Amy Brosnan

This is my final presentation for assessments.

I’m happy with how it turned out. I wanted to included a range of mediums and media so I included some imaginative compositions with life drawing and acrylics with charcoals and oil pastels.

As a part of this brief we were asked to choose an artist from a prepared list to research. I decided to research the German artist Neo Rauch.

I was drawn in by his incredibly detailed and vivid works.

Today I finished a piece I almost forgot about.

It’s a mixed media piece of a bunch of small details that caught my eye around the college.

I was really drawn into the humour of these little features and even included some that me and my friends created too.

The first three panels were done using acrylic paints and acrylic paint markers for small details. The next two were done using oil pastels for a pop of colour as I thought that the first three had mostly the same colours of green/yellow/greys so I wanted it to pop.

The final one is a measurement of all my friends heights on the wall and I decided to use acrylic markers for this.

I think it’s a cute humorous piece.

Today I wanted to work on a painting I had conjured up in my mind over the Easter break.

I had been really inspired by the tree in the courtyard after it was cut into what looked like a square shape. In my head all I could picture was a Minecraft tree with all its little pixels.

So because I’m a big nerd and love video games I wanted to create my own interpretation of this in what I call “shitty game graphics”.

I worked on cardboard using acrylic paints and a pallet knife only to create the buildings, grass and pavement. The joy of mixing paints created the challenge of getting the same colours, but I didn’t want the same colours as the picture or the same colours in each wall of the building, that would defeat the purpose of my shitty graphics.

This is how it looked once the walls and grass were done. “Out of render distance” I thought to myself.

After lunch I finally created the piece that inspired this whole idea, the Minecraft pixel tree.

I used gouache to make this tree on paper. To do this I had to use measurements of squares and have them be 5cm by 5cm and lay them out appropriately.

Once it was stuck on I cut out the top and bottom so there was no bare cardboard showing.

I honestly don’t know if I like it or not but it was definitely a fun but messy and chaotic process. I got covered in paint from my jeans to my hair.

After our live painting session we worked with Sylvia to find an appropriate layout for all of our paintings to be hung.

We placed all of our paintings on the floor in a 3 row layout and worked together to find the best position for each painting so it stands out well and each painting contrasts eachother.

Once we had found an appropriate layout we stapled them to the wall.

The paintings were hung next to our previous live paintings and it was quite interesting to see the differences between the weeks.

The previous weeks paintings colour are much softer and colder with blues and greens whereas this weeks colours are harsher and warmer with yellows and reds.

I enjoyed this weeks live paintings as it felt a bit more challenging than the previous weeks.

28/4

To start off our final week, another day of live painting commenced. This time we had a female dancer as our model.

This time Sylvia had us working using only two of the complimentary colours. I chose orange and blue to work with.

The model sat in a pose with her leg up on the bench. This time though we had another light source focused on the models back to create a variety of lights and shadows for our painting.

We again worked only with a flat head brush, we started with the under painting for our background and having three shades on the wall and floor.

I almost forgot to post this and panicked a little.

This piece was inspired by the trip to the zoo we took the week before the Easter break.

I had found a jungle like fabric print that gave me and idea to paint one of the tigers I had seen in the zoo.

I started off by putting a base down in acrylics so I would have a smooth surface to work on.

For the face details I decide to use some oil pastels to create some texture in the face, I wanted it to have the fuzzy appearance of the the tigers fur.

I then started working on the legs and body, for this I didn’t really want to fully cover the beautiful pattern behind the tiger so I only used oil pastels so it would be almost transparent.

I loved the effect this had, it almost looked like the tiger was actually walking through the grass in the jungle.

Fischl is an American painter and sculptor. Born in 1948, New York City, Fischl attended Phoenix College where he received his B.F.A from the California Institute for the Arts in 1972.

Fischls work is displayed worldwide in Museums and he is known as one of the most influential figurative painters.

Fischls subject is inspired by his childhood where alcoholism and personal image posed a huge issue. This is seen throughout many of his paintings.

Untitled, 1969, oil on canvas

His early work is more abstract compared to his newer works as he slowly begins to experiment with figurative works.

I absolutely love his more recent work. The beautiful colours with the visually stunning compositions really draws you in.

I decided to tag along on the trip to fota wildlife with the animation group as I wanted to join the fun of drawing all the different animals.

I had loads of fun using different mediums, the different shapes and forms were definitely my favourite thing about the trip!!

I’m really glad I went on the trip it was definitely a fun learning experience and day out.

A continuation of life drawing.

This week we continued with our life drawing class on Monday.

This time around I tried to use a variety of different mediums this time instead of just relying on paint. I want to be able to step out of my comfort zone and be happy with what I can create.

I first tried with charcoal and continued onto pencil and then a marker.

I always like working with charcoal because it’s so experimental, I like just rubbing my fingers along the lines to soften them or to create shading and Using a marker this time around helped me try to ignore any mistakes and work around them.

I also tried out some oil pastels, they were quite fun to work with but a little tricky as they are so thick and heavy on paper.

Finally i went back and worked with some gouache. I wanted it to have a more water coloured effect this time though instead of looking like acrylics.

I really like how the first one turned out, the colours look soft.

Today I wanted to continue focusing on the “out of place” features in the college. Everytime I walk up the stairs I see a little house next to the fire escape and that inspired me today.

I worked using gouache on card. I really like how it turned out. For little details I used colouring pencils and some acrylic paint markers although I tried to keep it mostly gouache.

There’s something about it though that makes me feel quite sad, maybe it’s muted colours and the bright house or maybe it’s the realisation of the transition ive made from childhood into college life. I don’t really know but I definitely get a sad vibe from it.

Today we started the day by visiting an exhibition in the hunt museum by Sinead Ni Mhaonaigh.

These two pieces really stood out To me compared to some of her other works. I love the pastel, pale colours all while being bright and colourful. Compared to her other darker works, these stood out to me.

Later that day we did a mirror exercise, unfortunately I had no mirror so I had to tape my phone to the wall but it looked just as good.

We were challenged with only using a pallet knife to paint this piece. I’m really happy with how it turned out, it was definitely difficult but it challenged me to adapt to the new tool.

For the second portion of live drawing with eoin we were allowed to use whatever medium we wanted.

I firstly began with painting to use up what I had left over from this morning. We did 3 fifteen minute poses so I decided to keep them on the same sheet.

I then decided to experiment with oil pastels for the fourth pose.

For the fifth and final pose I used charcoal and oil pastels.

Today we had a life drawing class.

For the first half of the day we started with painting with Sylvia.

Unfortunately I never got to finish my first piece but the unfinished piece itself and the colour scheme inspired me.

It looked like my little trinket on my phone so I worked with that in mind to finish it off!

Today we finished our final piece by collaging our pieces together.

Me and a few of the girls drew on tracing paper to create an over lapping effect that we could put onto the final piece to emphasise the collage.

We stuck all the angels up in scattered positions to have it look chaotic.

I’m really happy with how it turned out and it was really fun to work in a team with my friends.

Today we continued our group project with the large scale piece.

As a group we decided to expand our piece by each creating our own individual cherub inspired by the church gallery, the twist is that the cherubs are us.

The reasoning behind this is to connect us to the college. How we are now a part of the college and how the college is a part of us.

This week we are working in groups to create a large scale piece.

In my group we decided to focus on the church gallery as that’s what we were all drawn to over the past week.

We wanted to make a collage collaboration piece so we are taking different aspects that caught our attention.