Development 5/5

Development 5/5

So I have finally finished my concept of the photo. 

From Les Demoiselles d'Avignon 

To

Les Demoiselles de Corleone

Development 4/5

Development 4/5

Now that the main idea is settled it is time to give life to the characters. Since in the painting there are five women, I decided to replace them with the five main female characters from the Godfather trilogy which are; Carmella known as Mama Corleone, Apollonia, Kay, Mary and Connie. Their clothing will be inspired from stills in various moments from the three films as well as the importance and power depicted.

Getting started!

Carmella/Mama Corleone

This character was chosen because even though she was never part of the criminal side of the Family she knew all about it. She is the typical Italian mother who served as a safe harbour to the family.  The dress I decided to use for her was the one she wore for Connie’s wedding in the beginning of the first film. 

Apollonia Vitelli - Corleone

She was a young, simple and beautiful Sicilian girl who touched Michael’s heart like no other. I decided to use one of the dresses she wore when she and Michael were still courting but since it is black it resembles her fate; that of being assassinated instead of Michael.

I kept it simple with a v-neck and tied at the waist but short which apart from having a modern look it also resembles her short lived life.

Kay Adams Corleone

This character was always an outsider. She was an American and could never understand the traditional ways of the Italian family. She was also an independent woman who eventually ended up in destroying her marriage with Michael. 

In my opinion she did not have much style in clothes compared to the other Italians therefore I did some changes in her suit. Instead of having a blazer with tails and a below the knee skirt I dressed her in a trouser suit but keeping the same colours.

Mary Corleone

She was the clean side of Michael’s life. For her he had changed the way his business was run. But once she gets assassinated, instead of Michael like Appolonia, his sanity crumbles. For this character I decided to use her dress from the Opera scene and again I did some alterations to give it a more modern look as well to match the others. 

The main alteration in this dress is the colour. I decided to make it green showing life and make the dress more flowing and long to show elegance and flow.

Earlier in the film she is wearing a cross necklace and I decided to use it here as a symbol of her death.

All the figures are positioned in such order for a reason! Mama Corleone is the first, because she was there for Vito before the whole family started.  Apollonia comes next because she was Michael’s true love. After she is killed, he returned back to Kay from which marriage Mary was born. But the reason why Mary is positioned as the last person on the right is to provide the link with the next character; Connie. When Mary died, Connie took control and power of her family since Michael was not in a position to continue. In fact she was in charge of the actual transaction of power from Michael to Vincent.

Connie Corleone

To start with I decided to dress her in a suit with a feminine touch. I decided to take elements, such as the lace, from her Opera dress, since here it is visible her true power, importance and the fact that she was capable of murder to protect her family. 

Such power and importance is being shown in her pose. She is sitting down because every time that Michael is showing his authority he is always sitting down. This also links to the design of the chair, which is taken from a scene during Mama Corleone’s funeral on which Michael is sitting.

In Picasso’s painting there is a table which has fruits on it. Here I decided to use one of my previous concepts. This was also inspired from the film in the scene with the severed horse’s head in the film producer’s bed. Instead of any random fruit I decided to show oranges since they are almost always visible when murder is either being planned or about to happen. Oranges were also the favourite fruit of the old Don Corleone. I also placed a glass with whiskey since it is a drink often showed in the film as a consolation drink.

Development 3/5

Development 3/5

So I was thinking, since one of my main inspirations was Vanity Fair, a fashion magazine, I decided to use the designers’ way of drawing figures.

So now I could position my figures in any way I liked :) 

With regards to the film inspiration, I decided that the figures would not be naked in the finished drawing but instead show them wearing clothes inspired from the movie Godfather with a modern touch.

Development 2/5

Development 2/5

For my famous painting I decided to look back at my history notes and opted to use Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.  My first idea was to find photos of people in the pose that I wanted then use Photoshop to manipulate my images as I wanted. For the tables and chairs in the painting I would use designs we did in class.

 Picasso, P., 1907. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon Oil on Canvas (244 x 234 cm). [painting] Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Les_Demoiselles_d%27Avignon.jpg [Accessed 20^th December 2012]

But that remained only an idea, since I didn’t find any people in the right poses and to alter them myself they would have been more distorted than Picasso’s! It would end looking more like a collage rather than something more concrete and finished. Another problem was that I still had no inspiration from a movie.

This is an example from one of my previous blog posts of how the picture would look like if I used Photoshop.

I need some more brainstorming for this concept to come out right!

Development 1/5

Development 1/5

I think that I have settled on the concept I want to develop! My final product is going to be a sketch to plan a photo even though the photo itself is not going to be taken. I decided to merge together two concepts; that of Vanity Fair taking a Still from an old movie and repropose it with today’s actors and that of taking a painting and replacing its characters with actors of the particular era in which it was recreated.

 into

Merged with

Concept No:2

Concept Transformation II

Connie’s broach from Godfather III

My developments: 

Laurie, 2012. Modern Abstract Painting Healing Wall Sculpture. [painting] Available at: http://www.etsy.com/listing/64181688/modern-abstract-painting-healing-wall?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=App_Seller&utm_campaign=fb_seller_item&utm_content=items  [Accessed on 14^th December 2012]

My first drawing was too literal and looked exactly like the original. The size would have been different and even the materials I would have used but apart from that it was too similar to the original. So I started altering this design. From a painting I had seen I thought that I could reduce the middle circle but increase the size of the outer circles. Having done that, I also reduced the amount of “rays” to give it more balance. I thought that this could be made from aluminium rods and disks alternating between matt and polished. 

Concept No:1

Concept Transformation

From my research,  I found that horses where always related to honour, wealth and power as seen in the Godfather to be the most precious thing one of the characters possesses. In “Gladiator” two horses are the emblem on Marcus Aurelius’s breastplate while in Troy a horse sculpture is offered as “peace offering”. 

GodFather

 Gladiator and Tojan Horse

Symbol of power in Neptune’s horses 1892 by Walter Crane Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David.
 

After looking at the way transformation happened in each case, the one that fascinated me the most was the Trojan horse. I followed the same concept as with the Dragonfly table by Emile Galle, where something from nature which is free and dynamic, is transformed into something which is rigid and unnatural.  I kept the idea of a table but instead of being refined as Galle’s was, mine would be done using drift wood and without too much detail just like the Trojan horse’s head. The table top would be made of smooth glass to contrast with the rough and uneven texture of the drift wood.

 First idea

 Further Development

 

Done using photoshop® for better quality 

Art Transformation

Transforming famous works of art

Another page which I like from facebook is FilmmakerIQ.com https://www.facebook.com/FilmmakerIQ?fref=ts which has got some really interesting photos and works of art. One which got my attention was the reproduction of Johannes Vermeer's "The girl with a Pearl Earring” by Mitchell Grafton who transformed this work of art as if it were to be done today due to a lot of self taken portrait photos. He eliminated the focal point from the pearl earring and replaced it with the camera. 

 This portrait was further transformed in 2003 by being turned into a movie “Girl with a Pearl Earring” by director Peter Webber starring Scarlett Johansson as the young peasant maid.

IMDB, 2003. Girl with a Pearl Earring. [online] Available at:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335119/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1. [Accessed 10^th December 2012].

Another work which was transformed is Van Gogh’s “Starry Sky” by an unknown artist who decided to incorporate Batman and his Bat signal in the painting. This work may cause some controversy! Some may think that how could someone mock such a famous work of art, other might take is as a stroke of geniality to come up with such a combination!!! 

Jeremy Bray, 25^th April 2011. Batman invades Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting. [online] Available at: http://globalgeeknews.com/2011/04/25/batman-invades-van-goghs-starry-night-painting-pic/. [Accessed on: 10^th December 2012].

Another artwork which in my opinion has been overly used is Da Vinci’s Last Supper. It has been used by Popeye, Mickey Mouse, Star Wars and for The Expendable’s 2 poster. But the first one I had ever seen remains my personal favourite, that which is done using famous persons from the 60’s such as Marilyn Monroe, Elvis etc. What I don’t get is their positioning! I think that their positioning is more of a random positioning rather than having anything to do with the story and their roles in particular movies.

Art Transformation

Transformation in Art

Nowadays everywhere we go we are met with “Facebook”; be it a clothes shop or a bank. It is everywhere around us and very useful if used properly. Its original purpose was to keep people in touch and to get to know about other people and their lives. But like everything else, once it gets online it goes completely out of control and misused. But not everyone posts rubbish; we still have those with self respect left! And on Facebook I got to know about a page called “A different type of Art”.  Where, “Art is the magic mirror that we create to turn invisible dreams in visible pictures. To see us we use a mirror image, artwork we use to see our soul! Art is the triumph over chaos” https://www.facebook.com/A.different.type.of.Art/info

On this page I came across an album called creativity and it amazed me how some brilliant people take something which is ordinary like a nail or a cup of coffee and transforming it to something extraordinary.

For instance, the artist Andrew Myers took the simple act of screwing Phillips screws and transformed it by screwing them to different heights to recreate the elevations of the face and then draw the face on them. This way the face does not only have the illusion of being 3D, but actually being in 3D.

Andrew Myers, 2009. Andrew Myers Art. [online] Available at: http://www.andrewmyersart.com/#/home  [Accessed on 7^th December 2012]

Another artist is Erika Iris Simmons who uses random things and turns them into composite art. Most of her pieces become portraits of people associated with the item she chooses. Which is what I like most of her art. A lot of her art is made with cassette tapes and old film reels. She has blended the concerns and methods of conceptual art with craft-making and pop culture to create her own installations using icons such as The Beatles, Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Madonna, Bob Dylan and Debbie Harry of Blondie. 

 

Erika Iris Simmons, 1^st March 2012. What is this all about? [online] Available at: http://www.iri5.com/blog-2/  [Accessed on 7^th December 2012] 

“Some people just have too much time on their hands! This is a somewhat liberal version of the iconic Da Vinci masterpiece made from 3,604 coffee cups all with varying levels of milk to affect the shading. This was displayed in Sydney as part of the 2009 Aroma Festival.”

Zolton, 22^nd April. Lost at E minor: Mona Lisa made from cups of coffee. [online] Available at: http://www.lostateminor.com/2010/04/22/mona-lisa-made-from-cups-of-coffee/  [Accessed on 7^th December 2012]