Artist 1 | timepassingby

ARTIST RESEARCH 1 - MARK SANTIAGO

The medium used throughout Santiago’s work is graphite pencil. Due to the medium used, there is no overall colour within his work. Although, because of this Santiago has been able to create tone and depth within the eyes themselves, making the work of art more realistic. The perfect form and shape of the eyes also add to the life like appearance and the technique of blending enhances this further. The rhythm within his work is very harmonious due to the soft tones and blended lines and shapes themselves.

His drawings consist of people’s eyes focusing upon various view points and perspectives. The drawings hold a realistic depiction because of the form within the eyes. Due to the hyperrealism, there is no aspect of his work that is exaggerated or distorted. I feel that the artist most likely relies on photographs to achieve his observation drawings, rather than memory to achieve a more realistic, correctly proportional sketch.

Because of the content, emotion is a key aspect of his work. Eyes can represent a range of feelings even when the face is still. Due to the various perspectives and view points he has captured, it is possible that Santiago has tried to put across various meanings. For example, the girls eyes within the drawings are looking in various directions, possibly viewing something different each time. This could be intended to allow the viewer to analyse and interpret the drawings and subject of the piece themselves.

Personally, I feel as if the use of graphite pencil suits the subject and form of his work due to the ability to create tone and various textures. I believe to achieve the softened edges and merge the various shades of pencil together, that Santiago used some form of blending tool to reduce any harsh lines. I believe that due to the detail and quality of the drawings that they were created over a long period of time rather than rapidly produced.

I have initially started off by researching into Santiago as I understand that time passing by is experienced mainly through vision. I like the idea of starting off looking at eyes and how they don’t rapidly or hugely change over time but how the skin around it and are physical memories and lives do.

FURTHER RESEARCH - EMAILING SANTIAGO

During my research I was unable to find out certain aspects of his work, and therefore felt it would be appropriate to find out various answers to my questions including the individual within the drawings...

Dear Mark,

I am currently in my first year of sixth-from college studying photography and recently came across your work. For my art exam, I am focusing on the theme 'eyes' and was hoping you would be able to answer my questions about one of your drawings -

http://41.media.tumblr.com/f9b0e0fbacdb5745ef76a47ce4be0a29/tumblr_mum34g9TBI1qdxyyio1_500.jpg

I was wondering what inspired you to draw a set of women's eyes all from different view points and why in particular you chose a woman? Also, did you work from a photograph you had previously taken, and if so how long did it take you to complete?

Hope to hear back from you soon,

Yours sincerely, Lily Halliday.

Email recieved in return -

Good day Lily!

For this drawing, I was very much inspired by the eyes of this particular photographer I was following -- Anni Suvi. She would take a lot of self-portraits, and I would always find her eyes mesmerizing. Because I have an obsession with eyes, I really wanted to be able draw them, so I chose 3 of her photos which I would use as reference (with her permission). Also, knowing how eyes can convey so much emotion, I wanted to be able to put together this triptych and express the feeling of longing for a dream that seems like it will never be realized, and searching for something that would prove there is still hope.

Majority of my drawings are of women, and I also prefer to draw women's eyes because it's more common for them to have make-up on and to have longer eyelashes. Because of this, I find it easier to play around the features of the eyes -- with the shading and the shadows which I find helpful either in intensifying the emotion being expressed or in simply accentuating the eyes.

It took me around 17 hours to complete the drawing.

I hope I was able to answer all your questions. I apologize if my reply came late.

Good luck with your art exam! :)

Sincerely,

Mark Santiago

After emailing Santiago, I was able to answer any of the previous questions I had and enhance and correct any mistakes I had made in my previous research.

For example, previously in my research I had referred to the person within the portrait as a ’girl’ or ‘peoples eyes’, where as now I know that the eyes belong to a photographer named Anni Suvi, and that Santiago chose to draw her eyes due to that fact that he was ‘obsessed’ with eyes and found found hers in particular ‘mesmerizing’.

Moreover, I now know that his work took him around 17 hours to complete and that he finds women's eyes a lot easier and pleasing to draw because of their likely hood of wearing makeup and having longer lashes.

I also now know for sure that he took observation drawings from photos, that Anni Suvi took herself.

Although I didn’t necessarily find out why he focused on different view points mainly because he took the secondary photos from a photographer who had previously taken them, I was still able to find out that he chose to draw a triptych of eyes to ‘express the feeling of longing for a dream’.

I would possibly like to take the idea of dreams further later on in my project, and link it in with another idea of memories.

RESPONSE TO SANTIAGOS EMAIL

WORKING IN THE STYLE OF SANTIAGO

I have took the time to research into Anni Suvi due to the fact that Mark Santiago told me that she was his main inspiration for his triptych of eyes. He finds her eyes ‘mesmerizing’ and therefore felt it was relevant to cover some deeper research into the photographer.

Therefore to experiment in the style of Santiago, and therefore also Suvi due to the fact that for this particular piece he has worked from her photos, I have took photos in similar positions and viewpoints.

Moreover, to take on more of Santiago's feedback, I have also made sure that within the self portraits of myself that I am wearing eye makeup like Suvi. Santiago mentioned that the reason he focuses primarily on women within his drawings, is because they are most likely to be wearing eye makeup therefore elongating the lashes and accentuating the eyes, making it ‘easier’ for him to play around with shading and various techniques whilst drawing.

Therefore, to work in the style of Suvi and Santiago, within my photography I will make sure to include eye makeup on the female eyes. I also like the idea of focusing my project around females, as most of my family including the older aged members are female meaning it will be more personal.

ARTIST REFERANCE

To start off working in the style of Santiago, I eperimented taking my own photos of my eyes focusing on different view points and perspectives. With my theme in mind, I would interpret the different view points as lookinh back into the past, or foward into the future. Possibly even day dreaming remembering aspects of our lives.

After I had gathered enough photos, I began to crop them in the style of Santiago. To crop the photographs, I used Microsoft Powerpoint. I was also able to measure the pictures up and aline them to make sure they were the same size. I also ensured to take notice of small aspects of his photography such as the gaps seperating the images themselves., I beleievbe this has been done to amke sure each indiviudal image doesnt merge together, and that they all stand out indiviudally.

To make my experiment more effective, I also added a greyscale effect. I also created this effect using Microsoft Powerpoint. I like the use of this effect and believe it is successful in communicating my ideas as black and white is often related to the theme of old age and the past. For example, the majority of vintage photos are in black and white due to the lack of technology we had.

I believe bring the past into present through the use of colour could be an aspect to explore further later on within my project.

WORKING IN THE STYLE OF SANTIAGO - DEVELOPMENT

To enforce my theme of 'Time Passing By' further, I have also experimented taking photographs of both my mums and grandmothers eyes. Using the same technique as before, I cropped each photograph and positioned them in line with eachother. Using photographs of myself, my mother and grandmother I am further enforcing the use of a trypich. I like the idea of using a trio within my work to bring in the idea of generations from young to old.

As I had mentioned before, I have made sure to include makeup on the eyes within my photography to carry through my research into Anni Suvi. I have also captured images of only women within my family because of Santiagos focus on them.

MOTHER

GRAND-MOTHER

DEVELOPMENT - ENHANCING WRINKLES

To develop the idea of skin changing considerably as we age, I have carried out various experiments using the photo editing app Instagram to emphasis the wrinkles already on the face. The app itself consists of various effects and editing aspects where you can chnage and manipulate a photo.

To begin, I used simple colour changing edits that made certain areas of the face darker making the wrinkles appear deeper. For example, I used the filter 'Vignette' that created a more red skin tone making the skin appear more withered and old. I also used a filter called 'Ludwig' that gave a similar more brown toned darkening effect.

Another edit aspect I experimented with was shadows and highlights. By increasing the shadows and minimising the highlights I was able to create more depth, enhancing the lines and the old age blemishes within the face.

The final aspect I experimneted with was 'Sharpen'. This made the wrinkles themselves seem alot stronger and vivid then they originally were. The combination of all of these effects created a final photograph (referenced to the right) where in my opinion, the wrinkles seem much more obvious and stand out considerably more than the orginal un-edited version.

EXPERIMENT - PHOTOSHOP

To incorporate the theme of time more within my project, I have experimented using Photoshop to edit images of clocks into eyes of my family members. For this particular experiment I have chosen to focus of my Grandmother and younger sister. I have done this because it creates a much larger contrast due to the significatn age difference. Symbolically, the clocks could represent two different things in each of the indiviudals eyes. For my younger sister, mthe clock could represent the future she has ahead of her and the endless amount of time she has to live her life. Where as, for my grandmother it could represent the opposite. In this case, the clocks represent thelittle amount of time she has left and the life she has already lived. Therefore, in my opinion the image of my grandmother is alot more effective emotionally as the aspect of realising you have such little time in this life is alot more harrowing and meaningful.

This has helped me come to the conclusion that I will no longer use photographs of my younger sister within my project as id like to focus on a much deeper meaning than her image portrays.

REFINEMENT - PHOTOSHOOT

As I have now decided not to continue to experiment using my little sisters photos, I thought it would be more appropriate to experiment in the same way but using photographs of myself, my mother and my grandmother instead.

For the process of making the edits themselves, I had to create two layers of the image of my family member and the image of the clock. I had to carry the imge of the clock over onto the portriat and position it in the correct area on the image - in this case on the eye. To do this accuratley, I had to reduce the oppacity level. Afterwards, I was able to experiment further with the transparency and the colouring of the clock to make it stand out.

For each experiment I chose a different image of a clock to make them more individual. As well as this, I tried to link the style of the clock in with the age of the individual in the photograph. For example, in my previous experiments of my younger sister, I chose a more simple clock. Where as, for my grandmother, I chose a much older vintage clock that would link in with the idea of old age.

Due to the quality of the photos themselves, I feel as if the least successful edit from my refinement is the image of my mothers eyes. This is due to the dim lighting within the picture. If i were to develop these edits even further, I would take better quality photos as I beleieve it would over all give off a better more effective appearance.

Where as, i feel as if the experiments of my eyes and my grandmothers have been very effective. i feel as if the photos re good enough quality for the clock image to not look out of place. As well as this, i feel as if the colour combintation within these experiments have been successful as they are very clear and vivid.

I have also changed the colour of the images to grey scale to continure to experiment in the style of Santiago. In contrast to the orginal coloured images, i feel as if within black and white that the image of my grandmothers eyes hasnt been as succesful as the others. Although, this isnt due to the quality of the photo but the lack of contrast between the shades and tones within the photo itself. Where as, the other two edits contain alot more varition of shades mainly due to the use of makeup which I prefer. This enforces the explianation that Santiago gave regarding the use of womens eyes due to the use of makeup. Now I understand that it doesnt just make the eyes more appealing but also adds more contrast and diversity.

TIME PASSING BY