Inspiration
Weylandt & Bauchwitz Due to the fact that they were lesser known designers, pieces of information on their artistry can be quite scarce. What is known however, is that Weylandt and Bauchwitz were German creative partners whose work often revolved around promoting the German circus scene. Presumably, they ran a design firm and were in the business of creating posters during some point between 1890-1915, making their pieces some of the earliest examples of what we call modern graphic design in the first ever golden age of this type of work, which was characterized by the term Sachplakat, which translates to “object poster” in German. This type of design was revolutionary in that it broke posters down into three different components: image, background, and text, as opposed to previous graphics that more closely resembled paintings. Some of their documented work that I found to be very inspirational include Die Mysteriösen Catakomben, which translates to “The Mysterious Catacombs”. The piece has a spooky and playful mood to it, as it serves to promote a magic show in which the magician appears to be performing a trick known as “Pepper’s Ghost,” which involves a human participant being “transformed” into a skeleton. Alongside that would be Mlle. Cendrillonnette-Garcia, which translates to Miss Cinderella-Garcia. This poster was designed to promote the likeness of Garcia, who is presumed to be a dancer from the circus scene, and features a portrait of her directly. The illustrative qualities and usage of large text to clearly express a message and/or purpose, as well as the vibrant color palettes used by the pair have made me feel very inspired to create my own posters with similar elements. This has encouraged me to use strong, upfront visuals to convey a message of my own. |
Planning
My planning phase started out with me doing partial studies from my personal favorite Weylandt and Bauchwitz painting, Die Mysteriösen Catakomben. I did a somewhat large sketch of the man from the poster, trying to zoom in and practice using strong organic lines, as shown in the original piece. I also wanted to do a colored sketch of the skeleton in the coffin, deciding how much of the spooky imagery, plus the vibrancy and generally red and black color palette, would be used to inspire my piece. This gave me a feel for how the artists approached their illustrations, which included lots of hatching and cross-hatching combined with the previously mentioned organic lines.
Going into my piece, I knew I wanted to create something to express my newfound distaste for technology, social media, and the internet. As I continued playing around with sketches, using a mixture of hatching an organic marks, as well as trying to develop my own color palette, I became very fixated on how bright and bold the screens of cellphones or computers can be, and experimented with a few visuals demonstrating the large amount of which bluelight radiates from our screens on a daily basis. Considering the many unhealthy aspects of everyday technology and the internet, I began sketching out a woman appearing to be almost “sucked into” her own smartphone, the light reflecting off of her and pulling her in, as a metaphor for our societal addiction to these outlets in spite of their often harmful characteristics. For my overall concept, I’d decided on creating a mixed media piece: a watercolor painting of a woman’s face melting away towards a bright light illuminating from the smartphone in her hand. This imagery would be somewhat graphic to emphasize just how disturbing technology and the internet can truly be. The painting would then be digitally rendered and applied to a poster using Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. The final poster would showcase the image, along with a large piece of text reading “It’s killing you.” This concept focuses on how the internet and social media, which are now most commonly accessed via smartphone, are in my opinion, severely damaging our society by providing platforms for some of the most negative and potentially harmful ideas and mentalities to be promoted, or even romanticized. It has become commonplace for many, including people around my age, to share their entire lives with the internet, where they can easily fall into the trap of comparing themselves to other people, use it as escapism to avoid receiving help in times of struggle, or lose their ability to focus without it. Not to mention, it has completely changed the way politics are discussed, adding a whole new level of pettiness not only between government officials, but also ordinary people with differing perspectives, by allowing them to hide behind a screen and avoid genuine, open-minded discussions. There are so many reasons why I have felt upset about the internet enough to create this piece, but above all else, I think has taught many to take everything at surface level, and is detrimental their mental health, hence the phrasing in “It’s killing you.”
As I wrapped up my planning stage, I created a final sketch on that I would use as reference for my actual piece. I chose to really emphasize the deterioration of the woman’s face as it melts and is pulled into the phone, using deeper flesh colors, hollowing out the eyes to give the impression of her skeletal structure beginning to show, and really exaggerating the light of the screen to make it appear as though it really is warm enough to melt the skin. These additions would increase the disturbingness of the piece, ramping up the fear factor and really helping to hoan in on the urgency of the situation. The painting would overlap with a colored border that lines the edges of the poster, as well as a divider between the painting and text that would be added. For the text reading “It’s killing you,” I wanted it to pop out in front of the image of the woman and the border, to read in all caps and be layered in various colors, including a dark grey, blue, and purple. To lessen negative space and emphasize the consistency of the design, I would also add some small circles near the text featuring each of its colors. After drawing out and filling in the sketch with colored pencils, I annotated it, making note of the parts that I enjoyed, parts I wanted to improve, and parts I wanted to change. I ended up wanting to change quite a few things. For instance, I wanted to include a mild contrast between warm and cool colors, using warm colors for the woman and cool colors for the bottom section of the poster. I also wanted to change the border from orange to a cool or more neutral color, move the circles a tad bit downward to fit them more evenly, and further emphasize the goriness of the painting overall. Once I knew more precisely what I wanted for this piece, it was time to get working.
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Process
Before I could get straight into painting or digitally rendering my artwork, I needed to start with a simple outline for the image of the woman, which I’d based much on the image of the woman shown in my final sketch. I completed the outline on mixed media paper using graphite pencils. Once I was ready to paint, I started out by first laying down some pale and muted colors, particularly flesh tones. These were mixed using various amounts of red, yellow, green, and beige, and applied using a round medium sized brush and a significant amount of water, as I wanted the first layer to be somewhat diluted and for the next few layers to gradually become more saturated. I did some initial building up of shadows with some simple layers of darkened flesh tones (achieved by adding more red and green to the existing flesh tones), and did a bit of blending with my shadows into my base layer of the pale skin tone. |
I wanted my approach to be somewhat smooth with the colors nicely meshing together, but I also wanted to achieve a look that was organic and raw enough to add a feeling of grittiness to the painting, which would compliment the disturbing imagery being used. Once the first layer painted onto the face had dried, I went over it using less water and more saturated oranges, browns, and reds, building up the layers of broken skin. These warm tones were important in making the face appear as though it was melting away. At this point, I also began using a pale orangish-yellow diluted with water to develop some extra highlights and warmth. |
While putting down my next couple of layers, I really started to darken up the sunken areas of the face to reveal more of the woman’s skeletal structure and achieve the dramatic, sickly style that I was aiming for. Darkening up some of the wrinkles in the skin helped to make the flesh appear more raw, as though it is being ripped apart before the viewer’s very eyes. I also went in again with the warm yellow color and this time, added it to the smartphone and the space around it. I would make sure to visibly connect the dark edges of the face to the direction of the light, and follow the same step with the hair as well to really give the impression of the woman’s life being so overcome by whatever media outlet is being displayed on her phone, that it is completely draining her. To give the shirt its dark color, I used a mixture of black and very subtle amounts of red and beige and did a couple of washes across the area, one slightly more saturated than the other to add some dimension. The existing yellow highlight near the chest provided a nice gradient from the bottom to the top of the shirt as well. As for the hair, I filled in the area with a lightly saturated brown and swooped it towards the direction of the light as planned. When the layer of brown paint had dried, I used thin strokes of deep, black paint to imply roots and other individual strands of hair, all being drawn towards the cell phone along with the melting face. A small addition I made in the spur of the moment was to add splatters of blood to various parts of the woman. I mixed my primary red with a little bit of black, and painted the blood drooping from the face onto the collarbone area. I viewed this as a natural progression, considering the goriness of a melting face. I also painted blood oozing from the phone and dripping off the woman’s hand, implying the phone to be at the center of her untimely demise. |
At this point, I was mostly finished. All I needed to do was look over the painting for any missing details or areas that needed to be touched up, but I ended up very happy with my somewhat minimalistic approach and only went on to add a simple pink, smokey background with some watered down red paint. Now that the traditional part of my piece had been finished, it was time to incorporate the painting into the poster and complete it digitally!
I uploaded a high resolution photo of my painting to Photoshop, where I removed the white of the background so that only the artwork could be seen, the rest of the photo being transparent. I touched up certain parts that I, in hindsight, realized I did in fact want to add to. This was mostly just adding a bit more yellow light using the blended paintbrush setting, along with a smoother gradient for the pink wash behind the figure fading into transparency. |
Next, I set up the template for the poster on illustrator, setting it to the “tabloid” size and adding indents as buffers. I started out using a grid feature to help me create a border, which was made up of various thinly stretched out rectangles of equal width. As I worked on this poster, my feelings toward the color of the border continued to change, I would cycle through colors like cyan, periwinkle, and ultimately chose a deepslate blue near the end.
After setting up the structure of the poster, I imported the edited version of my painting onto the poster. I enlarged the photo so that it would be clear and stand out, and made it hang over the border ever so slightly.
Next, I set up the text. I wanted the text to pop out in layers, going from purple, to blue, to dark grey. I managed to do this by stacking the layers of text on top of one another, each moved just a tiny bit upward and to the right of the previous one. I made the text overlap both the painting and border, as I wanted it to draw the most attention and be the first thing viewers would see upon looking at the piece. I also created three equally spaced out circles and color coded them to match the color of each layer of text, highlighting the importance of my color palette whilst also doing some much needed filling of negative space. |
It’s important to note that behind the scenes, there were many slight changes to the positioning of the text, circles, as well as various colors and textures, that were hardly noticeable in the process. For the final product, however, I’d added a canvas-like texture to the section of white space behind the woman, a grainy texture to the border and the white space in the section behind the text. I also used the “add poster edges” feature to give the additional feeling of a real poster, despite the digital format. Wanting to lessen the amount of white space surrounding the woman, I added two layers of shadows to the image of the artwork, one black and the other a subtle yellow. I also added a strong, somewhat dark shadow to the text, making sure it would stand out as much as I wanted it to.
Finally, I did a quick once-over and was quite happy with the way the poster was coming out to be. After looking carefully, the only thing that I could think to do was apply a grain filter to the entire poster, just to get rid of any potentially distracting inconsistencies in texture. After this, I was very satisfied with the piece and saved it as my final, completed version. |
Critique
Some similarities between IT’S KILLING YOU. and the work of Weylandt and Bauchwitz would be…
Some differences would be…
- Visuals depicting other people: A commonality in Weylandt and Bauchwitz’s posters is the use of people or characters to convey their message, such as the portrait of the Mlle. Cendrillonnette-Garcia advertising her performance, or the magician depicted in Die Mysteriösen Catakomben that gives the audience a preview of the magic show being promoted. My piece uses a woman looking down at her phone, and the woman’s physical deterioration through use of the phone help to share my message that the internet, social media outlets and the like are harmful and malicious.
- Format: Considering the traditional Sachplakat layout for posters consisting of a clear and direct image with text and a background, Weylandt and Bauchwitz were very keen on using this method for their German style posters, and my poster uses the three objective components of the format as well.
- Illustrative qualities: Weylandt and Bauchwitz’s inking style creates strong visuals which are continuously developed using the same wet medium to include details and lines, providing dimension while still embracing the 2D nature that goes into an illustration. My piece also uses a wet medium that is built up and ultimately provides illustrative detail as well through use of thin and organic lines.
Some differences would be…
- Color palette: While Weylandt and Bauchwitz tend to stick to a more minimalistic color palette in their posters, like mostly dark reds and blacks in Die Mysteriösen Catakomben, and mostly pastels in Mlle. Cendrillonnette-Garcia, I feel that my poster includes a wider range of colors, as I made a point to mix many different warm colors, like reds, oranges, yellows and browns, with many different cool colors, like blues, purples, and greys.
- Method: Weylandt and Bauchwitz’s pieces are products of the first ever golden age of graphics and posters in the early 1900s, meaning that they are made 100% traditionally and by hand. My poster, however, is a mixture of traditional and digital media, using computer software to achieve visuals that would be extremely time consuming if done manually at the time the artists were active.
- Medium: While Weylandt and Bauchwitz’s pieces made use of various inks for their poster art, I opted for watercolor for my main graphic.
Reflection
Although this piece was relatively simple compared to some of my other, more complex traditional works, I’m extremely happy with how it turned out. This was only my second time using Adobe Illustrator, and I’m really proud of how much I’ve learned about the software already. With graphic design being my main career interest as of now, creating pieces like these are a great way for me to practice designing while also expressing something that I care about. While I feel that to an extent, this poster diverted a bit from Weylandt and Bauchwitz’s style of graphics, they were certainly the designers that influenced me to use big, attention grabbing visuals to share a specific message, and that initial inspiration is still there. Due to my increased interest in graphic design, as well as the amount of fun that I had completing this project, I think it is likely that I will continue moving towards, or at least creating more of this type of artwork over time.
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.
The use of eccentric, bold visuals, along with the traditional German Sachplakat format of poster making used by artists and designers Weylandt and Bauchwitz inspired me to illustrate and design my own poster where, similar to them, I would objectively convey a message using a simple, but clear large image, piece of text, and background.
2.) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Weylandt and Bauchwitz designed their posters with the intention of advertising and spreading awareness for a specific event or public figure. Die Mysteriösen Catakomben, for instance is a promotional piece, encouraging people to visit the circus in Berlin and attend a magic show. Mlle. Cendrillonnette-Garcia appears to be promoting the likeness of a female performer, most likely a popular dancer in the city.
3.) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I’ve learned that art in the form of posters and graphics can be very powerful, as specific design choices, like placement of text, strong visuals, and appropriate background all heavily impact the way a poster is interpreted by the viewer. If these components mesh well together, the poster is likely to leave a long lasting impression on the viewer, hence the reason I was so inspired by the incredibly well done designs by Weylandt and Bauchwitz.
4.) What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea is that the technology, social media and the internet are quite dangerous despite the fact that they are normalized in our society. This piece is commentary on how I believe that the continued everyday use of these things will ultimately destroy our minds, and therefore ourselves.
MLA Citations
“Die Mysteriosen Catakomben - Weylandt and Bauchwitz - Google Arts & Culture.” Google, artsandculture.google.com/asset/die-mysteriosen-catakomben-weylandt-and-bauchwitz/uwG4S8mg64usiw. Accessed 12 May 2023.
Fajuri, Gabe, and David Linsell. “The Nielsen Collection.” The Golden Age of Magic Posters, Edited by Stina Henslee, no. 1, 25 June 2016, https://issuu.com/potterauctions/docs/catalog39_issu. Accessed 12 May 2023, p. 92.
Fajuri, Gabe, and David Linsell. “The Nielsen Collection.” The Golden Age of Magic Posters, Edited by Stina Henslee, no. 1, 25 June 2016, https://issuu.com/potterauctions/docs/catalog39_issu. Accessed 12 May 2023, p. 92.