Recent work and Contemporary Artists

To better explain my creative process as an artist: 

Sometimes when I jump in with an idea already formed, I end up making a mess of things and the projects tend to be lackluster because I didn't meet the expectations that I set up for myself.

With most of my work, I do find the process to be a factor in it being called "artwork". I don't necessarily make my artwork with an already determined meaning because I like to experience the meaning while a piece is being worked on. 

As far as the formal qualities go, I find myself referring back to old Renaissance work and the methods that they used when painting nudes (my comfort zone). Lately, I've been feeling like I need to step away from that particular set of formalities. With my series of nudes, I had a meaning and I had a plan but I got lost in it. It's confusing now and no longer enjoyable.  

With the new artwork that I have in my mind to create, I've luckily been able to formulate a narrative for these new pieces. 

 As a project for Drawing as Illustration, each student had to choose a song and create a drawing based on the song.   For me, a strong visual-inducing song is Imagine Dragon's "Radioactive".  Hearing this song always gives me an image of desolate surroundings, perhaps a dystopian atmosphere.  I have always been drawn to dystopian/post-apocalyptic films and novels so I've decided to use that attraction for my new artwork in Senior Show. This allows me to keep with my original plans and it allows me to place a narrative (that I've derived from my interests) upon the work. 

This is the project that I've been working on for that class (forgive me for the sideways image.  It shows as horizontal on my computer but won't upload that way here):

This image (work in progress)  was done with watercolor, color pencils, and graphite on watercolor paper and it's only 11x14 or thereabout.  I'm entertaining the idea of creating images that show possible end-of-the-world scenarios.  I'm partly inspired by another student's use of bunny rabbits in real-life situations.  She used bunnies as a way to determine how viewers only saw how cute the bunnies were instead of evaluating the actual situations that they were in (at least this is what I understood).

On to the contemporaries:

Kehinde Wiley

 I was able to view Wiley's work first-hand at the Chrysler Museum's past event 30 Americans.  His artwork is grandeur in scale and is often of realistic darker-skinned figures in heroic poses or the subjects and setting are modeled after older paintings that featured white males.  I am fascinated by the amount of detail in Wiley's backgrounds and I much enjoy how, while the backgrounds are beautifully rendered, they don't distract from the subject.

Tim Burton

Tim Burton is a contemporary artist whose name is all across television and other media due to movies and cartoons made using his artistic talent and style.  I've been a fan of his since early childhood and I am pleased to see that his artwork is still recognizable as his own despite his involvement in the competitive movie industry.  His drawings are generally simplistic renderings with small details and an air of creepiness.  

HR Giger

Giger is an artist that I found when looking up surreal, mostly black and white imagery.  I love the details that he provided for his bio-mechanical images and I'm also a fan of how realistic some of his artwork can appear to be.   

Kara Walker

Kara Walker's silhouetted figures and settings have been of interest to me ever since I can remember.  Her artwork carries very bold and well-defined imagery despite being done in mostly black and white. I feel like I may even enjoy her process better than the end result.  For instance, before cutting out an image, she pretty much draws a full illustration before cutting and flipping it over so that we may only see the contours.