For my Grade 10s .......
Have a look at these two examples of infographics - one on the painting Perseus and the other on the sculpture Evolution.
Links .....
Evolution
Artist: Elizabeth Balcomb
Medium: Paper clay
Size: 17cm x 17cm x 50cm
Title: Evolution
Balcomb's website
Interpretation
Balcomb explains on her website how, despite her aptitude in art, she studied nature conservation and worked in environmental education. She still lives and works in the rural KZN midlands.
This love of Nature comes through in the sculpture.
The body language of the young girl suggests innocence and shyness with her her hands and feet in an almost ballet-like pose. Her old-fashioned dress emphasizes this innocence with its pretty pastel turquoise colour.
The cat-like features suggest the timid creature is one with Nature, and seems, to me, to question the evolutionary position of the human species.
Materials & Techniques
The sculpture is small (70cm hgh), and is finely modelled from paper clay.
This is made from paper pulp and white earthenware clay, and is a strong body which can be joined while quite dry. The paper burns out at about 200 degrees C, and the clay is bisqued until about 960 degrees C. The glaze colour is then applied when cold, and fired to its correct temperature. (1060 degrees C)
The hollow dress is draped and folded from a thin slab of textured (impressed) clay. The cat head, arms and legs seem to have been made separately and joined afterwards with a ‘scratch and slip’ method.
The figure balances on a base which seems to have been press moulded from an ice cream tub - a child-like structure.
Christiaan Diedericks 2013
Colour pencil, watercolour, metal leaf and stitching on 300gsm Fabriano Artistico paper
75 x 55cm
“Hair makes the man. Hair, or its apparent lack, is the typical way in which we discern men from women, male from female, masculine from feminine, maturity from immaturity.”
Ron J Suresha
Interpretation:
Diedericks says (on the website - Velvet) that he is investigating the idea of ‘hair’ as a defining element of the concept of masculinity.
The surface of the painting is so beautifully executed that it draws the viewers’ attention to the various textural ways in which Diedericks has depicted the male body. This attraction of the painted surface causes a subsequent attraction to the image - including the hair!
The central dominant vertical axis draws the viewers’ attention to the head of Perseus - a Greek historic mythological hero.His full head of hair and his facial hair are surrounded by chest hair and the armpit hair in a balanced symmetrical manner. The Greek helmet both conceals and emphasizes the idea of pubic hair, and the stitched outlines of the legs seem to hover above the figure in a strangely enticing way.
Materials & techniques: Mixed Media
Watercolour washes set up the fleshy colours in the background, and also create a convincing illusion of form on the body itself. Pencil crayons have been used to work into the fine detail of the eyes and face which creates a focal area.
A fine brush has been used to paint the illusion of textured hair on the body. This illusion (or virtual texture) is enhanced by the use of stitched actual texture. Stiff black thread has been stitched and knotted onto the dark ground at the bottom of the work, and around the outlines of the legs.
Red thread is also stitched around the outline of the body which has the effect of flattening the body to work with the flatness of the metal leaf of the helmet, which is also stitched onto the painting. Silver thread subtly balances the legs on the top left and right of the painting.
The surface of the work (excluding the body) has been covered with an acrylic crackle glaze, and a burnt umber has been rubbed into the crackles. This technique differentiates the figure (body) from the ground, and also gives the painting an antique feel which refers to the historical context of Perseus.
All the colours - in all media work together to enhance the overall integration of the work. This is often difficult to achieve using mixed media.
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