Stylistic Study

This project follows my intensive research into five renowned artists and their unique styles. As my research progressed, I imitate five "master copies," one for each artist, and use their style on images that I have taken myself. In total, I have created 25 art pieces using my stylistic research.

Technology used:

-None

Process:

When picking the five artists I wanted to dive deep into stylistically, I made the conscious decision to choose artists who differed artistically. This led me to pick the following artists:

-Claude Monet

- Ellsworth Kelly

- Beatrix Potter

- Henri Matisse

-Tamara de Lempicka

After picking my artists, I started on replication of the artists using gouache, watercolor and markers, taking detailed notes of my observations and stylistic choices.

Claude Monet Research: The Summer, Poppy Field

I picked Claude Monet as one of my artists due to my overall appreciation of his expressionistic style and portrayal of details. In his painting, The Summer, Poppy Field, Monet is able to display a mother and her children through loose brushstrokes as opposed to keen realistic detail. I found the more I observed this painting, the more I discovered when painting my gouache draft.

Ellsworth Kelly: Wild Grape Leaves II

Ellsworth Kelly is a minimalist who creates contour sketches of plants. Though his works may seem easy to replicate, it does take a certain finesse to pull off. Ellsworth creates his work off of observation with only a pen and brings a level of precision that seems impossible without an outline sketch underneath. Ellsworth Kelly was the only artist I selected that worked specifically in pen.

Beatrix Potter: Peter Rabbit

Beatrix Potter was a stunning and talented watercolorist who illustrated some of my personal childhood favorites such as Peter Rabbit and The Tale of Tom Kitten. Her works consists of stunning depictions of nature with precise white spaces and detailed layering with watercolor pigmentation.

Henri Matisse: The Goldfish

Henri Matisse is an oil painter who follows in the lines of tangible abstract expressionism. Whereas Monet creates his pieces using a somewhat realistic approach, Matisse uses thick and pigmented colors with light breaks to create his works of art.

Tamara de Lempicka: Still Life

Going off of only this painting by Tamara De Lempicka I pinpointed her as a realism artist which was a change from my primary expressionistic artists. I typically don't paint realism so I made sure to follow the very basics when creating my copy, starting off with gridding my piece. Her ability to capture light and shadow in her works is very admirable and definitely a key point of her artistic style.

Final Artistic Replication:

Applying all of the technical and observational skills I learned through this project, I created the following pieces:

Claude Monet

For my artistic impersonation of Claude Monet's style, my primary goals were to never use black, have a prominent light source and to use impressionistic brush strokes. My pieces come off as playful with their color pallet and my choice of medium, all gouache with a speck of color pencil for added visual texture. To learn more about a specific piece feel free to click on one of the images below.

Beatrix Potter

To mimic the works of Beatrix Potter I used watercolor with a lose pen outline to give certain objects a denser structure. Her style is light an whimsical, and a staple of her style is her ability to use purposeful white space to break up her media. She additionally uses a perspective strategy where the objects closest have more detail than the ones in the back. She does this primarily by muting the colors in the background, a skill I utilized.

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse uses bright and expressive oil paints when depicting his media, a skill I mimicked using a mix of gouache and marker. My main goal was to allow my markers to show direction and mark out the values of the light in each image through high pigmentation. An additional note, Henri Matisse depicts the outdoors in a vastly different way than his depictions of indoor places.

Ellsworth Kelly

Though Ellsworth Kelly depicts his mediums in a contouring gestural way, he still portrays the spirits of his muses. I was able to mimic this skill through a fine tipped ink pen and acrylic paint I used to boarder my works.

Tamara de Lempicka

Tamara De Lempicka uses tints and tones to create three dimensional appearing final creations typically through the medium oil paint. To replicate her style I used a mix of gouache and watercolor on mixed media paper, paying heavy attention to brushwork and utilizing sgraffito for added visual texture. Many of Tamara De Lempicka's works have an almost leugubrious feel that I attempted to capture in many of my pieces through layers on layers of gouache for a bold finish.