Choice Piece | Project One
New Year's Dad
Paper, Charcoal, 2H, 4H, 6B pencils 16.5 in by 11.5 in March 2021 New Year's Dad is portrait I did of my dad using a reference photo taken on New Year's Eve. This is a monochromatic portrait using different pencils such as charcoal being able to show the bold black areas. Inspired by Paul Cadden's portraits, I decided to draw giving more texture to the actual picture of reference. |
Inspiration - Paul Cadden
When deciding what to do for my choice piece, I went with doing a portrait and so I was looking for artists that have a style similar to what I wanted to do. Then I came across Paul Cadden. Cadden has many drawings and paintings that are very hyper realistic as one may say. He focuses on letting the viewer see reality as how he says more intensified that goes more into the detail of what is already the normal. It goes passed the photo he uses, and goes to a finer detail that I am very captured by. I have always taken interest in works that are realistic whether it be a person or any object, and with Cadden, specifically in the drawings of realism, in the work NVA 19 I used this example because the photograph I will be using for the portrait is mainly white on the top area of the person and different shades of black in the bottom like NVA 19. Something else to focus on is the whites and the light shading used on the hair and shirt which is something I would attempt to do in this artwork. |
Planning
Something I decided to do for the portrait was do it in the grid method to have it more accurate in the sizing instead of doing it freehand. I would insert it into a website I found and did it a six by eight.
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Being able to do that then made it easier knowing where the more darker areas would be and which ones should be left almost barely touched with any shading except for very light areas.
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Process
First I started the grid off six by eight squares and I decided to start it with the outline of the face and slowly go down with the arms and legs. Some of the areas I gave a little more detail at that sleeves because it was more a smaller guideline to each square in order to focus on each square at a finer detail. Something I had to eyeball was the measurement of there the pants begin and end because with the image being black and white, the black area of the couch with the black pants, they blend very well from afar but when closing up to the image at very high brightness, I was able to figure out where the figure was. |
After drawing my dad and the couch as the main pieces of the portrait, I tried giving some outline to the background but either way I wouldn’t be too focused on it. Since the reference photo had very bold black, I decided to lightly shade the areas that were bold black and then left the rest completely white because I would then come back to those areas and properly shade them. |
Proceeding to this image, I wasn’t sure where to go next for shading so I decided to do the black areas that I had shaded in the previous photo. I wanted to get the bold black in the image so I knew that if I used any kind of pencil, there was a chance that it would be dark gray,so I had tested them out by doing a small shade scale to see how it would look light and dark. The ones I had used resulted in just being dark, metallic grays so I went for the charcoal pencil that would give a solid black color that wouldn’t be metallic looking. I left the right shoe semi shaded because the top had some whites so I wasn’t going to be able to go back to it and really erase the charcoal from it if I did it right then and there. The couch was also another part but I wanted to see how it would look like if I kind of spread it around just to see how I would do more of the shading later on. |
This image is where I started getting more of the form of the couch which I was very proud of myself because I had to capture the light that hit the leather area of the couch which is something that was challenging at first since I couldn’t make too many mistakes using a charcoal pencil. Something else was the couch in the back that had its own texture that wasn’t as dark so I used the other pencils (2H and 4H) to shade. |
The photo to the left shows the couch finished and the shading came out better than expected with some areas because the material of the couch is the one that if you slide your hand one way it'll look light and the other way would make it look dark. Some parts would come out as dark spots and others would have a lighter area. With the light areas, I mainly used pencil 2H since it was the lightest pencil, and for the folds and wrinkles of the couch I used 6B to capture the heavy dark lines. |
Since the shading for my dad was going to be more challenging for me because of the light areas, I decided to start off with the hands and neck because they were semi dark areas compared to the white top and face. The face was the last thing I was planning to do because I knew it was going to be my biggest challenge. I started giving the face more of a form, like the nose, a little bit of the lines by the mouth, hairline, and eyebrow. Closer to the jaw, I gave the shading to the neck, and more line detailing to the ear. |
When I got to this point into the portrait, I almost decided to stop there and keep it like that because I would take interest in art where artists would go into detail with everything except the face because it minimized an area that the viewer may look at, but then it’s a blank space. With the pants, I decided to take it rectangle by rectangle, so with the charcoal pencil, I started from the top with the darkest areas only first with one leg and slowly going down to the next rectangle, but going around the area that would be whiter. Since the outline in the beginning that I drew had a line on the pants to show the part sewn together, I knew where to stop with the charcoal pencil and then start the other side of the pants but leaving little space of line white to come back to and shade. After getting the pitch black areas, I would spread a bit of it to the areas I left alone prior. With the pants I used a charcoal pencil and 6B pencil for the details. Even if the couch and color of pants were going to be equally the same black, I still stayed in the area of the pants and didn’t bend them. The left pants leg was similar to the right but instead of putting pressure to the pencil when shading over, I did it lightly because either way it would come out dark but not as dark as the rest so it would be enough to blend out and have it hit lighting.
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With the hair, I used charcoal pencil and with the slight fade in the front I did the little hairs with 6B pencil. A challenging thing with the hair was the hair at the top that does a little swerve. Since they wouldn't go with the color of the charcoal if I did it with 6B, then I had to attempt to do it with the charcoal pencil so I did quick strokes to make them thin. The main areas of the hair were filled with charcoal and with the face it was made it 2H and 4H by doing the light shade of the eyebrow hairs to the left one and the right one being more black. When zooming into the picture I saw that the right eye was higher than the left so the left one started where the right one ended. Then the lips were a little bit of a challenge seeing that it was bigger or smaller than the image so by the end I found the correct sizing by using the surrounding lines on the face and nose.
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Critique
-Darker, bolder shades of black
-Background is white compared to Cadden's black scratched background -Seems more polished than Cadden's portrait |
-Both are monochromatic
-Both focus on the clothes with shading white clothes at the top -Shading at the bottoms both handle dark colors but also layering them to have different shades. |
Reflection
Doing realistic portraits is something I have had a main interest in, that I wanted to do more of them as a project. Seeing how Paul Cadden made hyper realistic portraits, I was inspired by and decided to do New Year's Dad. Since this one was more important to me because I was going to draw someone close to me, I wanted to make it look good so I decided on the grid method to give it a more accurate look to the photograph. Let alone from that, instead of using any pencils, I decided to go with a charcoal pencil for the darkest areas which that of itself was going to made things slightly more difficult, given that I started by doing those areas first. From that I learned to be more careful of it and to preferably leave those areas for last. The challenging part of it was that the charcoal dust from filling the areas in, could easily move around and seeing as the suit was straight up white as it can be, the goal was to not let it get to that area or it would leave some dark spots. Overall from that, I still really enjoyed making it and I would like to do some more in the future in order to improve on it.
ACT Questions
1. Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
It can be shown from both the inspiration and my artwork that both have the similar style given of not only being realistic but also being monochromatic portraits.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Paul Cadden approaches these portraits into giving them a very intense viewpoint for the audience to look at them another way. Seeing his portraits, they are given to the smallest of details to almost be confused for an actual photograph, and that is something I aim to get to at some point.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
When trying to find an inspiration, it felt like there wasn't many well known drawers that made portraits such as Paul Cadden. When trying to find an artist that made monochromatic portraits, many would be painters or would distortion the way one looks in order to make it slightly abstract.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea to this was capturing a moment of someone that I know, by giving it a more realistic look towards it being something in my favor and something I very much enjoy doing.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
There goes a lot into the working of these portraits such as the finest of details that make the biggest changes and emphasis to make it look more defined to the point it can become almost a photograph.
It can be shown from both the inspiration and my artwork that both have the similar style given of not only being realistic but also being monochromatic portraits.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Paul Cadden approaches these portraits into giving them a very intense viewpoint for the audience to look at them another way. Seeing his portraits, they are given to the smallest of details to almost be confused for an actual photograph, and that is something I aim to get to at some point.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
When trying to find an inspiration, it felt like there wasn't many well known drawers that made portraits such as Paul Cadden. When trying to find an artist that made monochromatic portraits, many would be painters or would distortion the way one looks in order to make it slightly abstract.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea to this was capturing a moment of someone that I know, by giving it a more realistic look towards it being something in my favor and something I very much enjoy doing.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
There goes a lot into the working of these portraits such as the finest of details that make the biggest changes and emphasis to make it look more defined to the point it can become almost a photograph.
Bibliography
“About Paul Cadden Artist.” Paulcadden, www.paulcadden.com/about.
“Portraits Of Paul Cadden Artist.” Paulcadden, www.paulcadden.com/portraits.
“Portraits Of Paul Cadden Artist.” Paulcadden, www.paulcadden.com/portraits.