Collage to Painting - 'Game Over'

A digital collage using photography and digital drawing

These digital pieces came about by using a photograph of my previous painting as inspiration for a collage, which would then be translated into another painting. I previously explored the way that society changes, and so in these next pieces I want to investigate further aspects of modern life - in particular, my interest was drawn to technology. Hence, these experimental collages center around how technology is a form of human creative expression. For my next traditional painting, I am also considering playing with pixel art styles and visuals that are reminiscent of the video games I played during childhood. I will be using video games as an allegory for how we approach our real-world choices.

A close-up screenshot to show detail

A work-in-progress print-screen before adding more colour

Another digital collage, this time using the painting itself as a foundation and layering found photographs

A third collage using an image of cells splitting, to experiment with various textures

I was inspired by the video and text work of contemporary artist Ed Atkins, and almost immediately upon seeing a still from one of his pieces I decided that my collage and painting would be focused around varying forms of digital media. I chose to represent a typically non-digital form of art, the collage, in a digital format and also to represent a digital form of art, namely video games, in a traditional format. I wanted to subvert tradition, and I also felt that by having a digital collage as the bridge between the two paintings it allowed for the subject, colour palette and intentions to change drastically, in a way that would be more dynamic than if I had created a conventional layering of physical forms to build the collage. In the same way that a traditional collage juxtaposes different materials, my collage juxtaposes photography and digital art.

What first struck me about Atkins' work is that it is digitally rendered in the way that the assets for a video game character are created, but used for a more explicitly artistic purpose. There is such a realism to these renderings that it is sometimes difficult to tell what is a photograph and what is rendered in a 3D modelling program, and I was also inspired by how Atkins bridges the space between the two mediums - does he take photographs and overlay them atop a 3D model? It is unclear. However, the visual appeal of his work stems for me from the space between computer rendering and photography that it seems to occupy. The intensity of expression in the still above is what engrossed me.

 A still from another of Atkins' projects that I wanted to use as a visual touchstone for how digital media such as video games affects a person's life - often, people use video games for means of escapism, and they desire a genuine emotional connection with a piece of digital art. This created the foundations for my concept.

 It is unclear whether this image is digitally rendered or a photograph.

 This was the first piece from Atkins that I saw, and I immediately loved the tension between text and image.

A still from Atkins' 2014 video project 'Ribbons', which combines 3D rendering and poetry.

 My final A3 painting alongside my digital collage. This painting was based upon the work of Ed Atkins but, most importantly, upon the effect that video games have on people's lives. Video games are not often considered an art form in their own right, despite combining 3D modelling and rendering, screenwriting, traditional and digital art, voice talent, aspects of film-making such as cinematography, and also music and soundtracks. Due to the commercial nature of most popular video games, artistic aspects are often overlooked, despite the art form realizing Wagner's concept of gesamtkunstwerk, one complete artwork. In this piece, I wanted to explore how video games do not offer, as most people think, escapism from the real world, but instead offer a platform to realize the importance of decision-making. I incorporated classic video game aesthetics into my piece to create something visually playful, but also with more serious undertones. In life, there often seems to be two different routes one can direct their life down - there is a more hedonistic, living-for-the-moment approach, and there is also the route of self-preservation and reasoning. I wanted to show the conflict between these different ways of living, and how it is often difficult to make decisions without the aid of other people.

 

A photograph of the final painting without the collage. I used a pencil, biro and rotring pens to create the drawing before using acrylic and oils for the painting itself.

A detail shot of the figure itself.