Surrealism Study 1 -
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon was an abstract artist
who borrowed heavily from the influences of surrealism and became famous for
his strikingly vivid and dark artwork. Whilst his style is not devoted to
surrealism, it certainly borrows in all the ways that inspire me with regards
to the tone and aesthetics of my
environment.
How Does This Relate To My Work?
So I have stated that I want to use
surrealism and surreal art influences to
inject my environment with horror. I am doing this because although my
environment is going to borrow from archetypal psychological horror
environments I don’t wish for it to look like a carbon copy. So I am looking
elsewhere for inspirational ways in which I can creatively inject horror into
my scene. Surrealism seemed the most appropriate for me and I have chosen my
first study to be Francis Bacon because his work is hauntingly abstract and
surreal which relates to the themes of psychological horror games.
Image #1 "Head
I"
‘Head I’ - Francis
Bacon 1947
This is ‘Head I’ by Francis Bacon. He painted it in 1947
using oils and tempera on board. It’s the earliest of Bacon’s six portraitures
that were included in his first exhibit at Erica Brausen’s Hanover Gallery in
London.
Bacon has severely distorted and obscured the human form here and shows a vicious and disfigured mouth with snarling fangs making reference back to animal origins.
How this Influences
my Environment
How will this painting be a visual
inspiration and influence for my project?
- The overall colour spectrum uses dark browns, greens and purples with areas of black, white and yellow to contrast. I want to stick to a similar dark toned colour spectrum with regards to my texture work.
- The white lines in the background suggest a basic room outline which frames the portrait although it does cause some distortion. Distortion is something I want to try and recreate in my environment.
- There is what appears to be some form of handle bar/bed post(?) behind the figure, the way t is painted causes it to crumble away on the far right and appear grungy in texture, something I want to reflect in my own texture work.
- The overall tone/aesthetic of the image is eerie and haunting. The viewer is confused at first sight and questions what they are seeing which is another thing I want to re create in my environment, not with “human” models but through my asset and environment creation.
- The painting has a grainy/thick texture to its appearance and feels scratches and derelict, this will be fantastic reference material for creating textures in my environment.
Image #2 and #3 "Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of Aeschylus" and "Triptych May-June"
‘Triptych Inspired by the Oresteia of
Aeschylus’ - Bacon
‘Triptych May-June, 1973’ - Bacon
Here are two more of Francis Bacon’s
works. These are more environment orientated as opposed to the previous
portrait. The top image is called “Triptych Inspired by
the Oresteia of Aeschylus” and was painted in 1981. The painting
is based on The Oresteia which is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by
Aeschylus which was associated with the end of the curse on the House of
Atreus.
The second image was created in 1973 by Bacon. It was painted with oil on canvas and was in memory of Bacons lover George Dyer who committed suicide. The triptych is a portrait of the moments before Dyers death from an overdoes of pills.
Both these works are heavily associated with metaphorical alternate meanings which is something that is often present in psychological horror games and also something I want to inject into my horror environment as a means of communicating horror.
The second image was created in 1973 by Bacon. It was painted with oil on canvas and was in memory of Bacons lover George Dyer who committed suicide. The triptych is a portrait of the moments before Dyers death from an overdoes of pills.
Both these works are heavily associated with metaphorical alternate meanings which is something that is often present in psychological horror games and also something I want to inject into my horror environment as a means of communicating horror.
How they Influences
my Environment
Why will these paintings be a visual
inspiration and influence for my project?
- They are both heavily ridden with metaphorical alternate meanings depicted through surreal and abstract art.
- Triptych, May-June shows doorways that lead to obscure and surreal environments in comparison to the basic red corridor which faces the viewer. Distorted secret areas, forbidden views illustrating a darker story. Concealing horrors within an environment.
- Triptych inspired by Oresteia of Aeschylus illustrates a variety of obscured forms, they look almost like bars or glass containers with human forms inside? Either way the proportions are obscure and they are irregular within the environment which causes confusion and distortion. In my environment I want to create interesting and surreal assets to infuse the surrealism into the environment. This is perfect inspiration.
- Visual semantics of the blood stain on the floor.
Image #4 "Figure With Meat"
‘Figure with Meat’ - Bacon
‘Figure With Meat’ was
painted in 1954 by Bacon and is based on the Pope Innocent X portrait by Diego
Velazquez. In Bacons version of the Pope painting, he is placed between two
large bisected halves of cows.
How this Influences
my Environment
How will this inspire/influence my
environment?
- The picture, in terms of overall aesthetics, is incredibly haunting and eerie. This is something I want to capture in my environment.
- The painting has a thick, grainy textured feel to it, the colours are pigmented and rich in density. This is certainly something I want to reflect in my texture work when I texture my model and assets.
- The background is incredibly dark and limited light source is available other than what highlights the core subject, another element I want present in my environment.
Side Note Study,
Bacon and Silent Hill
One of the main reasons I have chosen
Francis Bacon is because, when I was watching the video “The Making of Silent Hill 2” the
Silent Hill development team explain how they used Bacon’s body of work for
inspiration. Team Silent's creature designer and creative director Mashiro Ito
apparently considers Francis Bacon to be one of his favourite artists and it
certainly shows when appreciating the visual themes and aesthetics of the
Silent Hill games.
Whilst watching I took some screen
captures which I thought might be helpful for my studio project. Here they are.
Various stills from the video “The Making of Silent Hill 2”
Whilst Bacon’s portraiture work doesn’t
necessarily correspond with the character designs regarding their visual
aesthetics, the monsters and environments throughout the games do. By this I
mean that the human characters within Silent Hill resemble humans, however,
they do illustrate corresponding themes found within Bacon’s work such as
metaphors, symbolism, sexuality and many others. It is the monsters, however,
that are incredibly reminiscent of Francis Bacons artwork. They are vulgar and
repulsive, often communicating far darker, sinister and convoluted themes than
first meets the eye.
I found a really interesting article on
the influences Francis Bacon had upon Silent Hill on www.gaygamer.net (trust me, it’s a good article…)
written by Mitch
Alexander who discusses the impact of Bacons work
on Silent Hill.
“A repeated motif of
Bacon’s were the use
of lines and bars to demarcate space in his paintings – which had the added effect of making it
seem like his subjects
were seated inside frames, boxes, cages or prisons, such as Triptych Inspired by the Orestia of Aeschlyus, or his “screaming
popes”, a number of paintings he modelled after Velasquez’s Portrait of Pope
Innocent X. A number of Silent Hill’s monsters share this characteristic of
being trapped in a cage, albeit in three-dimensions, such as Silent Hill 2‘s
final boss and the Flesh Lips, Silent Hill 3‘s Glutton, and Silent Hill
0rigins‘ Sad Daddy.” (Alexander,
M. 2013).
The use of lines in Bacons work is
something I mentioned prior to this side note study, where I discussed the use
of obscure lines and oddly proportion constraints around many figures and
spaces within Bacons paintings. Alexander sums up the lines and talks about how
they are represented in 3D through the monsters in Silent Hill such as ‘Flesh
Lips’ from Silent Hill 2.
‘Flesh Lips’ from
Silent Hill 2
Example of Bacon’s “lines and bars to demarcate space”
“In speaking about space and placement in Bacon’s work, it
should be noted that it’s actually fairly difficult to talk about exactly where any
of the entities he paints actually are. The locations and environments in his paintings tend to be
solid blocks of colour
or shapes rather than realistic representations of a building, or a room, or an open space – this is because so much of Bacon’s work focuses not on capturing the
likeness of something, but trying to capture the sensation of something – instead of painting what one would physically see, he paints the sensation that that thing
provides for him (and, to some extent, the sensation he wants that thing to
elicit in other people)”. (Alexander, M. 2013).
The way Alexander sums up the way in
which Bacon uses his space, colours and
mark makings to communicate to the viewer is reflective of my thoughts regarding how I want my environment
to communicate horror, and shows how I can take influences and inspirations
from Bacon similarly to how Silent Hill does.
“Bacon’s tendency to paint people, places and objects not as they really, physically and objectively are is pretty appropriate for Silent Hill […]
many of Bacon’s portraits are painted such that the faces of his models are heavily
distorted, warped and blurred […] Bacon also tends
to distort
the bodies of his painted
subjects in various ways […] partially liquefied, his skin spilling out as an
orchid stain across the floor. More often, angular, ambiguous geometry is used as Bacon plays with perspective, distance, and the
figure-and-ground distinction
[…]”
(Alexander, M. 2013).
(Alexander, M. 2013).
I have highlighted some key quotes from
Alexander which illustrates the ways in which I want to obsure my
environment to enhance the horror and pull it apart from all the “standard”
psychological horror games. Whilst Silent Hill takes influences from Bacon to
communicate horror, I want to do the same but attempt to create something with
a similar feel/theme but that doesn’t’ just looks like a carbon copy of the
game.
Alexander makes reference to the ways
in which team Silent were inspired by the way Bacon painted portraits to
illustrate their environments and characters. You can see an incredibly clear
resemblance to Bacons work and the monster dressings in various Silent Hill
games.
I want to take this theory and apply it
to my environment with regards to how I inject horror into the environment.
Bacon’s “Three Studies for Portraits: Isabel Rawsthorne, Lucian Frued and J.H.” - Visual
inspiration behind Silent Hills monsters
“Lying Figure” A monster
from Silent Hill that strongly reflects Bacon’s influence
“Abstract Daddy” A monster
from Silent Hill that strongly reflects Bacon’s influence
You can clearly see how Bacon’s artwork
influenced the designs of the monsters. The use of colours that are blended to
appear melted and liquefied is a common attribute in Bacon’s work. Abstract
Daddy is a personal favourite of mine when it comes to the monsters in Silent
Hill. “He” is so monstrous and vulgar with regards to what he supposedly
represents in the game.
Abstract Daddy, also known as “Ideal
Father” is supposed to be a visual metaphor for Silent Hill 2’s Angela Orosco’s
character. He supposedly symbolises her past. The Abstract Daddy is vaguely
reminiscent of a male character laying upon a bed. Like in Bacons portraiture
painting, his skin is severely disfigured and morphs all over his body to
appear incredibly obscure. He supposedly represents the violent abuse Angela
encounters in her life and is a visual manifestation of the vicious act of rape
due to the fact that it looks like the “Abstract Daddy” is mounting another
figure atop the “bed”.
This type of visual metaphor and
manifestation of symbolism within models inspires me and gives me ideas for my
models within my environment. I want to use Bacons work in a similar way that
Team Silent did to infuse horror in their monster, likewise I want to use his
work to inject horror into my scene.
Francis Bacon Study
Summary
The ways in which Bacon paints is truly
inspiration to me, I have always been such a fan of his work. The fact this his
paintings influenced one of my favourite game series, Silent Hill. is just a
bonus! I have learnt a lot from this study and I have been able to cherry pick
the ways in which I want to use the influences and inspirations from Francis
Bacon’s work to help infuse my environment with horror.
Bacon’s work itself communicates horror
in a very unique and uncomfortable way. He uses themes such as disturbance,
sexuality, violence, the human condition, dread, distortion and obscurity to
communicate horror to his viewers. I want to parallel this within my
environment by replicating the themes using surrealism and abstract assets to
emphasise the horror.
The core aesthetics of Bacons work have
inspired me with regards to texture making and will prove incredibly helpful
when I am trying to recreate textures for my models that maintain the themes I
am trying to communicate. I want to ensure my textures reflect the fact that I
am creating a horror game and will compliment the ways I am injecting horror
into the scene.
Bacon’s work encompasses the ability to
force emotion into the viewer on a primary level. At first glance, without
analysing his paintings, their aesthetics communicate horror, disturbance,
haunting and uncomfortable visuals, obscurity, dread, confusion and violence;
something that I want to capture in my psychological/surreal themed environment
as a means to inject horror.
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