This unit I found rather reinvigorating. Over the course of the summer I had fell into a sort of rut. Drawing the similar drawings over and over again because it was comfortable. I was tired. And when I was given the opportunity to work in a large piece with a complex background I wanted to see if I still had that spark in me.
My words to work with were value and proportion. And I am fairly well acquainted with value, but proportion was not an aspect of art that I really considered frequently. So to figure out how to use proportion, I first had to understand it. I broke proportion down into its main components, the mathematical fractions of an image. Working in 3rds and halves for this piece was a the key element of proportion. Then value fit in perfectly with the art era I recieved. Neoclassicism, the new classic era of art. This era of art coincided with the age of enlightenment as new emphasis was put onto fields of study, one of which being anthropology.
The revitalization of the preservation of ancient greek culture and literature sparked a social revolution as their ideas came to the forefront of society. Ancient greek architecture, especially from the hellenistic greece began to be restored. Art students would come tour italy and see the newly discovered culture and myth of greece and rome. These art students would return to their work and challenge the more passive bourgeois rococo and baroque art periods.
So I started to think of greek myths that were conductive to this art period, the strong shadows and sharp highlights painting the turmoil and drama of an era. I came to the myth of Myrmex and Athena. Myrmex was a female inventor who was clever, and favored by the Goddess Athena. Many people have personified Athena as an entirely virginal goddess but in contrast to Artemis, Athena showed romantic attraction through favoring male and female inventors, scholars, and architects. Myrmex was one such mortal. However, after Hephaestus, a god who lusted for Athena, invented the plow, Myrmex claimed that she was the true inventor. This claim was her downfall, as in a fit of pent up rage Hephaestus turned Myrmex into an ant.
I felt like I could use this story to complete my piece. In this work I really wanted to flex my craftsmanship muscle. I started with a sketch of the characters and background, then began coloring. First thing I actually did was the fence, then the grass and mountains. Then I started blocking out the characters, I painted the silhouettes in red to get their general shape. Then I worked on my tree. I love drawing bark, and for the tree leaves I even created my own brush. I then added the grasses on the edge of the wall. From there I worked on the sky and the bushes, adding sparse clouds and a strong sun behind Athena’s head. Next I worked on Athena and Myrmex, adding flat colors and then shading them in as I went. Finally I added the reflection of the sun, the warm and cool shadows, and the reflection of light on the armor.
In the image I used a number of techniques. I used a large shape of the sun behind Athena’s head, not only does this give her a christian-esque halo but also draws a stronger emphasis to her head. I utilized proportion in the lines of 3rds and halves in the piece. There are a lot of leading lines that draw a proportion in the image. The value is also evident in the shadows vs the highlights of the piece. I tried to have a strong highlight and a relative shadow, however to really capture the neoclassical aesthetic I wish that I used darker shadows.
I feel really proud of this piece. It was reinvigorating to know I can still do a complex and detailed piece, and this image is a testament to my skills and interest. I was dealt a good hand, and made something I’m very happy with.