"My Left Foot" Has Better Painting Skills Than My Right Hand

IT’S ABOUT EFFIN’ TIME!

Because I’m sure that you either didn’t read my other blogs or forgot, I am minimizing the movie titled One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and I have chosen the “World Series Commentary” scene as the focal point of my painting (you can watch this scene in my 2nd blog)

I chose the blank TV as the single image/object on the poster because in the film, McMurphy is defeated by Nurse Ratched in the vote to decide whether or not the World Series would be watched. As he stares at the blank TV screen that isn’t functioning, you watch a grin spread across the main character’s face as he begins to shout imaginary commentary at nothing. The next thing you know, other patients begin to gather and join in the excitement sparked by a TV that is turned off and a desire to participate in American traditions.

That’s what I want. For people to see this movie poster and remember the uplifting emotions felt and the message that joy is contagious despite society’s oppressive nature.

Before I began painting, I read through the acrylic painting book I had mentioned in my previous blog. Because it is a book for beginners, it gave me introductory information on the types of brushes and blending colors and the color wheel to help me with my painting. The blending of colors was very important to me because I wasn't trying to spend a fafillion dollars on different shades of red or blue (by the way, art supplies are crazy expensive). It talked about making colors lighter or darker and how to manipulate a single color to get multiple different shades. I didn't feel the need to practice certain brush strokes or the blending of colors because my paintings are so simplistic, and to be honest, I just really wanted to get to painting a poster.

So when this project initially started and I came up with this idea, I went to Michael's to buy some basic art supplies such as canvases, a 15-set paintbrush kit (because I didn't know which ones I would need to use), and black and white acrylic paint. The rest of the supplies needed I could find in my house like a cup for water and a paper plate as a paint palette. When I figured out what I was painting, I bought some beige/gold colored paint.
I began my painting process by making a really quick sketch of what I had in mind which was recommended by my Handy-Dandy Acrylic Made Easy: Getting Started Book by Patti Mollica.

The first step my painting was to paint the background color, and in this case, it was white because the mental institute and the other settings in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest were very plain and lifeless and it wasn't until McMurphy came along was the place given life and energy.

And that was it. That's my minimal movie poster.

Just kidding. I wish...

Following that step, I then began to sketch the movie title, cast members, and director with pencil using the same font that was used for the original movie poster.

Then, I painted it.

It was now time to paint blank TV. Unlike other paintings where they may be more objects or more color blending, because my poster is basic and simplistic, it makes it easier for mistakes to be recognized so I tried to take a lot of time into making sure things were perfect. At first, I sketched the dimensions of the TV using a ruler and a pencil.

Then, I painted it.

The book I have been studying from recommends starting from the back and working towards the front so I started with a black base and then added the gold and grey parts afterwards.

TADA!!! My first movie poster is complete!

Overall, I was pretty content with this poster being that I have never really painted anything since 5th grade art class, but clearly I am not that artistic. I liked the way the title fonts turned out, but I wish I would’ve done a better job on the TV because it just seems “eh” to me. It also seems very 2-D which means that I'm going to have to research how to use shadow to possibly make the object/image pop out from the poster. The TV actually is really bad and it makes me angry every time I see it 'cause I probably could've done better. Also, the spacing for the director's name is really crammed so I'll definitely fix that for my next poster.
Though the process I went through seemed pretty simple, I took a lot of time to make sure everything was lined up and in the right dimensions (even though some of it didn’t turn out as symmetrical or proportional as I would’ve hoped). Luckily, because acrylic paint dries so quickly, I was able to finish this faster than it if would have been painted with oil paint. I hope that as I paint three more posters the quality will improve and so will the satisfaction that I get as well as the people who view it.

Movie Recommendation #3:

Title: Captain Fantastic

Director: Matt Ross

Starring: Viggo Mortensen

Date Released: July 8th, 2016

Sources:
http://maxseesmovies.blogspot.com/2011/04/33-one-flew-over-cuckoos-nest.html