Studying Rauschenburg's Work

I began studying Rauschenburg's work by creating sketches from sections of his work that i found intriguing. The first piece that I studied was Signs(1970), a piece created following the 60's and was his summation of how the era changed us as people through some of the most influential and impactful events.

I found that a soft pencil allowed me to gain a wide range of tones and was most effectively used within my sketch of Buzz Aldrin's section of the piece as it appears to show more depth that that of JFK's facial features.

With a harder pencil I found that using minimal tone give a surprisingly impactful effect as it gives the piece depth and from a distance looks like the tones you would see within a softer pencil sketch. However I quite like the Janis Joplin sketch as for the time limit that it was created within the piece was recognisable, most likely due to me using an easily recognisable section to work with.
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I then moved on to study another of Rauschenburg's pieces, this time Skyway. I found this piece to be quite difficult to work with as many of the details are somewhat obscured or very small to work with.

I found that the sketch on the right was my most effective of these two as it looks more like its source material and shows a deeper understanding of form and tone. However I found that it could've looked better if  I had have used a larger scale as it would've helped with being able to attain a more accurate form when compared to the source material.

I found that biro worked well for this sketch as it gave more depth to the form of the sketch and I was able to gain some range of tone which I felt added to this effect.

After creating these sketches I decided to create my own composition based on the work of  Raushenburg, and I decided to base this piece around the year of 2016 as it was filled with major events and celebrities deaths. I attempted to create a piece reflective of the work I had studied but also put my own personal style within it.  

Following creating this I decided to work over copies of this to layer up my media beginning with things like paint and spray paint to experiment with different styles of adding the material.I also experimented with using pallet knives and brushes and at some points using my fingers as my brush.

 I found that using a paint brush didn't give a very expressive effect within the piece so as a result I decided to find a different method for adding paint to my pieces, beginning with a pallet knife. When they were both used on the same piece you can see how much more expressive it allows my piece to become, giving a more dynamic effect.

 As well as the acrylic studies I also decided to try using spray paint beginning with allowing it to bleed down the page to see how that alters the compositions effect. which I found was a different effect to what i had been getting but it could use being layered over by some other material or mark making.

I found that with this piece I quite liked the effect gained over Alan Rickman and Prince but over the rest of the piece the colour was a bit overbearing so as a result I overlayed it with some light coloured acrylic, which I found allowed the red to seem more subtle in places but if  I were to do another piece like that I would be more conservative with the spray paint.

 I also experimented with different ways to add my paint with a pallet knife and also whether it was more effective over the colour copy or rather onto black and white.

 After doing this I decided to experiment with dry media like graphite and chalk pastels. to see how the effect of dry media compared with that of paint and decide which I found more effective.

 After these experiments i found that chalk pastel was more effective than graphite but its effects are amplified if the copy is in monochrome tones. I particularly like the combination of blue and purple as it draws out the forms and I feel purple is a very under loved colour, when really its a deep colour that brings out the effects of blues or reds in some cases.

After these studies i decided to experiment with mixed media to see how this altered the effect through the use of adding an extra layer. through my experience I found that if  I was conservative with my use of each that the effect was stronger and it didn't overpower the original composition with too much bold colour.

I found that this technique could work as a background for part of a collage as it would bring a strong element of colour to the work, through the use of complimentary colours and high amounts of tonal contrast.

After completing these i mounted a series of blank copies both colour and monochrome and invited people to come and doodle over them to see how other people were effected by my pieces and to find out their opinions over these events, whilst also learning how i can make them more impactful and effective.

I find that this smear of purple looks like a bat with its wings folded in and the long central streak being its body.
Overall I found that this exercise worked well to an extent as it allowed for people to express their opinions, but however in elements people just used it as an excuse to write certain things that could be seen as offensive or opinions that show that they haven't thought about the meaning behind the piece thoroughly. This is useful to me as it shows how an audience will react to certain things and it shows where my compositional skills would benefit from being improved upon.