UntitledAILEEN DOMINGUEZ
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ARTIST STATEMENT
For this piece I decided to base it off Japanese culture. After doing a bit of research on the culture, I discovered that a majority of the people in Japan enjoy cosplaying, or dressing up as a fictional character, so I decided to paint a well known cosplayer from Japan. The main reason I chose this person is because they became an inspiration for me. I was inspired by their enjoyment in cosplaying and I decided to try it myself. It’s now become a daily hobby and has created a special connection with me, thus came the idea to paint them. Another big reason I decided to paint this person and culture, is because of “Anime”. I’ve been revolved around Anime for 15 years now and most of my art is based off of it. It makes up a part of me and having to do a painting that I can portray this passion was really enjoyable. Some basic techniques I used through out the painting were doing a wash on the canvas, wetting the paint a bit, and just painting with a dry brush. I didn’t use as many techniques on the entire painting itself, I wanted it to look a bit simple and eye appealing.
The main technique I was going for was semi-realism and add my own style to make it have a sense of an “anime” feeling. For the hair, I had mixed purples, blues, greens, and added a bit of red to get a dark color, but not entirely black. The highlights for the hair were white mixed in with a bit of blue so it won’t be pure white. t For the eyes I didn’t go into too much detail and made them a bit more unrealistic. Some techniques I had used for the skin were using a dry brush to blend the colors down roughly, and I wet some of the paints to a low transparency so I can achieve a “shadow” for it. The colors used on the skin consisted of browns, oranges, whites, and various yellows. For the darker areas on the skin I mostly used browns, and purples. I purposely tried to make the clothing have a softer look than the rest of the painting because I wanted the main focus area to be the face, so I reduced detail in the clothing. For the background I did a wash first and slowly started layering down the darks, then I went in with the lights and ended with the darks once again for the details. The bushes by the foreground were only done by a messy stippling technique. |
Instructor Resources
INSTRUCTOR
Carolyn Thom
Vista High School
I am an art educator at Vista High School with Vista Unified School District. I teach all levels of visual art. This project was given to my AP/Studio art class in the Fall. This is mainly a drawing and painting class. This project focused on the student’s first experience painting a portrait in acrylic. They have used acrylics before but not in a portrait.
To add interest and some research to the project, I had the students research a culture other than Western cultures. The learning objective was to become familiar with another culture and compare and contrast it with American culture. The final project was a portrait from the culture they researched. I invited a professional portrait artist to demonstrate technique for the students in acrylic. For most of the students, it was their first experience with acrylic portraits and mixing skin tones. I hoped that students would be able to transfer the research skills learned to other projects as well as the acrylic techniques learned and color mixing skills they used. It freed them up to attempt more portraiture even in other media such as watercolor and colored pencils now that they had the color mixing practiced for skin tones. It also introduced them to the artwork and clothing of other cultures.
I was inspired to create this project for my International Baccalaureate art class and knew it would benefit my AP and Studio art students was well. I felt it would add a dimension to portraiture that would motivate the students to go beyond a “pretty picture” and discover something new. I think that the students enjoyed the project. They always balk at writing in art class but they seemed interested and motivated once they got researching on their own. I really like the structure of the IB program and I try to incorporate it in all my classes. IB requires an extensive artist research workbook where students research every art piece they do as well as show all of their process and self-evaluations. I have included the hand out that guides the student’s culture research. I did not create it. I must have gotten it at a CAEA or IB conference.
The materials I use for the project are acrylic paints. For portraiture we added some higher quality paints in alizarin crimson, cadmium red and orange, unbleached titanium instead of pure white, and Paynes gray. I introduced using matt medium to thin a color.
The pieces in the show exceeded my expectations by the student’s use of color, blending and their success in creating a realistic skin tone. I am always trying to get the students to work more in the background and “tell the story” which Aileen’s piece was a good example. Also, they did not put the portrait in the middle of the canvas which is always a struggle to get the students to avoid. Priscilla’s background was a beautiful mixture of color that did not overpower the piece and helped create her emphasis. The students were very successful and have continued to include other cultures and portraiture in their work.
Carolyn Thom
Vista High School
I am an art educator at Vista High School with Vista Unified School District. I teach all levels of visual art. This project was given to my AP/Studio art class in the Fall. This is mainly a drawing and painting class. This project focused on the student’s first experience painting a portrait in acrylic. They have used acrylics before but not in a portrait.
To add interest and some research to the project, I had the students research a culture other than Western cultures. The learning objective was to become familiar with another culture and compare and contrast it with American culture. The final project was a portrait from the culture they researched. I invited a professional portrait artist to demonstrate technique for the students in acrylic. For most of the students, it was their first experience with acrylic portraits and mixing skin tones. I hoped that students would be able to transfer the research skills learned to other projects as well as the acrylic techniques learned and color mixing skills they used. It freed them up to attempt more portraiture even in other media such as watercolor and colored pencils now that they had the color mixing practiced for skin tones. It also introduced them to the artwork and clothing of other cultures.
I was inspired to create this project for my International Baccalaureate art class and knew it would benefit my AP and Studio art students was well. I felt it would add a dimension to portraiture that would motivate the students to go beyond a “pretty picture” and discover something new. I think that the students enjoyed the project. They always balk at writing in art class but they seemed interested and motivated once they got researching on their own. I really like the structure of the IB program and I try to incorporate it in all my classes. IB requires an extensive artist research workbook where students research every art piece they do as well as show all of their process and self-evaluations. I have included the hand out that guides the student’s culture research. I did not create it. I must have gotten it at a CAEA or IB conference.
The materials I use for the project are acrylic paints. For portraiture we added some higher quality paints in alizarin crimson, cadmium red and orange, unbleached titanium instead of pure white, and Paynes gray. I introduced using matt medium to thin a color.
The pieces in the show exceeded my expectations by the student’s use of color, blending and their success in creating a realistic skin tone. I am always trying to get the students to work more in the background and “tell the story” which Aileen’s piece was a good example. Also, they did not put the portrait in the middle of the canvas which is always a struggle to get the students to avoid. Priscilla’s background was a beautiful mixture of color that did not overpower the piece and helped create her emphasis. The students were very successful and have continued to include other cultures and portraiture in their work.
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