Temporary photo^
"Twisty" Oil Paint on Gesso Board October 2022 |
Exhibition Text This portrait was created using oil paint on gesso board. My intentions for this painting were to practice using oil paint as a medium and create a painting in my favorite genre, horror. I was inspired by special affects artist David Anderson and his Twist the Clown makeup look that he created for the television show American Horror Story. I wanted to grow upon the creepy and disturbing appearance that is depicted in his special affects makeup and contribute that same theme into my painting.
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Critical Investigation
"Twisty the Clown", David Anderson
Inspiration
David Anderson is an American makeup artist who specializes in special effects makeup. Anderson often works with prosthetics and his art is more on the creepy or disturbing side rather than on the side of beauty or simplicity. He typically used silicone, latex, and face makeup for his special effects however he uses a multitude of different types of mediums to achieve specific looks for each of his prosthetics. One of Anderson's most notable special affects works, other than Twisty the Clown, would be his work in the 1997 film Men in Black where he did the makeup for the character Edgar the Bug. Another notable work that was done by David Anderson was when he created the AYT Alien in the movie Start Trek: Into Darkness which was made in 2013. I took a lot of inspiration from Twisty the Clown because American Horror Story is one of my favorite shows and I really loved the concept of the appearance of Twisty and the way that Anderson designed his character. I wanted to be able to achieve the same creepy appearance that Twisty had and capture and recreate the menacing emotions that the clown holds in the American Horror Story. I was inspired to expand my realism technique because I love the realism style but I struggle with proportions and color matching so I wanted to be able to practice realism on a fictional character rather than my own face in the past so my skills can become varied. I was really drawn to this painting because of my other drawings in my "horror series" and I wanted to be able to expand upon this series and indulge in my favorite genre of art. I was also drawn to the story line behind the Twisty and I wanted to be able to expand upon that story line through my own art.
Planning
To begin these planning sketches, I started off with coming up with a theme that I wanted to go with. I already did lots of self portraits and I wanted to distance myself from that hut also stay in the portraiture genre so I decided that I wanted to paint someone from a horror movie or television show. I also recently bought oil paint and oil painting supplies for the first time so I decided that I wanted the painting to be done in oil rather than in acrylic. Some ideas that I started with for my character was Twisty the Clown from American Horror Story, Captain Spaulding from 1000 Corpses, Carrie White from the movie Carrie, and The Pale Man from Pan's Labyrinth. After some consideration, i decided that I wanted to paint Twisty the Clown from American horror story because it's one of my favorite shows and I felt like it would challenge my skills the most. I did some research about the special effects artist that created Twisty the Clown and then I began to draw a replica of how i wanted my painting to look, including both the exact number of grid lines as well as a rough sketch of Twisty. On a separate page I also did some really rough sketches of which direction I wanted twisty to face however I decided to go with my original idea because I wanted it to go along with the rest of my horror series illustrations. Finally, I decided that I wanted to take pictures of each facial feature and zoom in on them so that I could get a closer look at the detail they each had. This process was actually extremely useful for me in the long run because I was able to spot little details in each feature that were hard to see on the original photo. I was also able to sketch out each feature accurately in the planning of my final painting because I was able to see those less obvious details that were "hidden" in the original photo.
Process
To begin, I started off by drawing a one inch by one inch grid on my gesso board. After I added the grid, I decided that I wanted to add a very thin layer of paint over the board because I wanted to make sure that no white from the board would peak through onto the painting. I decided to use a burned orange color oil paint for the background and then I diluted the paint with Gamsol so that the paint would dry faster and so that I would be able to see my grid lines through the paint. After I painted the base coat and waited for that to dry, I sketched out the outline of Twisty so that I would be able to paint the base layer of his skin.
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Next, I started painting the base layer of the clown's forehead and face with a grey scale color scheme so that I could identify the highlights and shadows in his face. I also decided that i wanted to do a base coat for the hair so I used red, yellow, and green oil paint to add streaks along the top of his head to achieve that classic clown hair appearance. After I had done the base layer, I waited around a week for that to dry and then I began working on the face and eyes of Twisty. I started working on the eyes first because I struggle with proportion so I added the base colors for the shadows and the eyeballs and then I started to add shading around the eye ball and to the blood on the forehead.
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After I finished with the left eye, I started to work on the right eye using the same steps and techniques. I added shading to the inner and outer corners of the eyes and then I added the lines of paint to the top and bottoms of the eyes to imitate clown makeup. After I was finished with the eyes, I moved onto the nose by paint it with a base coat of light grey and then adding in some red and black shading. I added some finishing touches to the top part of the face by using some red on the skin so that it gave the illusion that his skin was peaking through the white paint and then I added some red paint to the forehead so that it gave the appearance that blood was dripping down his face. After I was finished with the face, I added some black paint to the lips of the mask that was featured in David Anderson's special effects design for Twisty.
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After I painted the base layer of the lips, I began working on the teeth. I started by painting them with a layer of white paint with red in between each tooth to mimic the gums. After that did that, I mixed a little yellow with the white and then I dabbed some of that color onto each tooth so that they looked unkempt and rotten. After that, I used black paint to mimic the appearance of a rotten tooth and I also applied black plaint to the gums for depth. After I was finished with the teeth, I added a layer of light grey paint to the edges of the lips so that I could outline where the mask would be placed.
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Next, I added shading to the white part of the mask to outline any shadows, highlights, and dirt on the exterior of the mask. I then moved on to the ears and I painted them with a pale peach color and then added some shading to them so that they had more dimension. Finally, I worked on the top part of his shirt. I painted the entire thing with a base coat color of light grey and then I added some shading and shadows to each fold of the fabric . After I was finished with Twisty, I took some diluted black paint and I painted the entire background with the black paint so that Twisty could stand out against the plain background.
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Experimentation
This portrait painting was the first time that I have every used oil paint so this entire process was like one big experiment for me. I started off by watching some Youtube videos of people oil painting so I could see their process of how they use oil paints and I also watched some tutorials on how you properly use oil paints. After I watched a few videos, I practiced of a small piece of gesso board, working on blending, stippling, and color matching so that when I started my actually painting I wouldn't struggle with these techniques. i also experimented with using different mediums to thin out my paints like Gamsol and a paint thinning medium. I found that the paint thinning medium worked best for me because it was less greasy and was easier to work with. When I started my painting, I had to experiment a lot with drying times so it was a bit difficult to keep up with specific drying times throughout the process. The orange base coat that I did, for example, only took around 4 days to dry completely because it was a thinner layer of paint. The base coat on the other hand took around one week to dry completely because the paint layer was more thick and less diluted. Additionally, I had to experiment with adding layers to the paint. The time span that I had for this project was minimal so I had to learn how to layer the paint while it was still wet because I didn't have weeks to wait for each layer to dry. This was difficult because when you paint on top of one layer of paint that is wet with a fresh new layer, the paint below tends to pick up, exposing the base layer or the canvas. To prevent this, I waited around a day between each coat so that the oils could evaporate a little bit and then after I was finished with a color I would immediately run my brush over a piece of paper towel to prevent an excess amount of paint on the brush which could lead to a lift in the previous layers.
Critique
To begin, the first, very obvious, similarity between the two works is that the are based off of the same character. Twisty the Clown, who was featured as an original character multiple times in the television show American Horror Story, is the main character that I was focused on and was one of the most notable characters that Anderson designed. Another similarity would be the style of both creations. Anderson's Twisty the Clown is evidently realistic because the prosthetics were place on a real person so they art is in turn, realistic. My oil painting was also done in a realist style so that it resembled Anderson's Special Effects makeup. A difference between the pieces is that for one, Anderson's art was created in real life and his prosthetics were applied onto a real person. On the other hand, my painting was done in oil on a gesso board canvas and although it has dimension, my painting was 2 dimensional while Anderson's art was 3 dimensional. Another difference would be that the actual makeup was done on the actor's entire body and involved not only the mask and makeup, but also an entire outfit. In the painting however, the only part of Twisty the Clown's body that is on display in the frame is Twisty's shoulders, neck, head, and face.
Reflection
My inspiration for this project was special affects artist, David Anderson. I appreciated the way that this artist was able to depict a real person as a terrifying, non-human, character and I wanted that depiction to resonate with this painting.. I also wanted to be able to expand upon my realism style and develop my technique for portrait work and oil paints. I loved the way that Anderson was able to use their own medium, which is not as common as painting or drawing, and created their own character to mot only be incredibly realistic, but also terrifying. I also really loved how Anderson was able to put artist focus towards a medium that isn't as popular as i can and should be, SFX. Although I love my final product, I wish that I was able to contribute more time tp this painting because oil paint is a very time consuming material that I would have loved to keep experimenting with during the process of making the painting but I wasn't able to do that because of time restraints. My biggest challenge for this piece was trying to get the hang of using oil paint as a medium because prior to this project, i have never used oil paint for any project whether it was personal or for school. I also struggled with making sure that all of the proportions were correct on his face. In previous paintings, the proportions on my face were completely off however, I think that for this project, because I was able to gain more practice from previous projects, I was able to successfully proportion Twisty's face. In the end I like the way that this painting turned out even though there are a few things that I would like to change but I thing that this portrait was a big learning opportunity for me because I was using a medium that I have never used before and I think this painting really turned out extremely realistic and I have grown tremendously from other projects.
ACT Questions
1) Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
David Alexander's realist, horror style inspired me to create an oil painting in that same style so that I would be able to advance my realism skills and focus on a genre that is very inspirational for my art, horror.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
David Alexander seems very interested an involved in the horror genre because some of his most notable works are featured in horror movies and shows and a large percentage of his art is horror based.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Some generalizations that I made about the artist in particular is that he enjoyed making art surrounding the genre of horror and I concluded that he is most well know for his horror art.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea behind my research was horror and identity because I think that my love for horror make up part of my own identity.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While reading, I made the inference that Anderson is a very popular makeup artist/ special effects artist in Hollywood and he has been a part of many different influential pieces of media.
David Alexander's realist, horror style inspired me to create an oil painting in that same style so that I would be able to advance my realism skills and focus on a genre that is very inspirational for my art, horror.
2) What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
David Alexander seems very interested an involved in the horror genre because some of his most notable works are featured in horror movies and shows and a large percentage of his art is horror based.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Some generalizations that I made about the artist in particular is that he enjoyed making art surrounding the genre of horror and I concluded that he is most well know for his horror art.
4) What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea behind my research was horror and identity because I think that my love for horror make up part of my own identity.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While reading, I made the inference that Anderson is a very popular makeup artist/ special effects artist in Hollywood and he has been a part of many different influential pieces of media.