Art Mageddon Episode 1A: Artist Research

I would like to start by showing you how to create an artist research page in your sketchbook. It’s important to take inspiration from artists that influence you. I’m going to get inspired by Friedensreich Hundertwasser because I’ve seen images of his work and I want to learn more. The focus for this double page will be excellent presentation and layout. First you need to learn a little about your artist through research on the internet.

On your pages you will need at least 5 good facts about the artist or the artist’s work written in your own words. I’m going to write my facts on a piece of paper before I transfer them neatly onto my pages.

Good facts are things that make the artist’s work personal or interesting to you. I don’t want useless facts about the artist, like Hundertwasser was Jewish but baptised Catholic or he spent 3 months at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, I wouldn’t write these facts down because they don’t mean much to me.

Whereas I would write that Hundertwasser was a painter, building designer and environmental activist from Vienna.
• In his artwork, he used organic forms and bright colours.
• He was interested in the harmony of humans with nature and was fascinated by spirals but hated straight lines which he called “Godless and immoral”.

I also find it interesting to know that:
• his architecture is similar to the work of Antoni Gaudi
And…
• he was inspired by Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele.

These facts tell me a little more about Hundertwasser’s Art practice and how I can use his ideas in my own work.

It would be great to get a few quotes from the artist,

These are quotes that inspire me:

“The horizontal belongs to nature, the vertical belongs to man.”

"If man walks in nature's midst, then he is nature's guest and must learn to behave as a well-brought-up guest."

"Today we live in a chaos of straight lines, in a jungle of straight lines. If you do not believe this, take the trouble to count the straight lines which surround you. Then you will understand, for you will never finish counting."

It’s important to write your opinions of the artist’s work. These opinions should be positive and relatively specific and you should add at least 3 opinions of the artist’s work.

• I love Hunderwasser’s use of colour and curvy lines.
• I like how his compositions flow and are full of complex patterns.
• I enjoy his use of eccentric combination of the human faces and landscapes.

When you have learnt a little about the artists style it’s time to start working on the double page. Start with an impressive title, just the artist’s name is fine. I paint the letters in his style using curvy lines, bright colours and complex patterns.

Next, I will transfer the facts, quotes and my opinions that I found. I am going to use curvy but clear writing and write in capital letters so the messages are easy to read. I will draw bubbles around the writing so that the information is safely contained within borders. Now to deal with the background.

It’s time to add illustrations. Since you might not have a printer at home it is important to draw or paint pastiches or copies of your favourite painting or artwork by the artist.
I would recommend more than 3.
I am going to use 5 of my favourite Hundertwasser paintings:
224 The Big Way
690 Green Power
748 One of Five Seamen
992 City View
978 Rebellion of the Grid

The Big Way I will paint in the top left quarter.
One of Five Semen I will paint on the right side.
Green Power I will paint in the bottom left.
The complex patterns of City View and Rebellion of the Grid I will use to fill in the gaps.

All the space in the composition should be used to create a strong layout.

And that’s how to create an artist research page in your sketchbook.