The Adaptation of Dreaming Framed Poster

"The Adaptation of Dreaming" By: Quinn Elise

So when I was starting my masterpiece, I wanted to make a painting for the Greek Goddess Aphrodite. Since I didn't know what paintings that already existed that were technically considered "masterpieces" I looked up paintings for/about Aphrodite. That's how I found "Dreaming" by Robert Fowler. He was a Scottish artist born in 1853. A lot of his paintings were mythological scenes and landscapes. So when I saw his painting, I immediately thought about Aphrodite even though he never specified that the painting was of her or for her. From my research, there was no actual documented reasoning for this painting. His whole style that he gravitated to was mythology and landscapes. The whole vibe of the original painting was for it to seem calm and peaceful. 

When I was recreating this painting I knew that I was going to make the woman Aphrodite, or at least my view on her. I wanted to recreate the calmness of the whole painting but I still had my own changes. I personally feel like I can never fully replicate a painting, but I like that part about my art. With my painting I wanted to recreate more life. Louder and brighter life. Everything in the original painting was softer in a sense, the lighting was very different with the sun shining through the leaves and shadows. My painting doesn't fully have that or recreate that but that's sorta because I still couldn't figure out how. Yet with that, I really tried to make my painting look more alive than the original did. I changed my painting technique for the first time so instead of strokes, I did a lot of stippling. The stippling was mainly for the grass and tree leaves, but I also did bigger stippling dots (sorta) for the bigger tree and the not really noticeable mountains in the back so that they could have a different texture than the rest of the canvas. I really like how the bigger tree came out because the tree "wood" actually sorta feels like bark and wood to me and I love the way it came out.

Doing this painting and spending so much time on the project made me really realize that I love acrylic painting and using acrylic. It also helped me find what I could really do with my art if I really tried. I spent almost 2 months now on this painting and now I'm almost done. I feel like I'm going to end up using more of the techniques that I learned this time around for more of my paintings. I involved my love for Greek mythology and magic to create this painting. Getting to paint Aphrodite is what mainly motivated me to keep working on the painting because I knew that if I didn't finish the rest of the painting, I couldn't get to my main goal. This painting really exceeded my expectations of my artistic ability, it doesn't look exactly like the original painting but it still looks like a painting of mine and that's mainly what I love, because it doesn't just look like a copy, it looks like my work. I know that once it's fully done, I'm going to love it. I learned a new technique of blending and shading. There were a lot of times when I felt discouraged with the painting because I thought it was going to look bad since everything looked so flat, but working on it more and focusing a lot helped a lot. Recreating the masterpiece really helped me learn that art really can't be rushed. It'll take time and sometimes I'm gonna feel like my art doesn't look good but continuing to work on it and spend time on it will show the progress and my true ability. I'm very happy with how my painting has came out. Thanks for watching :3