2 photograms) 10 pieces total. 6 mounted.

All the photogram attempts. (all the wasted money... a pack of this silver chem paper is 100 Dollars and I am broke TT^TT)

 

 

Top images are mounted, bottom row images are not. Far right piece is the only one not meeting size requirements (because it is the link between the other 2 photograms) and all of them are propaganda pieces except the far left. Left and right pieces are also mounted. I had never actually mounted before but Don had mentioned it previously stating it was better than having crinkly paper and added substance to a 2D piece and I had just been given a mounting demo in my comp 1 class so I decided to go for it BUT as you can see there is a relationship between the top and bottom row of images and I purposely decided to only mount the top row as another contrast. I liked it actually but I am not sure if it worked or not. I may want to mount them all for juries? Do not actually know yet. But I will learn!

 

Also, I purposely wore this shirt to go with that flag thing I had going on just for critique and not a single person noticed! I put thought into this.

 

 

Final Image Close Ups!

 

Painting 01 Piece

 

Collage 01 Piece

Digital 01 Piece

 Digital 02 piece

 Scanned Collage Piece 01

 Scanned Collage Piece 02

 

Photograms 1, 2, and Scanned photogram 3.

Final Presentation for Class Critique.

 

I do not know how I am still alive after all this.