How Studying this Artist’s Work has Influenced My Work

1. Write down again, the name of the artist and the title of the picture if you know them. If not, briefly describe your critical study work of art using no more than 2 or 3 sentences. Here is an example:

For my critical study picture, I am studying a painting by Goyer called ‘Saturn devouring one of his sons’. This shows a monstrous man killing a much smaller man by biting off his head, making lots of blood appear in that area.

2. Talk about your favourite piece of prep work in your flip file so far. Describe it and compare this to your critical study picture.

Say how it is similar. Say how it is different.

For example:In my favourite piece of preparatory work, I have also drawn a giant biting off the head of a small man, but this man has wings like a bird. My giant is facing in the opposite direction and has long horns coming from his bald head, like some sort of African animal. I have also added rocks and boulders into my design, and made the painting mainly red. The difference in size of my two men is about the same as the men in Goya’s painting.

Think about things like: The main colours used? Has colour been used in a particular way? Has texture been used in a particular way? Have lines been used in a particular way? What the two pictures are about?

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Due to copy-write, please add your own copy of ‘Saturn Devouring one of his Sons’ by Goya into this space.

Copies can be obtained easily at most internet poster sites.

What feelings/ mood you get from the pictures? What they were painted/ drawn using? The tones used. – Are the pictures mainly dark or mainly light, or are

they a mixture of tones. Do they have dark or light Areas? What have you made the focal point in your design and why do you

want people’s eyes to be drawn to this area?

3. Tell me how you feel you have improved upon the ideas used by your chosen artist.

I particularly like the horns that I have added to my giant because they make him look more like a demon. I also think that because my painting is mainly red (rather than the yellowy brown in Goya’s picture) this makes it look as if they are in hell, with lots of fire surrounding them. I think that this works much better than Goya’s dark, black background.

4. Do the same (stages 2 and 3 of this worksheet) with your second and third favourite prep work ideas. In this case, you could compare them to your critical study picture, or you could compare them to your favourite design in your flip file.

For example:In my second favourite piece of preparatory work, I have drawn a much bigger, bald giant. This time, I have given him curly horns like a goat. He is not holding the man this time. He is instead holding his hand out as if he is about to pick the smaller man up. I have also used the contrasting, main colour of blue and added a curved pattern into my background that could be giant wings.I think that the idea of giving my giant curly horns is better because the Devil is usually shown to be half man and half goat. I also like the

fact that the giant could be doing one of two things as he holds his hand out towards the other, smaller man. He could be grabbing out towards him in order to hurt him, or he could be offering to carry him and save him. This makes people think about two different possibilities.

5. List between 5 and 7 things that you would like to continue to use in the future, when producing your final design.

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For example:

From the ideas that I have discussed in this piece of writing, I have decided that I would like to continue to use the following: I would like to use the ‘flying man being killed by the giant’ composition, but I want him to have the curly, goat’s horns rather than straight ones. I also want to make my picture mainly blue, so instead of rocks surrounding the two figures, I will turn these into enormous pieces of ice and snow.

One thing that I have not included in my preparatory work, but would like to now, is to give my giant red, glowing eyes that will act as a focal point in my picture.

6. Say which of these ideas are present in your critical study work of art.

For example:

I have therefore kept the following ideas from the painting by Goya that I have studied. I will paint a giant, biting the head off a small, defenceless man. This giant will look mad/ crazy and will seem to be very muscled and strong, shown by his bare, upper chest. The whole scene will look as if it has come from a nightmare.

7. Use some describing word to explain to me how you would like people to feel when they look at your final design.

For example:

When people look at my final design, I would like them to feel the following: Disturbed because……., afraid because….., cold because……., small because…….., confused because…..…., sad because……… and dreamy because……………………………….

Here are some describing words that could help you:

Alone, musical, hot, worried, happy, modern, ancient, strange, dizzy, busy, dramatic, dead, alive, emotional, whimsical, inspired, mystical, intelligent, beautiful, ugly, sorry, envious, monstrous, magical, small, tall, colourful, colourless, sociable, natural, supernatural, powerful, powerless, wet, resentful, knowledgeable, confident, intrigued, expensive, cheap, worthless, positive, negative, loved, hated, intricate, delicate, clumsy, bold, statue-like, energetic, weightless, heavy, perfect, snug, wild, alien, sporty, successful, humorous, rebellious, controlled, cool, bashful, futuristic, complicated, simple, irresistible, relaxed, festive, charmed, hassled, claustrophobic, free,

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streamlined, deep, patriotic, fearful, fearless, childlike, cruel, unusual, perfect, religious, pagan, atheistic, hallucinating, hungry, sick, spoilt, untouched, agitated, aggressive, stressed, successful & imaginative.

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