Inspiration
Odilon Redon
For my choice piece, it took a long time for me to find inspiration because I had so much freedom to create whatever I wanted. Eventually, I started to look into the work of Symbolism artist Odilon Redon and I realized that I wanted this piece to be relatively simple visually while still including a deeper meaning. Reserved and experiencing periodic bouts of depression, Redon was primarily known for using strange, nightmarish visuals to represent his internal thoughts and feelings. A large portion of his earlier works were created using strictly charcoal, such as The Crying Spider and Caliban, whilst some of his later pieces, like The Cyclops, were done in oil pastel. His charcoal pieces are all similar in technique, including large amounts of hatching and cross hatching, areas rich in darkness and smooth, yet defined edges. His works in oil pastel are full of light, muted colors with many layers and incredibly smooth blending. The creatures depicted in his artwork were referred to by Redon as his “monsters,” and this inspired me to use a similar style to create a piece straight out of a nightmare, much like how he portrayed the most off-putting images from his mind. |
Planning
Before coming up with my concept, I decided to do some simple studies and sketches based on the Redon pieces that inspired me most. Using graphite pencil for each, I recreated my own version of The Crying Spider using a different, more feminine face. I sketched out a creature similar to that of The Cyclops, but depicted it from an angle different from the original and with a more semi-realistic looking eyeball. I also did a small study of Caliban in order to practice the smooth hatching and cross hatching shown in Redon’s work, as well as to practice shading. |
Next, I started working on the visuals I was personally considering using. I experimented with drawing different organs from the body: The brain and the eye. I also thought it would be interesting to incorporate insects into my piece, which was muchly inspired by The Crying Spider. I practiced drawing spiders crawling out from behind a human brain. I also became quite fixated on drawing maggots because those bugs in particular make me feel squeamish, and I thought it would be interesting to bring that sense of discomfort and fear into my artwork. I began linking my ideas together and decided on my final concept: I wanted to use charcoal to draw an eyeball with a maggot crawling from inside of it to symbolize stress and the overwhelmingness of uncertainty in life, which is a struggle I find myself trying to overcome very often. This sort of body-horror felt very nightmarish to me personally, and I wanted to find a way to visually represent my internal fears in the eerie manner that Redon did. |
Finally, I went on to create my final sketch, mapping out the shape of the eye that I planned on drawing, as well as the placement of the maggot. I used graphite to practice shading the areas that I would eventually shade with charcoal for the actual piece. I also used colored pencils to fill in a somewhat dark red background to surround the eye, and made sure to emphasize any details I knew that I would need to refer back to later. Lastly, I added notes to the sketch, pointing out all the areas I was happy with, those that needed improvement, as well as new things I was considering adding to the final product. At this point, I was content with my sketch and ready to start working on my final choice piece.
Process
The first step for creating the piece was to lay out all of the basic shapes using a regular graphite pencil. I created a rough outline of the eyeball, including lids and some folds of skin before sketching the body of the maggot. I wanted the maggot to almost be staring at the center of the piece from inside of the eye, replacing the iris and pupil.
After finishing my outline, I went in with the charcoal. Since charcoal smears easily on paper, I started out by filling in the middle area, right where the “face” of the maggot was. I kept the face light at first, but gradually built up shadows using charcoal pencils and left small white spaces where I wanted the highlights to be. After this, I went on to do the same thing with the head, and finally the rest of the body, making sure to indicate any folds in the skin as well. For any shading that I felt appeared too sharp, I blended out the pencil markings using one of my blending stumps.
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Next, I started to add more dimension to the eyeball. Around the edges, I used a stick of charcoal to darken them up and imply a more spherical shape. I used the stick for almost all of my darkest, largest areas because it was such a deep, rich black. I blended out the charcoal by feathering it with a plain tissue, and was able to create a nice gradient from the dark edges and corners of the eye to the brighter, white parts. Generally, though, I tried to make the eye look heavier by adding extra shadows under the lids. For the actual eyelid, I tried to make it appear more “fleshy” and realistic by keeping the shading somewhat light, except for in the corners, which I made especially dark. After that, I began to add some shading and texture to the skin surrounding the eye, using the charcoal sticks again to create a heavy crease on top of the eyeball, as well as a slightly thinner crease shaped around the bottom of it. I continued smoothly blending this charcoal with the tissues.
By now, they eye was almost complete. All I needed to do was continue to add more shading outside of the eyeball, this time in certain corners of the creases. I also added eyelashes by drawing thin, curved lines around the lid using my charcoal pencil. After this, I had added everything that I wanted to my eye, and fine tuned my shadows and highlights by going back in with my charcoal pencil and an eraser. Once I was happy with the charcoal drawing, I sprayed it with a fixative, which would keep the charcoal from smudging while I worked on the background.
The background itself was just a simple mix of red and black colored pencil that blended in with the skin around the eye. I used the colored background to create a more ominous mood to the piece, as well as to bring the maggot and the eyeball to the center and emphasize its darker values more. The colored pencil on my mixed media paper also created a sort of scratchy texture to the background that I enjoyed. Once I was finished with that, I once again used my charcoal pencil to add in any final details before spraying the fixative once again. This would hold the charcoal in place to prevent any smearing in the final product. Once the fixative had set in, my choice piece was all done!
Critique
Some similarities between Intrusive Eye and the works of Odilon Redon would be…
- Medium. Intrusive Eye is made of mostly charcoal, the same medium used by Redon in many of his pieces, including The Crying Spider and Caliban, which especially inspired me.
- Technique. Redon’s charcoal pieces use hatching and cross hatching for building up small details and shadows, which I did my best to replicate in my piece as well. I also wanted to blend the red and black colors in the background in a way similar to how the pastel colors are all blended together in pieces like The Cyclops.
- Nightmarish imagery. One of the biggest similarities between our work would be the clearly disturbing, nonsensical objects and characters depicted in our pieces. For Redon, these came in the form of creatures like a spider with a human head, a sinister looking troll, or even a cyclops. In my case, I decided to go for body horror, which is a common theme in some nightmares, by showcasing a maggot inside of an eyeball.
- Purpose. Redon’s work, as well as my own, were made with the intention of using nightmarish or disturbing imagery to symbolize internal psychological struggles.
Some differences would be…
- Stylistic choices. While Redon’s pieces tend to appear slightly more illustrative than realistic, the style I chose for for Intrusive Eye includes slightly finer details and may be considered semi-realistic, although the positioning of the maggot and the eyeball is not likely to be seen in real life.
- Mixed media. Redon most often chose to focus on one particular medium for an entire piece, primarily the medium was either charcoal or oil pastel. While my piece was completed mostly using charcoal, I also incorporated wax colored pencils for my background.
Reflection
Creating Intrusive Eye was extremely fun for me. With it being a choice piece, it was very exciting for me to have complete freedom with my artistic choices. I used the piece as an opportunity to revisit charcoal, which is a medium that I previously hadn’t used for personal work in the last five years. While it took a mild amount of readjustment, I quickly got used to using the charcoal pencils and sticks. I’m also happy with my overall concept and how the visuals came to be. I’d always wanted to create something on the creepier, more symbolic side, and it was great being able to express some of my internal feelings of stress and uncertainty using body horror and bugs, which have always fascinated me. For the drawing, I feel like I was able to strongly connect with Redon’s reasons for creating his symbolic pieces, which made it relatively easy for me to make my piece quite similar to some of my favorite artwork by Redon. Overall, Intrusive Eye was super enjoyable to make and I’m quite proud of the way it turned out.
Connecting to the ACT
1.) Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork.
Redon’s idea to portray the darker areas of his psyche using off-kilter and demented figures directly inspired me to do the same. I chose to use stress, as well as the fear of uncertainty (with fear being a common theme in Redon’s work) and represent it by drawing a maggot replacing the center of an eyeball. Redon’s use of charcoal, along with his technique in The Crying Spider and Caliban also inspired me to use the same medium in a similar way.
2.) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Redon’s pieces are meant to be symbolic, and they were made as an outlet for the mental struggles and negative emotions experienced by Redon throughout his life.
3.) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Art can be interpreted in many ways. Although it is known that Redon used his artwork as a way to express his thoughts and feelings, it is not entirely known what those feelings were, or why he chose the specific symbols that he did. Instead, they are left for his viewers to imagine and resonate with.
4.) What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My theme was stress surrounding the burdens of uncertainty. It can be so overwhelming for people such as myself that it can be represented by visuals that would more obviously evoke fear in others, in this case, the body horror of a maggot crawling from the inside of an eyeball.
5.) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
For some, art truly can be a really great outlet for one’s emotions. I learned this only fairly recently, and I was able to remind myself as I was researching Redon, who was not afraid to make his pieces so personal and vulnerable. This helped me remember and better understand how therapeutic it can be for me to do the same with my own artwork, as it was for this piece.
Redon’s idea to portray the darker areas of his psyche using off-kilter and demented figures directly inspired me to do the same. I chose to use stress, as well as the fear of uncertainty (with fear being a common theme in Redon’s work) and represent it by drawing a maggot replacing the center of an eyeball. Redon’s use of charcoal, along with his technique in The Crying Spider and Caliban also inspired me to use the same medium in a similar way.
2.) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Redon’s pieces are meant to be symbolic, and they were made as an outlet for the mental struggles and negative emotions experienced by Redon throughout his life.
3.) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Art can be interpreted in many ways. Although it is known that Redon used his artwork as a way to express his thoughts and feelings, it is not entirely known what those feelings were, or why he chose the specific symbols that he did. Instead, they are left for his viewers to imagine and resonate with.
4.) What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My theme was stress surrounding the burdens of uncertainty. It can be so overwhelming for people such as myself that it can be represented by visuals that would more obviously evoke fear in others, in this case, the body horror of a maggot crawling from the inside of an eyeball.
5.) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
For some, art truly can be a really great outlet for one’s emotions. I learned this only fairly recently, and I was able to remind myself as I was researching Redon, who was not afraid to make his pieces so personal and vulnerable. This helped me remember and better understand how therapeutic it can be for me to do the same with my own artwork, as it was for this piece.
MLA Citations
“Caliban - Odilon Redon - Google Arts & Culture.” Google, Musée d’Orsay, https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/caliban/HQG5HGSmzlk3og.
“Odilon Redon Paintings, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story, https://www.theartstory.org/artist/redon-odilon/#:~:text=This%20tragedy%20plunged%20Redon%20into,as%20accompaniments%20to%20literary%20works.
Redon, Odilon. “The Crying Spider.” Art History Project, Obelisk Art History, https://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/odilon-redon/the-crying-spider/.
Redon, Odilon. “The Cyclops.” Art History Project, Obelisk Art History, https://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/odilon-redon/the-cyclops/.
“Odilon Redon Paintings, Bio, Ideas.” The Art Story, https://www.theartstory.org/artist/redon-odilon/#:~:text=This%20tragedy%20plunged%20Redon%20into,as%20accompaniments%20to%20literary%20works.
Redon, Odilon. “The Crying Spider.” Art History Project, Obelisk Art History, https://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/odilon-redon/the-crying-spider/.
Redon, Odilon. “The Cyclops.” Art History Project, Obelisk Art History, https://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/odilon-redon/the-cyclops/.