The inspiration behind this piece is Francisco Goya's piece Señora Sabasa García. This piece was inspiring to me because of the way that Francisco Goya was able to contrast the dark background to make the subject of the painting stand out more. Goya is particularly inspiring to me because he is one of the artists that I am investigating for my comparative study. While this is not a piece of his that I am investigating in my work, I believe that through my investigation into this piece I will be able to increase my understanding about the way that Francisco Goya does his paintings. By attempting to replicate his style while also integrating my own I think I will be able to deepen my understanding into the techniques that were used in the paintings that I am investigating for my comparative study. I was also inspired by the way that the style was true to it's time and era. I felt as if I can modernize this portrait and include elements of this century while also keeping it in Francisco Goya's style.
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For the planning of this piece, I originally planned on doing a piece inspired by Gustav Klimt's work entitled "Lady With a Fan". However, I changed my mind after discovering this portrait by Francisco Goya who I am studying not only for this piece but my comparative study as well. Some of the main reasons why I switched my inspiration piece was because of the reasons that Klimt's work inspired me in the first place. Originally I was inspired by the diverse, seemingly random, placement of colorful flowers, leaves and birds in the background of "The Lady With a Fan", however, I wasn't sure how if I could reflect my themes of identity in the work, while using that piece as an inspiration. For this reason I ultimately decided to switch to "Senora Sabasa Garcia" by Francisco Goya instead.
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To begin the process of creating this work I stretched my canvas. The Canvas that I used was three feet by three feet which was far greater than any piece that I have created before. After I finished stretching the canvas I painted one coat of gesso on it. I used a thicker gesso than I normally would, so I was able to do only one. After I had finished that process I took my reference photos. I wanted my final piece to be recognizable for what the inspiration was. Because of that, I decided to keep the same colors as the subject of my inspiration wore, but to modernize it into something that could be seen being worn today. Because the subject of Francisco Goya's painting wore a yellow garment over light gray sleeves, I decided to wear a similar yellow t-shirt over a light gray long sleeve shirt. After I took my photo I was able to project it onto my canvas, and start working on the painting.
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After I was done with the shirt, I began to work on the face and arm. I knew I needed to do these all in one sitting, so I mixed a significant amount of skin tone. This was difficult because i had a hard time matching my own skin tone to the paint that I was mixing. Once I was satisfied with the skin tone I separated it into three sections. One section I left how it was, the other I added more white into, and for the third one I added panes gray into. This was unusual for me because, typically I use burnt umber to create the shadows, however I didn't have that so I had to use a different color. I then blocked out the shadows and highlights of my piece for the face. I repeated the same process that I did on the shirt for the face and the hair. After I had finished with both of these sections I did the background of the piece. this was the final stage in my process and after I had completed it I was finished.
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SimilaritiesThe similarities between these two pieces include the colors of the clothing. I tried my best to replicate the original inspiration piece with the same colors and a similar pose. I also replicated the all black background that can be seen in the original piece.
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DifferencesThe differences between the two pieces include the subject. While I painted a self portrait Francisco painted a portrait of someone else. In addition to that, while I tried to match the colors of the clothes to my own, they are not the same style.
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