Art Portfolio
by Akshata
Culminating- Spray Painting using Stencils
Objective
Duplicate spray painted copies of yourself with a word of advice to the world. Study contemporary artists who create propaganda posters and understand the purposes of spray painting to reach a vast group of people
Research
Ketih Haring
Keith Haring was born on May 4, 1958 in Reading, Pennsylvania, and was raised in nearby Kutztown, Pennsylvania. He developed a love for drawing at a very early age, learning basic cartooning skills from his father and from the popular culture around him, such as Dr. Seuss and Walt Disney.
Shepherd Fairey
Hus style of art consisted of graphics, stenciling and screen printing. Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer activist and illustrator who emerged from the skateboardingscene
Tracy 168
He is called one of the grandfathers of graffiti. He states that his paintings are alive, strong and very bright. Giving it the best color combinations, perfect movement and balance makes it a good piece of work.
ESPO
Steve powers, better known are ESPO, and are well known in New York. His uses words and text as a form of graffiti art for a subject to spray paint.
Banksy
Banksy is a United Kingdom-based graffiti artist, political activist, film director, and painter.
His work include dark humor with graffiti done using a distinctive stenciling technique. Such artistic works of political and social commentary have been featured on streets, walls, and bridges of cities throughout the world.
Name the artist, location, and date of the work.
The title of the work is “There will be hope.” It was found in South Bank of London in 2002 on the wall of the stairway.
Describe the content of the work.
The artwork shows a little girl trying to reach out to a heart shaped red balloon. It is windy since her hair is blowing. The title gives the picture the most meaning.
How does the artist deal with space of the wall?
It is unique how Banksy left the left side of the wall blank and most of the weight is on the right side. This gives the work a sense of space to the balloon so I know that the balloon has somewhere to go and the girl won’t be able to grab it. It creates a story right there so now we know that the composition of an artwork is so important to the message of the work.
Are there symbols or attributes?
Yes according to me, the heart shaped balloon can be interpreted as a symbol that represents love, which is a basic human need that needs to be cherished, and needs nurture. What the art is telling us is that the girl trying to catch her love balloon but it is unable to do so. Therefore, she is losing the component of love from her life, however the title of the work is there is hope, somewhere I feel that she has the chance to get the balloon back anyhow.
What is the main message? Is there a strong emotional component?
There is a strong emotional component to this. As I mentioned in before, the red heart balloon can symbolize love. There are times people are unhappy with their life, and feel like there is no more hope left. However the message of this artwork is that although you might lose the love of your life, you will get the happiness back in some or the way. It is a way to motivate people on a daily basis that everything will be okay and it ensures people that there is hope left in everything.
My Plan
While I was planning on the quote to include in my stencil, I came across this video, which showed a unique and cool technique of doing t-shirt art. I thought it would be inspirational for my stencil art on white t-shirts. I shortly realized that the artwork in the video looked very close to what I was planning to do.
Taking the photos
My next step was taking a photograph and thresholding it to fit my stencil layer. We had to take a photograph of us holding a board on which we will have our quote printed on. Below were some of the trials that I experimented with sing Photoshop and they turned out pretty well. I picked the last one, added my words to it, and was satisfied with what I had in hand for my next step.
Finally, using the photograph that I chose, I printed it out on A3 printing paper and then copied it down on a card paper using carbon sheets. This gave me an outline from which I could cut out my stencil.
This step was critical since I had to make sure I did not leave any “islands” in my stencil since those islands will not be covered with paint leaving a blob.
Spray Painting
After the stencil was ready, I spray painted my piece onto my T-shirt using black and neon pink spray paint. It turned out really well.
Reflection
1. What is your message? Why does it hold strong significance for you?
One thing that inspired me to put on the message “Learn to trust your talents” on my shirt was because of the number of people I encounter everyday who do not believe in themselves and their ability to be good at something. They lack self-esteem and think that they will always be put down. People need to realize what they are good at and then take the initiative to bring out that talent to display the world. I recently was introduced to an article in one of my other classes, about how the creator of the famous cartoon Mickey Mouse started his journey. As first, fate did not support him however, when he started believing in his talent, he grew in the big star we know as Walt Disney. We all must understand that we have some kind of talent within us that is yet to be expressed. There is a purpose to why we came into this world and it is to express your ideas and change the world in your way. The reason why Walt Disney is such a huge corporation is that the creator trusted his talents. Speaking of that, finding out what or where your talent lies is a journey. Some come to the destination early however for some people it might take a while. In the end, you will reach somewhere, and that somewhere will be centered around your interest, and your belief in your talents. This is what I what to tell the world since people doubt themselves so much to the point of failure to achieve their prior goal.
This very much relates to me and any other high school students since now are a crucial time to decide where we want to go in future. In order to be your happiest, you should do something you like, in other words identify with your talents and put them to work. Do not get criticized by anybody and always put your thoughts before anyone else’s. This is what I call trusting your talents and it holds strong significance for me because I know once I have found that talent, I will strive to achieve it and appreciate it. Some people who don’t trust their talents will feel good for nothing because being afraid of failure is not the way out. I hope this gives people around me motivation to look for their talents and try to make something out of it.
2. Compare your stencil image to those artists that you researched. How is your image similar or different in comparison?
When I compared my work to the other artists mentioned above, I would say that my art is very different to their in the sense that I have used only two colors to express my message. The other artists have used a variety of color combinations, which in fact enhances the aesthetic appeal of the work, yet i think that my stencil and my quote hold a stronger message.
The work that I found my stencil the most closest to was Banks’s “There will be hope”. He also used only two colors to create his entire picture, and it holds a very strong message that is quiet similar to mine. Moreover, the way the girl has been placed in his work is extremely similar to the light and shadows I have portrayed in my stencil. It looks just like as if he followed the exact stenciling process that I did.
3.What challenges did you encounter?
During my entire process of creating this stencil, few of the challenge di encountered were that my outlines were really small and intricate to cut out. I found it difficult to get each and every cut accurate using the exacto knife. I guess I need more practice using the knife. The next challenge that came across was that I had too many islands in my stencil outline to the point that I had to change my entire photo. My letters were placed on a black strip on the white board, which would make all my letters “islands”. Thus, I had to cut that idea out and locate my letters on the white page itself. I also found it hard to create bridges between some of the parts of my face since I could see visible islands. This could have possible distorted my face outline; however I managed to do it carefully enough to make my stencil still look like me. Apart from these challenges, I would say my creative process went smoothly without much intervention.