Formal Analysis
“Dia De los Muertos” and “Giacometti Inspiration”
During a trip to the Casper art Museum, a realistic oil painting of a beautiful woman in a picture frame captured my eye. I found myself just staring at it in awe, and I new this was something I would never forget. “Dia de los Muertos” done by Suzy Smith is a marvelous painting not only by the stroke of her brush, but the story told.
The “Dia de los Muertos” painting is of a porcelain skinned woman with mouse brown hair, and green eyes. Among those qualities, she is wearing day of the dead makeup, a black laced dress, five red roses in her hair, and a bouquet of them in her hands. When looking at the portrait, this woman is very beautiful, but one can see the hurt expressed
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in her facial expression, and the makeup. I say this because she had two blueish-purple tear drops under her eye makeup. Along with that, the black dress also tells one she is mournful. This is ultimately what I believe the artist was trying to express in her painting, for “Day of the Dead” is a celebration for one’s who passed on. The elements of color and balance are the first thing to capture the attention of anyone who were to look at this painting, not just the beauty of the woman.
With the use of dark red in the background, it illuminates the woman's pale figure, and the ruby red roses. By doing the colors this way, Smith created a harmonious balance with her lights and darks, while also finding a way to make the colors expressed pop.
Of the other formal elements seen in “Dia de los Muertos” composition is excellent, not only in the balance of color, but the figure itself. When you look at the piece, it may seem at first that she is directly in the middle, but in fact she is off to the right, but the bouquet make her appear to be in center. This is where the genius mind of the artist come to play, because if it weren’t for the bouquet, there would be too much empty space. The Roses in her hand give a great relationship between empty, and filled in spaces. This also gives direction to the plane that the artist tried to
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achieve. Other parts of formal analysis used to create her work, are the lines used.
Not only did Smith use regular lines, but lines in relation to one another, and irregular ones. This is found in her hair, the skeletal makeup lines on her mouth, the ones to shade her body, and lastly the ones used to make the lace from her dress. These are the major lines seen at least, but in saying that, they are very important. They give the woman a life-like persona. They also distinguish lights and darks, making shapes, while also creating depth and expressive colors.
Overall, this painting is both brilliant and beautiful, even if already said above, I don’t think those words could be expressed enough to describe Smith’s painting. The visual image of the woman gives a breathtaking iconography, along with an everlasting effect. Smith may not have intended to create a piece for someone to interpret it this way, but she did create it to be capturing to its audience.
Giacometti
Inspiration Sculptures are one of the many things I love about art and the influence they have on people. One artist is particular who had a special influence on me was Giacometti and his people sculptures. His work not only told many stories, but were so unique, giving me the inspiration to create similar structures, yet vastly different, like my Phantom of the Opera piece. These standing sculptures are made of a sturdy platform(wood, styrofoam,etc.) wire, aluminum foil, paper bags, and glue. When making one, I always tell people “It's like making a person, first the skeletal system, then the muscle, the skin, cloths and everything else.” But in reality it is much more than that. My Phantom of the Opera piece was a mash up of Giacometti’s work, along with a muse from the movie. The piece was to capture a specific scene when the Phantom is singing Music of the night to Christine. He is holding her in front of him with one hand grasping hers against his cheek. This is supposed to add to the experience of the film, and give the two chemistry. The composition of the sculpture is the two characters, without one or the other, the balance and harmony of the piece would fail. Even if they are unproportionate and unrealistic, the piece is supposed to be exaggerated to bring out the importance of the story and overall effect. This is one of the reasons why the balance is crucial to the sculpture. With both being painted black, then dry-brushed with metallic silver and copper acrylic paint, this helps the contrast of colors to bring out symmetry in the characters. Without any composition to the piece, I feel like it wouldn’t be able to capture anyone’s attention. When I look at my piece I see that as one of the most important qualities. This is also true for the slightly extreme details I had to put into the characters. Take Christine for example, ripples, ruffles, curls, thin paper lines and bends had to be made to make her appear somewhat alive. The Phantom was the same, and because this isn't a 2D piece, it is 3D, and appropriate measures had to be made in making this sculpture to be able to capture one’s attention. Iconography had to be applied so one could recognize the piece if they knew of the Phantom of the Opera or Giacometti’s work. Symbols like the stance, and the Phantom's mask were applied to have that very effect on a person. This is also why lines, light and color are applied in this piece. The regular, irregular and lines in relation to one another all helped to create the outfits and features. They also made it to where shading is possible. When dry-brushing a piece, shapes can get lost, and with the lines, they help create dark shadows and help distinguish the sculpture. Before making a sculpture like this, vigorous planning of a formal analysis must be made. It is so important to make sure that things work or don’t work together, or else the piece will fail. Even today, i'm trying to figure out different elements in creating similar Giacometti sculptures, because so many things need to be improved and developed.
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