For this assignment, I decided to recreate two of the posters that Edward Penfield designed for Harper’s Magazine during the art nouveau period. It took me about two weeks to complete my artifact. I spent the first week figuring out what I wanted to present for this assignment. My original idea was to recreate four different posters from four different artists from the art nouveau period to show the contrast between the work that was being done. But I realized I was making it a lot harder for myself, so I decided to focus on one artist.

I wanted to recreate something I would be able to accomplish. I prefer design and the art nouveau period is so far my favourite, therefore I decided to recreate Penfield’s work. Although Penfield wasn’t necessarily known to follow the art nouveau style, his work was popular during that time and he was also influenced by Japanese prints.

I spent about three or four days recreating the posters. I drew out the images and then coloured them using mostly sharpies and pencil crayons for the skin. I tried my best to get every little detail and make it similar to the original. I know that a few things are different compared to the original. At times I had trouble matching the exact colours that are in the original. I also somewhat rushed the colouring part of it, therefore the colour is not as flat as I wanted it to be. Unfortunately, you can see the marker lines in my work.

When it came to the photoshoot, I decided to print out a text talking about Edward Penfield, as well as his picture. I didn’t know what to do when it came to setting up the photo. At first, I was just going to present it on a black background with just the artifacts and the little summary about Penfield. I reconsidered because it looked too plain. That’s when I got the idea to use my jewelry as decoration for the photo. I picked out my jewelry that reminded me of art nouveau or that I believed fit the characteristics of it. I didn’t have a lot of things that I could do for the background. I didn’t have the time to make decorations for the photoshoot part of the assignment. I put more time into the artifact rather than the photoshoot. The way I decided to present it was a last-minute decision. I think if I had given myself more time for the photoshoot, I would have made art nouveau-styled designs for the background.

Overall, I think I did a pretty decent job. I would give myself a 7.5/10. There are things that I definitely could have done better. If I had the chance to redo this project, I would put more thought into the photoshoot. I would also redo the colouring of the posters. I think I could have done better with the colouring and prevented it from having the market lines.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Penfield

https://edwardpenfield.com/catalogue/the-complete-harpers-posters/1896/

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search#!?q=Edward%20Penfield&perPage=20&sortBy=Relevance&offset=0&pageSize=0