Working in pencil crayon- developing my drawings

I have decided to practice with a variety of different materials. Since my response to Saville was in pencil, I have decided to develop my drawings in to colour. Pencil crayon is a medium that is not often used, however it is still possible to achieve realistic and accurate results. Whilst researching various child portrait artists I came across Anna Gilhesphy.

In contrast to the historical portraits of children, where the children are painted wearing formal clothing and are painted to sit and look respectable, which I have visited at the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery; The portrait artists in this century, paint children in their natural postures whether that be smiling, laughing, running wither their hair blowing through the wind, the artists choose to paint them being children. This was one of the first things that struck me when researching the historical paintings of mother and child. The children were not shown being themselves. They were to be seen but not heard. This perhaps stems from the Byzantine era where even Jesus was depicted as having the anatomical features of a man, yet the overall body size of a baby. However, the 21st century artists such as Saville and Gilshespy choose to drawn and paint the children in their natural states. This is a beautiful concept which I have considered when producing a response.

Gilhesphy is a British portrait artist who lives and works in Amsterdam. I have produced an artist research page in response to my research. I was attracted to the portraits of Gilhesphy because of her ability to achieve such detail with pencil. I was amazed at the realistic appearance of each child and this inspired me to also practice with this medium. Gilhespy also uses other mediums such as acrylic and oil, however I have chosen to focus on the medium of coloured pencil.

In response to Gilshespy, I have produced my own coloured pencil child's portrait. This is again of my nephew who is soundly sleeping. I have used ordinary crayon pencils, along with soft pastel pencils to provided added texture. The colour palette I used varied considerably. I would often use a moss green or blue in the skin tone when creating shadow or areas of darkness. These are quite unthinkable colours when drawings the skin tone however they were needed in order to give an accurate representation of the child's skin. I used pale yellows and pale pinks in order to create areas of light. I also chose to draw the drawings on an off-white sugar paper background. I found that this seemed to offset the drawing very well and really emphasised the colours of the child. This also helped due to the fact that the baby was also wearing white. The off-white background allowed me to highlight with a white soft pastel in order to show the delicate folds in the baby's top.

This is a very natural state for a child to be in; sleeping. It serves to emphasises the innocence and youth of the child. Furthermore, it should also be noted that in this case the child is also wearing white. This was not done on purpose however since researching the symbolism of the colour white, I now know that it is a symbol of innocence and youth which again serves to reflect the sleeping state of the child.

In evaluation, I have taken inspiration from the technique of Gilhespy. I would perhaps like to use this medium along with paint as I found it easy to use and the colours were easy to pick.

From Historic to modern - Jenny Saville

After researching a wealth of historical artists, I decided to looked at how the subject of 'mother and child' had changed over time. Therefore I looked at the recent artist, Jenny Saville. Saville lives and works in Oxford and recently showcased her work at the Ashmoleum museum in 2012. Saville is well known for pushing the boundaries on social norms.

I took inspiration from Saville because I was inspired by her ability to capture the realistic movement of the mother and her children. Her drawings contrast considerably with the historic paintings from which she has taken influence.

Once such painting which Saville took particular influence from was that of Leonardo Da Vinci and his painting of the 'Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist'.

The influence from this paintings is evident in her own drawings. Saville has been inspired by the movement of the children which is obvious to see by the abstract lines that she uses in her works.

Saville manages to create empathy in her works. The viewer is forced to look at them, not just because of their sheer scale but because it is something that is not often shown in society. Her paintings contrast completely with the images of the virgin and child which I have researched, where the Virgin is completely clothed, symbolised. Saville's drawings on the other hand depict a more realistic view of a mother and her children. The reality of the swollen belly in which the mother nurtures her child, the reality of the child not sitting still and searing for attention. Their is a beauty in her drawings, a beauty which many parents can relate to.

I have been inspired by Saville's drawings because of the reality which surround them. Since researching the photographer Magdalena Berny, I have come to realise that it is important to portray children in their natural states. I have also been attracted to Saville's idea of overlapping the drawings. I like how they show movement of the children. Consequently, I have produced a response to Saville. These drawings have been produced from a photograph. They were taken consecutively and  show the exploration of my nephew as he uses his sense of taste to feel the environment around him.

This drawing shows the child pulling himself up, onto the table. I like the composition of his eyes and the three fingers that seem to stick to the table.

The second drawing comes straight after the first. I have put these two drawings together on the same page, next to each other so that it is possible to see the movement of the head.

Photography- in response to Sassoferrato

The title of 'mother and child' has allowed me to explore the relationship between my sister and her baby boy. I have concentrated my project on these two people and more specifically the child, Dylan. After researching the meaning of mother and child and its historic nature, I have begun to take my own photographs and produce responses to these historical artists. so far in this project, I have emphasises my feeling on the importance or portraying the child in its natural state. I hope this feeling came through when talking about the controversy over feet. I feel it is important to draw every aspect of the child and to draw them in each and every emotion they experience. One such photographer which shared this viewpoint is Magdalena Berny. Berny is an amateur photographer living and working in Poland. Her primary focus is on the observation of children through the lens, to capture the special moments of reflection, sadness, all of which is forgotten when taking photographs of children. I came across Berny's work on the internet when seeing the photograph of a girl with her chin rested on top of a wooden surface. I was surprised that a photographer had taken a photograph of a child when experiencing a moment of sadness. However, there was a certain beauty about the photograph. The fact that Berny chooses to go against social norms of photographing children is something I am truly inspired by. I like the idea of photographing a child in unusual compositions which are rarely seen in stereotypical photographs of children. In response to the artist, I captured my own photographs in her style. I observed my nephew, Dylan as he explored the various objects of the front room. I took inspiration from Berny's usage of a wooden surface and I managed to capture my nephew literally exploring the table through his sense of taste. I manipulated the photographs to appear black and white and this just captured the beauty of them even more. This is such an unusual composition for a child to be in, however it is so beautiful at the same time.

Following on from these photographs, I have also taken inspiration from various other artists including the historic Sassoferrato. I am yet to produce a response to his work and so I decided to use my nephew as a model in some way.

After visiting the fabric shop, I brought some ultramarine satin fabric. This has featured on the artist research page of Sassoferrato. I used this fabric as a prop in which to photograph my nephew in. Like the baby Jesus, I chose to take a picture of him with his naked torso. I wrapped the blue fabric around his lower body and observed him. It was very difficult to get him to sit still and so I often had to give him something to play with. Two of my favourite photographs in this series are shown on this post. The first is the one on the left. the folds in the fabric are beautiful and envelope the child in such a beautiful way. Notice how he is holding a remote control. this is a complete contrast to the historic paintings of the Madonna and child where Jesus is often depicted holding a lily or some other more symbolic object. This image perhaps reflects the technological era which we are now in. The second photograph which I believe is the best is shown below:

This image has everything I am looking for and more. The position of the light is perfect, it highlights his face and therefore his youth and innocence. The folds of the fabric are beautiful and appear to curl around his small and innocent body. This acts as a symbol of the mother, protecting and enveloping the child. I have also managed to capture his bare soled foot which ties in with my research of Caravaggio and the feet controversy. For me this picture unifies my concepts of looking at all aspects o the child, its natural form but also reflects on the historic nature of the mother and child through the folds of the deep ultramarine fabric.

This image has given me real inspiration for my final piece.

As a way of displaying all of my photographs of my nephew of which I will draw from, I have created a book. I made this myself using faux blue leather, cardboard and glue.

Within this book are various photographs of my nephew all taken using my Nikon L300 bridge camera. I have captured him during natural states of exploration with varying emotions. I hope to draw from these photographs in the style of the various artists which I research. I have annotated next to each photograph, explaining my thoughts behind the composition and context of the child.