Artist 5 | timepassingby

Jonathan Yeo

The medium used to create the portraits are oil paints. Due to this, the tools used are paintbrushes. As well as this, it appears both from viewing his art and my own research that he uses a spatula to create the layered messy background. I was unable to find any sketchbook experiments, but was able to find various videos of him painting. These videos showed him taking direct observation drawings from the individual he was painting (I have referenced multiple pictures of this below).

Yeo doesn’t work with just one colour. For example, not one of his backgrounds to his paintings is the same colour, pattern or texture. Although the majority of his paintings contain multiple muted neutral colours. This is partially due to the subject of the portrait and therefore he includes skin tones. In very few of his paintings he creates the face using grey and white tones. Each of his paintings range from different sizes and include a different style to the last. For example, some of his portraits hold much more of a realistic depiction than others. Although, I am unsure as to whether this is on purpose to add more contrast and diversity to his work. Because each painting has a different style, they each hold different techniques. Some of the faces within the art incorporate harsh lines and heavy layers where as other include very blended seamless brush marks that makes it more realistic. This means that each painting also possesses a different surface either being smooth or raised. Personally, the style that I prefer and would like to work in myself is the more realistic style that will link in more with my previous artists who also incorporate hyper-realism within their work such as Mark Santiago and Carla Bromhead. Another similarities with Bromhead is the use of the ‘un-finished’ appearance

The subject of his work ranges from celebrities to strangers and self-portraits therefore I am unsure as to whom the paintings are made for. Because there are so many different portraits incorporating different colours and styles, there is no overall mood I recieve from his work. Although, for one piece of work referenced below, I feel as if the mood is loneliness because it appears so incomplete. The lines as well as the back ground and such detail in the face suggest such as contrast that something is missing. This mood or meaning could possibly be more effective due to the fact that the individual in the painting seems to be a younger women and therefore the idea of the portrait being unfinished could represent her un-finished yet complete life.

To work in the style of Yeo using collage, I initally had to decide what photographs I would be using to create the face itself. Therefore, to bring forward the theme of generations within my family and the past I have collected multiple old photos of myself, my mum and nanny from when we were all younger. Using these photos from the past, I will experiment creating a collage of my nanny using a photo from the present.

I also had to decide whether to create the collage in black and white. As the majority of the old photos that would make up the collage are in black and white I originally assumed that i would have to make the collage black and white also. But to bring the old photos more into the present, making them colour would emphasise this and also be more accurate and effective working in the style of Yeo.

Therefore, to make the old photographs colour, i used photoshop to isolated highlights, lowlights and shadows within a contemporary photograph of my nanny. I then used these colours as a pallet to recolour images from her life using layers.

Afterwards, I printed the photos and selected various secetions from the cooressponding coloured photographs and cut various shapes out to stick down in the shape of the face. I continued this process making sure to use lighter and darker shades where appropriate to create contast and dimension.

I had also carried out an experiment on photoshop where i drew lines along the section underneath the eye to give a guide line of the different tonal areas within that section of the picture to help me when it comes to creating the collage.

PHOTOSHOP PREP WORK

The other style that Yeo works in is collage. To create these collages he cuts up nude pornographic images to ironically create the faces of politicians and important members of society. I believe the collages themselves are very effective and from a distance look like paintings. During my visit to the Laing Gallery in Newcastle, I came across his work and studied the collage closely. From far away, I did assume that the piece of work was a painting but as I got closer, I realised it was made up of multiple images. I love this particular style of work as I believe the idea of making an image up of multiple other images is very visually effective. He has carefully selected different tones of skin to match the shadows and creases within the face. As well as this, he has cut the images out in very simple shapes that will have made it easier to stick down and position. This style of work is very different to his ‘unfished’ style paintings as it includes the full face as well as the hair.

OUTCOME

The fina outcome of the collage was not what i expected. Due to the lack of time I was unable to finish the experiment. As well as this, it did not go to plan and did not turn out as i had imaged. Unfortunatley, you were unable to tell that the photos I was cutting up were old memories of the past and instead looked like cut outs from a magazine which was not the effect I was hoping for. As well as this, the tones within the photographs were till too varied and therefore to select the right colour for the right area of the face correcty I had to cut the photos out in very small shapes which gave too much contrast and took too long. Overall, this experiment has been unsuccessul and I will not be carrying through my project.