Welcome to my weekly reflection of Week 4! Things have really been amping up, and my pursuit of perfectionism has been feeling the pressure. Although the content of this week dealt mostly with the human figure and organic form, remnants of still life content has been sprinkled throughout. For this week, we read chapters on The Figure, The Global Scene, and Western Traditions in Painting Today. I found the Global Scene to be a really interesting depiction of art outside of Western cannon, and the contrast it had with that of the Western Tradition chapter. We also looked into the article called The Creative Copy, which helped give some explanation as to why we do a creative copy each week. Ways of Seeing, episodes 1 and 2, gave the most important content related to the human figure and more importantly, the nude, for me. It’s been helping me question what is a body and a figure, and honestly, helped my own personal view on the female body in relation to society.

In practice, we’ve been looking into indirect painting, glazing, acrylic grisaille, perspective, and value. I’m in love with the technique of oil glazing, although the acrylic underpainting required is challenging and time consuming for me. It seemed to eat up most of my studio time during the week, which left me little time to actually work with the glazes. In the future, I hope to work on my time management in the studio, and become less of a perfectionist when it comes to composition.

5 Terms

Grisaille- Monochrome underpainting, usually helps with color blocking or value work.

Indirect Painting- painting that is done in different stages and at different times. Usually premeditated before starting.Many Renaissance painters used this technique.

Transparent vs. Opaque oil colors- Transparent colors are more oily, and permanent, they lend themselves towards glazing. Opaque colors are more saturated, bold, and better for antipasto painting.

Gamsol- a paint thinner solvent, helps with glazing and washes of oil color.

Exegetical Essay- A form of writing that analyzes text, or a certain passage. By breaking down the meaning of each word, one’s understanding of the passage will deepen with this sort of writing.

5 Skills

Glazing technique

Exegetical Writing (I need more work on this, but hope to improve my skills soon)

Acrylic Grisaille painting

Canvas stretching (on the bars we made ourselves, how cool!)

Time management between painting homework, reading, and writing assignments.

This week was a struggle for time management of homework and assignments. I felt like I spent way too much time focusing on the underpaintings for both copies, which left me stressed and on edge during the week to complete everything else at a high quality level. I hope to spread my time out more evenly this week, which I’ve already began to do by making a homework schedule. I also felt that I didn’t understand the process and instruction for the Exegetical Essay as well as I could’ve. After reading my peer’s essays, I feel more confident, and hope to take another stab at it soon.