Choice Project
Girl with a Band
Canvas
60.96cm x 60.96cm
February 2020
"Girl with a Band" was inspired by Johannes Vermeer's The Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Stevie Nicks, front-woman of the band Fleetwood Mac. Stevie Nicks is a well-known witch, and someone who inspires me and I look up to in my studies of witchcraft and the arts.
Canvas
60.96cm x 60.96cm
February 2020
"Girl with a Band" was inspired by Johannes Vermeer's The Girl with a Pearl Earring, and Stevie Nicks, front-woman of the band Fleetwood Mac. Stevie Nicks is a well-known witch, and someone who inspires me and I look up to in my studies of witchcraft and the arts.
Inspiration and Background
My inspiration for this piece was one of my most favorite singers, who is also a witch, Stevie Nicks. Nicks is the front-woman for the very popular 70's band Fleetwood Mac. One of their most popular songs is Rhiannon, which happens to be the name of a Welsh goddess. Rhiannon is one of my most favorite goddesses and one who I feel the most connected to. She is the goddess of fertility, magick, rebirth, poetry, art, and wisdom. She rules over the Pagan holiday Beltane, which celebrates summer. Beltane is one half of the Pagan/Celtic year, the other half is Samhain, which is the start of winter. Stevie has made her pagan roots known in her music, and I thought she would be a good subject for this piece.
My reference photo for this painting was a black and white image of Stevie, in a similar pose as to the famous, The Girl with a Pearl Earring painting by Johannes Vermeer. My biggest challenge was taking the monochromatic image of Stevie and making a colored image, in the same style and pallet as The Girl with a Pearl Earring. |
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Process and Sketches
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I had started this process by finding some images of Stevie that I liked, that were also clear. The images were her in similar poses to The Girl with a Pearl Earring. I ultimately chose the image above, then I sketched it out into my notebook, just to get a general feel of what I was going to do, and to change some small things, like where she was looking.
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Once I had Stevie sketched onto the canvas I mixed a skin tone. Since I was working from a black and white image I had to somewhat guess. I used a couple other images of her, but most images of her are with colored lighting, which made this difficult. I somewhat matched it to my skin, but I did notice she was a but more yellow than me. So I mixed a lot of white, some brown, yellow and a touch of red. I did end up having to lighten the color a bit. I then worked on the shadows on her face. I gradually built them up on her face and neck, I ended up making it too dark, so I went back and corrected it. While adding the shadows I added the blush to her face and used the same color for her lips. Once I had her skin at a good point, I worked on her hair. I mixed The skin tone, a bunch of white and some yellow to get the neutral blonde she had. I then went over that with the hair color mixed with a bit more dark brown. I used that to make the texture and lines in her hair. I made those lines a bit too dark, so I went over them with a light coat of the normal hair color, then I added a few more lines again over that. I also did the darker area in her hair, then I moved onto the clothing. I made her shirt blue and her sweater a tan/gold to match the headscarf the girl is wearing in The Girl with a Pearl Earring. I painted the background black and then added details to her clothing, as well as changing the color of her sweater a bit.
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Throughout this process I went back over things multiple times, like her skin, hair clothing and most of the painting. The shadows took the longest, trying to get them just right was very challenging, but it worked out pretty well in the end. At first they were way too dark, but then they were too light. I ended up making them darker, mostly because it looked better, and it made since with how her hair was over her face. Her neck and chest were the hardest parts. I knew they had to be slightly darker than her face, but I couldn't get the happy medium I was looking for, like her face the shadows were either to light or too dark.
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Reflection
I think this project showed my evolving skills and connected very well to the inspiration piece. This painting was challenging, but was really rewarding. I got to do something I want to do, and I got to work on my painting. I am not the greatest painter, given that i normally use pencil and charcoal, but this helped me expand what I can do. I think I connected my painting very well to Johannes Vermeer's The Girl with a Pearl Earring. I worked from a black and white image of Stevie Nicks and tried to match the color palette of my inspiration. I tried to match Stevie's skin tone as much as possible, and I incorporated my inspiration into her clothing. I really like this painting, if I were to do it again I would work more on her face and the shadows, which is something I knew I needed to work on when starting this.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
I took a lot from my inspiration. I tried to use the same color palette as The Girl with a Pearl Earring, and I found a picture of Stevie Nicks in a similar pose as to my inspiration.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I didn't have to do much new research for this painting, given that we studied Johannes Vermeer last year in my Art History class. But I did do some side research on Fleetwood Mac, and their song Rhiannon. Stevie wrote the song about the Celtic welsh Goddess Rhiannon, who represents the arts, wisdom, rebirth and various other things.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I wanted to stay in my theme of Spirituality, mostly Paganism. Which Stevie Nicks is known, somewhat for her following of Wicca, which made me want to paint her all the more. Not only is she one of my favorite musical artists, she believes in something I do.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
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I took a lot from my inspiration. I tried to use the same color palette as The Girl with a Pearl Earring, and I found a picture of Stevie Nicks in a similar pose as to my inspiration.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I didn't have to do much new research for this painting, given that we studied Johannes Vermeer last year in my Art History class. But I did do some side research on Fleetwood Mac, and their song Rhiannon. Stevie wrote the song about the Celtic welsh Goddess Rhiannon, who represents the arts, wisdom, rebirth and various other things.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I wanted to stay in my theme of Spirituality, mostly Paganism. Which Stevie Nicks is known, somewhat for her following of Wicca, which made me want to paint her all the more. Not only is she one of my favorite musical artists, she believes in something I do.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
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