Drawing Inspired by Odilon Redon

 During our art portfolio class, we looked at Odilon Redons work and we were assigned to create a piece inspired by his work. I decided to create a piece inspired by some of the artworks I analysed in my previous blog post (click here to access).

Strange flower (1880)
This painting inspired the idea and concept of my own design.

Diode Lamp, 2007

This was the product made by Marc Newson that I linked to Redons work. I wanted to use the lamp and incorporate it in my own design.

Spirit of the forest (1880)
In this painting, I was inspired by the surroundings to create a dull and dark piece of work. 

Ophelia (1900-05)
This painting inspired the pop of colour that I wanted to include in my design and the flowers. 

Meaning:

What I like about this drawing is that people can interpret it in their own unique way, just like Redons work. This can allow people to imagine and interpret this in their own way.

The main element in the drawing is the lamp. In the previous post about Odilon Redon, I linked his work with Marc Newsons diode lamp, therefore, I wanted to draw inspiration from that and create a lamp. The lamp shelters the bulb inside which is in the shape of a baby’s face. I tried to create the baby's face by enlarging some characteristics like the eyes. The inspiration behind the baby’s face was from Redons work ‘strange flower’. I wanted to include a severed head in my own design as it is something seen in various pieces of Redons work. The surroundings of the baby are dark and dull which was inspired from the paintings ‘spirit of the forest’ and 'strange flower'. Dark environments are also very common in Redons work. 

 The baby is sheltered inside the lamp, suggesting that parents often hide the negative things in life from their children to protect  and shelter them from the darkness. The darkness can be associated with modern day problems such as but not limited to the virus, pollution, war, negative thoughts.

The lamp is colourful as it represents how happy and careless children are, without having to worry about any of those problems. In the Bible, light has always been a symbol of holiness, goodness, knowledge, wisdom, grace, hope. Light in this painting can be associated with babies as they bring happiness and energy into other peoples lives. Light emits out of the lamp and into the darkness which shows how babies can affect the world and make it less dull. Additionally, inside the lamp, there are flowers inspired by ‘’ to represent purity and loveliness. The colour inside the lamp is orange to symbolise excitement, adventure, warmth, and good health. 

The stand of the lamp is curved as it represents the ups and downs in life. However, even though there are ups and downs in life, the stand is still colourful as it represents the enjoyable and adventurous journey of life. This is also of orange colour as it represent the excitement and adventure of life. The base of the lamp might signify the end of life and how everything comes to an end. The base of the lamp is still colourful, representing the memorable journey each individual has been through.

In this drawing, I tried to implement some of Redons techniques. I used hard pastels, a medium that was commonly used by Redon. I also tried to create smooth outlines to resemble his technique. Additionally, Redon usually has great contrast in his artwork. I wanted to create a piece with a lot of contrast which is why I used white, yellow and orange to contrast the brown and black surroundings. 

This was a fun task to complete as I used my imagination and creativity to create a piece of art. In my main project, I would like to use the same approach of drawing inspiration from various sources and combining that with my creativity to create my own unique outcome. This process reminded me of the development process that undergoes before the creation of a final outcome or product. The images I used and drew inspiration from were the initial ideas of my design and then I used the most suitable elements of each, combined it with my own creativity to create something original. For my main project, maybe I could start researching various products and pointing out elements in each design that I could implement in my own.