Brandywine River Museum of Art Trip

On Saturday, September 7th, 2019, my grandmother and I drove up to the Brandywine River Museum of Art for a class project. During this trip, we took the time to explore the different levels of the museum and the trails around the grounds. By the end of the trip, I came back with plenty of photos and two new books for my collection. 

Questions: 

1. Who is N C Wyeth and why is he important to the world of Illustration? N.C. Wyeth was an artist who gained renown for his illustrated works, some of which can be seen in a book called Treasure Island. Even though Wyeth had gained this fame from his works, he struggled with this because he wanted to be known for other work aside from his illustrations. He worked during the Impressionism period here in America. During the trip to the museum, I took photos of informational walls about N.C. Wyeth along with some of the works that proved to be a huge inspiration to him. One common architectural features that appear in his pieces is a white barn. He was also the farther to other artists that would go on to bring the Wyeth family even greater artistic fame.

 

 

 
2. Select an illustration (make sure it is an illustration piece and not a fine art painting) from the collection in the Museum that has the most impact on you and tell why? Take a photo of it if you are permitted. Be sure to note the following: 

  Artist: N.C. Wyeth
Medium: Oil on Canvas Size: Not Mentioned
Year of Creation: 1917
The illustrations featured here were created for the book, The Boy's King Arthur.
The reason I chose these two illustrations is that I really love the subject manner of the illustrations. The knights of old and fantasy worlds are always something I can dive into. When walking in the gallery, there was just something that pulled me to these two pieces in particular. The colors were so vibrant and the figures felt so alive. After reading the plack, it was fun to learn that N.C. Wyeth had been experimenting with his scenery for this set of illustrations. This is also one of the two books that I bought for my shelves.

3. Overall how would you describe the compositions of the piece you selected in question 2

The composition of both illustrations makes the viewer feel like they are an onlooker into the scenes that are occurring within the picture. In the picture to the left, the tree that separates the viewer from the mounted knight pushes that figure into the midground. By having the rider and horse angled away from the viewer as well, this creates a feeling of depth in the illustration. The top of the tree also creates a top border because of how the leaves curve and help to manipulate the center point back to the hornblower.

The piece on the right is left open in the foreground leaving the viewer to have a front-row seat to the ongoing battle. The main point of attention for the illustration is the figure with his back to the viewer. Both the group of knights to the right and the charging one to the left help to direct the action back onto this figure.

4. How would you describe the color pallet and tell why it was effective the piece you selected in question 2

The color pallets of the two illustrations are bright and vibrant. This is effective since the illustrations were for a retelling of the legends that involve King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. These legends are supposed to be inspiring and tell of the glory that surrounded this group of noblemen.

5. What is the Brandywine School of American Illustration and what illustrators were part of this group? Name the illustrators and the pieces you were able to see in
the museum.

The Brandywine School of American Illustration was a summer program that was taught by past Drexel Professor, Howard Pyle. He opened the school in Chadds Ford PA between the years 1898 and 1903. Through this school, Howard Pyle taught over 150 different artists in the skill of illustration. Some of his students were John Wolcott Adams, Stanley Arthurs, Harvey Dunn, Walter Everett, Elizabeth Shippen Green, Thornton Oakley, Violet Oakley, Frank Schoonover, Jessie Willcox Smith, and N.C. Wyeth.

 

6. What have you learned from visiting the museum that pertains to the course?

When walking around the trails at the property and in the museum, I read a plack that said what the goal of preserving the property was. It was to help keep inspiring artistic creation through the sheer beauty of nature for future generations. The artists who studied on the property seemed to draw a lot of their inspiration for nature itself. One if N.C. Wyeth's works depict men putting up a fence. I remember that the little information plate next to the piece said that this was one of the most beautiful things Wyeth had seen within the town. After being on the property and walking around the place, I can see why so many awesome artists and pieces were developed from that location. Inspiration for a piece can come from anywhere. Either from nature to a dream.

 

Sketch Concepts - Article Illustrations

Here are the sketches from the articles I read. I went with the article on statistics and really tried to play around with the idea of the quarter being a representation of stats. My other concept is based on how humans tend to store statistics and drink up all the information they get. This is the drawing with the head. The arrow represents a straw and all the stats are floating around in a liquid. One of the points of the article is that statistics are random and are hard to predict just like human nature. The drawing with the head full of liquid symbolizes the fact that stats are concreated and change like liquid. The human head is the vessel that holds this liquid and is being shaped by this liquid. 

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Digital Rough Sketch: 

Traditional Marker Sketch: 

In Progress Shots and Finished Image - Compound Word Illustration

During the process of moving along with the final illustration, I took some screenshots to show a bit of my working process. This illustration was fully drawn using PaintTool Sai. 

This first screenshot shows all the flat colors in along with the black line art. This was taken from one of the sketches that I did during the brainstorming phase. I shortened the tail a bit and made the honeycomb pattern a bit smaller and more consistent. 

This second screenshot shows the flat color added to the honeycomb on the back. I made a bit of a gradient to show the different shades of honey. The honeycomb is representing the back stripe often seen on honeybadgers. Yes, I am purposely avoiding the eyes because I could not get them right quite yet. 

This screenshot was taken after shading and highlights have been added in. I use a lot of layers and stack them on each other to get the pictured image. I also added some texture to the image to help give this honeybadger a bit more dimension. At this point, I named this sweet boy Bumble. 

Lastly, I went with a simple background to help showcase Bumble better. I was experimenting with a white silhouette but didn't really like it all that much.  

This here is the final image of my Bumble (the honeybadger). He is a very sweet badger that is very sticky since he is literally dripping with honey. I managed to get the eyes to look better by consulting with my older brother. He suggested changing the left cheek a bit to make a bit of room for the other eye. I also noticed that the highlights weren't appearing on the others. So, here they are. 

Went back and made some background changes to help tie in the final piece. 

After getting feedback from peers, I went back to further change the piece of Bumble. The first noticeable change would be the direction of his tail. I went and flipped it to the right to help with directing the viewer's eyes. This meant that I need to extend the honeycomb pattern on his back to make up for the gap that was left. I also went through to correct the shading that would have been left wrong from the change of direction. I also darkened the shadow under Bumble to lessen the look of him floating within the space. To also help sell a sense of a groud, I added drip piles from the honey that is dripping off from this sweet creature. 

This will be the final version that I print as an 8" x 10" print. 

Sketch Concepts - Compound Word Illustration

Attached are a few concepts for the compound word illustration project assigned in Illustration. This project's goal is to take a compound word and illustrate it literally.  I went with the words sheepdog, bulldog, honeybadger, and sealion. Below are my sketches made in Paint Tool Sai with a Wacom tablet.

My favorite sketch so far is the honeybadger that is made of honey and has honeycombs down his back to imitate the prominent stripe on most honeybadgers. As a backup, I would go with my sealion sketch. A lion out at sea in an innertube, just chilling. Who said that cats hate water?

Here is a Google Document with all my reference photos and links or information about where they came from. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sTsT23a2tui2uG1zcYYnirxKf6zwD50SbhZ_Gd8iBa4/edit?usp=sharing