How do Artists visually record sources of inspirations

Pablo Picasso

Picasso was famous for his cubism drawings. Picasso did not draw realistic drawings from perspective, he tended to over exaggerate the human body making the image look deformed making the painting unique. Cubism is cerated by squiggles and draw from what you can see from the squiggle or shape created.
Picasso was influential in the 20th century and his painting style cubism became very popular. Picasso was one of the first artists to create cubism which is what made him famous and influential to others around the world. Picasso uses alternative realism into his artwork later on in his career to create his own style of technique, Picasso calls this Cubism and is rarely used in modern art due to its technique being to bizzare. I will not use cubism in my art as I don't find it my kind of art style. Picasso's African Period was the period when Pablo Picasso painted in a style which was strongly influenced by African sculpture. This period lasted from 1907 to 1909. This period, which followed his Blue Period and Rose Period, was also called the Negro Period or Black Period.

As Matisse exhibited his Blue Nude and Derain his Bathers in 1907, Picasso countered with the work that become one of the cornerstones of his fame, which we now know as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. In this work, he began to incorporate African influences into his work. Before Picasso started his Back Period he came into the possession of some ancient Iberian sculptures that he got from an acquantaince who had stolen them from the Louvre museum in Paris. In Les Demoiselles d'Avignon the faces of the three women on the left are based on the Iberian sculptures. So as to avoid compositional monotony, Picasso based the faces of the two women on the right on the African totem art, that he had also collected.










Picasso and his early work 1896.
Picasso was once a painter of realism before he started cubism. He became interested and influenced by african art and made his own art using real life models and changing realism in the form of cubism and african art.

Van Gogh


Van Gogh was a man who liked to paint how he felt. He was a very emotional man through out his life. Later in life Van Gogh tried to sell a few of his paintings but others didn't see his work as art. Van Gogh became famous and his work became art several years after he died. Early days of van Gogh's life he was a happy guy influenced by colours of his mood, If he was happy he would paint bright colours such as white, yellow and oranges in spirals and different brush strokes making the image lively. Van Gogh made spirals in different colours most likely to add life as wisps or stress as he would picture stress vibes or depression to look like if seen to the human eye. Later on Van Gogh fell in love with a prostitute and became depressed painting blues, blacks and purples showing his mood. After he became insane he cut off his ear and sent the ear in a box to his beloved. Van Gogh then spent his time in a physiatrics unit for the rest of his time till he died.The self portrait above from the Musée d'Orsay brings together all the elements of Van Gogh's later work: a choice of colour that reflects his emotional state and a style of drawing that pulsates with energy. It was painted shortly after he left the St. Remy asylum in July 1889 and shows that he was still fighting his demons. It is arguably the most intense self portrait in the history of art.

This painting is a portrait of Van Gogh's internal crisis. His piercing eyes hold you transfixed but their focus is not on what is happening outside, but inside his head. The energy of the picture builds from the eyes which are the most tightly drawn feature. The rhythms of his brushstrokes spread across the planes of his face, gaining energy as they ripple through his jacket and hair, and finally burst into the churning turbulence of the ice-blue background. The cool blues and greens that he uses are normally calm colours, but when they are contrasted with his vivid red hair and beard they strike a jarring note which perfectly sets the psychological tone of the portrait. This is a very courageous image of a man trying to hold himself together as he wrestles with his inner fears.

H.R. Giger

Giger was famous for his sci fi fantasy paintings and images for movies and posters. He has made series of concept arts for films being one of the most popular "Aliens". In his early work he uses charcoal and ink for a dark misty effect for a supernatural/dark concept. Gigers techniques are planed in advance by firstly drawing his concept in charcoal or inks and then finally developed into oil pastel paintings. His inspirations are death and machinery also described as "Biomechanical" His main influences were painters Ernst Fuchs & Salvador Dalí. He met Salvador Dalí, to whom he was introduced by painter Robert Venosa. He was also a personal friend of Timothy Leary. Giger suffers from night terrors and his paintings are all to some extent inspired by his experiences with that particular sleep disorder. He studied interior and industrial design at the School of Commercial Art in Zurich (from 1962 to 1970) and made his first paintings as a means of art therapy to face his fears. He is influenced by his imagination when he sleeps and exaggerates his paintings and designs by making them bio metal, Making humanoids into machines known as "Cyborgs".
In his early work he was an interior designer and used his sci fi imaginations to create modern furniture.