At Creative Technology, there's a course named Professional Development. Every module, students pick a challenge to take on, to improve their functioning as a young professional.
This module, I decided to improve my painting and drawing skills, by taking the course Painting & Drawing at the Vrijhof cultural centre of the UT. The course took 8 sessions, with each session taking up three hours.
I started out with sketching a painting I referenced from one of the present art books. A painting by Manet, “In His Studio Boat”. I ended up picking up his style, Impressionism, which is based on quick “snapshots” of reality. They maintain a realistic look but leave some interpretation to the individual, especially on small details in the background.
Secondly, I let myself be inspired by a music album, namely “I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love” from American punk-rock band “My Chemical Romance”. I have always found this album really interesting, and I always pictured a grey car in the desert anytime I would listen to the song “Demolition Lovers” on the album. I chose a colour palette similar to the one on the album cover and painted the image I saw in my head whenever I would listen to the lyrics of this song. I think it reflects what I saw quite accurately!Lastly, I decided to paint abstractly, and wanted to finish a painting in the last session. I used a technique my mom uses a lot, as she's a painter by profession, called “intuitive painting”. I started out with broad strokes across the canvas, until I eventually saw some sort of river appear in the brush strokes. I accentuated the colours with blue and red, making a blend of purple. Afterwards, I stared at my abstract river and tried to paint everything I could see in my paint strokes. I saw things ranging from ladders, a phoenix, a door, a book and many more. It was quite challenging to paint without any reference or anchor point, but it taught me to improvise and work under time constraints.
I personally feel like this course taught me a lot about painting, different skills concerning them, the materials used, references and improvising. I will be sure to incorporate my knowledge from this course in future prototypes I make for Creative Technology projects.
Below, images of my paintings can be seen on the left, with the reference being on the right (except for the final painting, which has no reference).