Fall from Grace
December 2019
Fall from grace is a watercolor painting inspired by Michelangelo's "Fall of Man" and "Creation of Adam". It portrays the hypocrisy of modern and historical religious groups by illustrating a snake wrapped around Eve's hand biting the hand of God.
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Inspiration
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Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" and "Fall of Man" are fresco paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Both of these works tell a biblical story. The "Creation of Adam" depicts God reaching for his new creation Adam who would father all of man kind. "Fall of Man" is the story of Eve taking the forbidden fruit from the devil who has the body of a snake, because in the biblical story the devil had "taken the form of a serpent" to trick Eve. These two works from the center of the ceiling inspired both the meaning and subject of my watercolor. The idea of my work was to twist this idea of god and man reaching out for each other to a more modern metaphor for religious hypocrisy. The hands are such a iconic work of art that it is easily recognizable as god and man which is why i wanted to keep the same hand configuration.
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Planning
My focus in my planning sketches was learning how to sketch a hand properly. I have always avoided hands so I didn't have much experience with drawing them. I sketched several hands at different angles paying close attention to the movement. I wanted the hands in my final piece to have a sense of movement like the ones in "The Creation of Adam". I also needed to experiment with the spacing of the piece. Originally I was only going to do one hand with the snake wrapped around it, but this both lacked the meaning and interest I wanted. Then I was going to do three hands but I didn't like how they looked either which led me back to a closer representation of "The Creation of Adam".
Process/Experimentation
I began by taking my reference photos and taping my paper to a large smooth drawing board using painters tape. Once my 110 lb watercolor paper was secure I used a mechanical pencil to lightly sketch two hands and the snake. I then went in and lightly erased the lines so I could see them, but they wouldn't be visible in the final piece.
After sketching I mixed my skin tone. The skin color consisted of yellow, red, brown and white with a very small amount of blue to balance the color. I put a light wash of the skin tone over both the hands. I later realized this wash prevented my from pulling truly bright highlights out of the piece without gouache. After the first wash I gradually layered on the shadows. For the darkest parts I went in with brown. Certain parts of the hand in the reference photo had red undertones so I added a light wash of red over those areas. The nails were painted with pure red to match the droplets of blood. For the light areas of the snake I mixed green, yellow, and brown. I applied this color in a snake skin like pattern. I surrounded these lighter areas with a mixture of black and brown leaving a sliver of white in between the two colors. For the background I went in with a light wash of blue and attempted to create the look of clouds by using a darker blue to create contrast. I also attempted to make clouds by lifting color from certain areas with paper towel but it didn't work how I intended. |
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The photos to the left show the experimentation process of getting a good reference photo. Since I used my live snake I had to allow the snake to wrap herself around my hand which ever way she wanted. This helped the realism aspect of my final piece seeing how a live snake moved and how the muscles changed when she did.
I also needed a good reference photo for the hands because my planning drawings were some of my first drawings of hands. Having a good visual was especially important due to my lack of practice in drawing hands. Finally I did a lot of experimentation with watercolor skin tones. I learned watercolor can be difficult in this area because it dries several shades lighter then it applies. Due to this every time I changed the shade of the skin I had to wait a little while for it to dry to see the true color I mixed. |
CRITIQUE
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Contrast
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Meaning
This piece is a critique on religious groups and how they interpret religion. Through out history and on to today groups of people have utilized religion to oppress and degrade. Though religion generally isn't inherently bad people will twist words and passages to justify horrendous acts. Christians invade and oppress massive groups of people to "spread gods message". Christianity is also used to justify racism the persecution of homosexuality. Radical religious affiliates use religion to justify terrorism. This pattern of religious destruction is never ending. The snake in the piece, similarly in Michelangelo "Fall of Man", alludes to the biblical story of the garden of Adam and Eve. In this story the devil comes to tempt Eve in the form of a snake to get her to fall into sin. In my painting God reaches for Eve (representational of humanity) and the snake has already wrapped itself around her arm and bites god. This is a metaphor for people who use religion as justification for immoral behavior reaching for a salvation that they will never attain.
Reflection
I was incredibly proud of my final piece. It was the first large scale watercolor I'd done and also my first attempt at human figure in watercolor. The balance of the work could be improved with a more dynamic background with clouds or birds. I also could improve the overall feel of the piece by creating some more contrast with some darker shadows. If I were to do this piece again I would take more time to layer the watercolors to create better contrasts. I would also use gouache to bring back highlights to certain areas. I do feel that the meaning is conveyed and the craftsmanship is acceptable though it could be improved with more time and practice.
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" and "Fall of Man" both directly influenced the content and meaning of my watercolor. They inspired the heavy religious connotations in the work and the critique on societal values.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
There are hundreds of religions all around the world and in different cultures yet the majority of the major religions preach very similar base messages and morals. Yet the majority of religious groups also contain a sect of people that go against all religious values "in the name of god" and are incredibly immoral and hypocritical.
That is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Religious narrative was the central theme around my inspirational research. I wanted to find a work of art based in religion that could aid me in critiquing the many downfalls of religious hypocrisy.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Michelangelo's "Creation of Adam" and "Fall of Man" both directly influenced the content and meaning of my watercolor. They inspired the heavy religious connotations in the work and the critique on societal values.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
There are hundreds of religions all around the world and in different cultures yet the majority of the major religions preach very similar base messages and morals. Yet the majority of religious groups also contain a sect of people that go against all religious values "in the name of god" and are incredibly immoral and hypocritical.
That is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Religious narrative was the central theme around my inspirational research. I wanted to find a work of art based in religion that could aid me in critiquing the many downfalls of religious hypocrisy.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?