Title: Butterflies
Medium: Digital Illustration Size: 12" by 24" Date: October 2023 Butterflies is a digitally illustrated self portrait piece inspired by the Art Nouveau posters of Alphonse Mucha. With this piece I wanted to convey the idea of personal growth and reflect on my own experiences and challenges as a young person. Symbols of growth are present throughout the piece in the form of vine-like and floral foliage and butterflies. The orange cloth draped over my figure's shoulder represents youth and its positioning gives an almost victorious impression.
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Inspiration
This piece was inspired by the Art Nouveau posters created by Alphonse Mucha. Specifically, his poster for ‘Lorenzaccio’ and Rêverie (1898). Mucha is known for his posters and illustrations that focus on the idealization of the female figure. He became prominent designing posters for theatrical productions, notably those of Sarah Bernhardt. His designs often utilize vibrant colors and floral imagery as well as strong dark linework. My piece takes inspiration from the aesthetic elements and visual style of Mucha's work’s, similarly focusing on floral imagery and the human figure. A major difference between my work and Muchas is mine involves a male figure rather than a female one (due to being a self-portrait) like his works commonly do, for this purpose I took inspiration from his poster for ‘Lorenzaccio’ which focuses on a male figure.
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Rêverie (1898), by Alphonse Mucha
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Poster for Lorenzaccio, By Alphonse Mucha
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Planning
When planning this piece I initially knew I wanted to create a Mucha inspired poster similar to the seasons illustrations I completed in my junior year. I have always appreciated Mucha's style and the aesthetically pleasing way he uses line and color as well as the floral imagery present in much of his work. For this project I wanted to create a poster more similar to Mucha's overall body of work, with floral imagery and a central human figure. I decided to make it into a self-portrait as I do not have many strong self portrait pieces in my portfolio. The overall composition was borrowed from Mucha's poster for Lorenzaccio which is one of the few pieces of his I could find that included a male figure. My basis for the meaning behind the piece was self-growth, recently a lot has changed in my life and I wanted to represent that somehow in my art. I experimented with how I would texture the fabric and settled on a method of coloring that would include more unblended blocks of color for the face and clothing. I created a rough sketch detailing how I would lay out the face from a reference photo I had taken of myself. I also decided to include butterflies in the composition as I thought it would be a nice element representing the concept of growth and change. Butterflies are also an element not common in much of Mucha's work so it further adds my own touch to the piece.
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Process
The physical creation of this piece was executed within the program Procreate on the iPad Air using an apple pencil. This digital format allowed me to create a piece this size at ---- DPI with a --- layer limit. This low layer limit isn't exactly a concern with this piece since it does not involve intense manipulation of layers. Once I had generated my blank canvas I began by creating the background. I had a clear vision for the composition, being similar to Mucha's Poster for Lorenzaccio with further floral elements inspired by Rêverie. Therefore I was able to create a clear layout for the background and framing of the poster, with a circular, halo-like element in the center of the canvas. From there I added some slight texture and began sketching out the positioning of the central figure. I also began sketching the floral elements framing the figure, as well some butterflies alongside it. I began rendering the floral elements first, including the flowers and vines. I started with color blocking then continued to texture and details. From there I used the round brush and fill tools to color block the figure and detail it with line-work using a black studio pen. I struggled a bit with proportion here, especially with the hands which I began by rendering too large. From there, I began detailing the clothing beginning with the cape-like cloth over the figures shoulder. I then began sketching the face, first with a pen/pencil like brush in black. Rendering came next, with a small round brush and technical pen, I varied color and shading according to a reference photo of myself. I then rendered the rest of the clothes to completion as well as added a shadow to the background. I finished by detailing the several butterflies in the foreground of the composition.
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Experimentation
The main way I experimented in this piece was style, the figure mainly was in a style I have not really worked in before. Especially the look of the features took several hours to develop and tweak with me eventually settling on a style with detailed, yet unblended color blocks of varying tones. I really liked the way this looked even though it differed from the style of Alphonse Mucha, my initial attempt at Muchas style of more blended colors looked very flat and made my figures face overly feminine. I also struggled with color pallete, the initial colors i tried to use for the face and facial features were far too vibrant and felt like it differed greatly from Mucha's style. THis was all fixed through simple tweaking, though I had to focus heavily on the facial features which received more time and focus than a lot of the rest of the piece. Overall it was worth focusing on because the figures face became my favorite part of the piece and the part I am most proud of.
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Critique
Similarities
Both my piece and Mucha's works are completed in a 2-dimensional medium with similar style and emphasis on the human figure. Both are meant to be posters (or in the style of a poster) and include floral/nature imagery and elements with foliage patterns or images. They also both have similar compositions with my piece invoking some of Mucha's compositional elements and layouts. This similarity in layout extends to the fact that both my piece and Mucha's works feature a border and similar poster design elements. They also both involve similar use of color and line, with thin dark outlines around elements and the figure.
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Differences
The biggest difference between my piece and Mucha's is that mine was completed digitally using Procreate while Mucha didn't have access to digital tools in his time, instead utilizing tradicional materials to complete his works. Another major difference is that my piece is a self-portrait while Mucha often depicted the female figure and rarely completed any work about himself. While both works do include floral imagery and patterns, Mucha's pieces are more pattern based and symmetrical than that in Butterflies. My piece was also not made for commercial purposes, not being any sort of advertisement or promotion.
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Reflection
Throughout this process I definitely advanced and refined my digital art skills especially when it comes to the human figure and facial features. I really think I excelled on creating a more realistic face and features for this piece which is something I often do not excel at. This project was also deeply connected to its inspiration, Alphonse Mucha, whose style and art I feel I became far more familiar with during the creation of this piece. The piece was meant to be directly based off his style, and though I ended up making choices that caused major differences in appearance to Mucha's work, I think it still very much reflects some of the core-features of his art. When working on this project, the biggest challenge I encountered was the self portrait aspect of this piece. I often struggle with self portraits because I never am satisfied with how they look, either not looking like me or being a warped version of myself. This made it difficult to choose reference photos for this project but luckily I was able to find some that I was happy with. I was really surprised with how well I was able to represent myself using these references. While it was challenging to find references, once they were found it was quite easy to follow them to create an effective image. I would say this was probably the best figure drawing i've done digitally. I was able to use my knowledge of Procreate and previous attempts to create an effective image using both brushes and layers. I really considered the layering on this piece and how I would lay this piece out. My favorite part of the process was the detailing the final butterflies, at that point it was just the final touches and I was incredibly happy with how it turned out and was able to comfortably experiment with the way the butterflies looked. My least favorite part of the process was having to reattempt some of the figure drawing due to errors in size and proportion. I hope others are able to clearly see the meaning was attempting to convey, and I hope they take time to notice the detail, time, and effort put into the facial features, especially since that is what I am most proud of with this piece.
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- My inspiration directly affected and shaped the stylistic elements and choices made in my piece including color, lines, and subjects. The piece would be incredibly different without the influence of my inspiring pieces from Alphonse Mucha.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- Mucha has a clear style and elements that remain consistent throughout his overall body of work, he utilizes hard lines and soft blended colors as well as floral imagery and the female form throughout most of his works and all of his works of this style. His pieces are instantly recognizable due to the care he took to develop a unique style and look.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- I was made aware of Alphonse Muchas art in further detail, exploring the way he focused on thee female figure and represented it not only for artistic but also commercial purposes.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
- The central idea behind my inspiration research was style and composition, these are the elements that directly influenced my work and can be seen as similarities between mine and Mucha's pieces.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- I learned a lot more about the meaning and reasoning behind Mucha's work, while previously familiar, my understanding was far more developed after this research.
Bibliography:
“Alphonse Mucha.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 1 Dec. 2023, www.britannica.com/biography/Alphonse-Mucha.
Foundation, Mucha. Mucha Foundation, www.muchafoundation.org/en. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.
Gurney, Tom. “Reverie.” Reverie by Alphonse Mucha, TheHistoryOfArt.org, www.thehistoryofart.org/alphonse-mucha/reverie/. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.
Museum, Victoria and Albert. “Lorenzaccio: Mucha, Alphonse: V&A Explore the Collections.” Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections, collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O89277/lorenzaccio-poster-mucha-alphonse/. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
- My inspiration directly affected and shaped the stylistic elements and choices made in my piece including color, lines, and subjects. The piece would be incredibly different without the influence of my inspiring pieces from Alphonse Mucha.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
- Mucha has a clear style and elements that remain consistent throughout his overall body of work, he utilizes hard lines and soft blended colors as well as floral imagery and the female form throughout most of his works and all of his works of this style. His pieces are instantly recognizable due to the care he took to develop a unique style and look.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
- I was made aware of Alphonse Muchas art in further detail, exploring the way he focused on thee female figure and represented it not only for artistic but also commercial purposes.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
- The central idea behind my inspiration research was style and composition, these are the elements that directly influenced my work and can be seen as similarities between mine and Mucha's pieces.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
- I learned a lot more about the meaning and reasoning behind Mucha's work, while previously familiar, my understanding was far more developed after this research.
Bibliography:
“Alphonse Mucha.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 1 Dec. 2023, www.britannica.com/biography/Alphonse-Mucha.
Foundation, Mucha. Mucha Foundation, www.muchafoundation.org/en. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.
Gurney, Tom. “Reverie.” Reverie by Alphonse Mucha, TheHistoryOfArt.org, www.thehistoryofart.org/alphonse-mucha/reverie/. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.
Museum, Victoria and Albert. “Lorenzaccio: Mucha, Alphonse: V&A Explore the Collections.” Victoria and Albert Museum: Explore the Collections, collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O89277/lorenzaccio-poster-mucha-alphonse/. Accessed 4 Dec. 2023.