Francisco Goya Influence

There are an abundance of artists that are underestimated, ignored, or overlooked because they are not mentioned in history books; however, those who are ,are there because they went "above and beyond" as an artist. Whether it was because the artist begun a movement, or influenced it. For my artist, Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, became a icon of his time and is someone who is currently apricated both as painter and printmaker. Francisco Goya became known as one of the most skilled printmakers of his times. Not only did he aw his audience with aesthetically pleasing prints, but also intrigued many people with his political, religious, and social criticism of their corruption.
Francisco Goya's artworks darkened (both physically and conceptually)
as he aged. His ideas begun shifting to a pessimistic world full of tyranny and destruction. In his first engraved series called Los Caprichos (The Caprice), first published in 1799, that subjects around the corruption of Spain in the eighteenth century, which later becomes branded as "Black Spain". This series depicts a variety of subjects, such as clergies, witches and prostitution (all corrupt and dangerous). The word "caprice" has been used in many classics usually in fantastic ways, but non have played with it as Goya did by indicting moral force and taking advantage of his artistic license. In due to all, Los Caprichos, comments on the widespread corruption of the Catholic Church, the peasantry beliefs of witchcraft, and the arrogance of their government.
In his second series of engravings/etchings called Los Desastres De la Guerra during the Napoleonic invasion/war, Goya's subjects shift from a generalization of Spanish corruptions to the corruptions done to the Spaniards in other words the Guerrilla (war) against one of Europe's greatest army—France. Goya's intentions were to create a powerful visual protest against the violence and gore of war. By showing the consequences of conflicts between soldiers (such as severed heads and dismembered body parts), he tactically creates gory scenery to persuade emotions such as fear.
His final set of prints named Los Disparates and Los Proverbios are the most mysterious since a certain idea/subject is not portrayed. Most of the prints remain ambiguous, and it's due to his late stages (illness) when all his artworks did not follow a theme but rather portrayed macabre sceneries. Part of these etching fell under his "dark" stages influenced to his mental health.
Francisco Goya's ideas were not the only powerful contribution to his art-pieces, but so were his printmaking skills—he was not known as a printing master for no reason.
He certainly took advantage of what printmaking had to offer (same with his paintings). He did not only settle with etching but created a great blend when integrating aquatint. He used the aquatint to create stark settings. What ware great about his prints is that even thought he did a great job in transitioning subtle gradients great rigid contrast dramatized the image (a common feature seen in printmaking). The high contrast provided a distinctly dark and mysterious quality in his work, which complemented his imagery. Goya's over the top use of fine lines , cross countering, and value variation shows the impactful aesthetics the printmaking world has to offer. Another feature that complemented his images, was that the prints came out monochromatic contributing the theme of lifeless and darker side of human nature. Personally, the unexpected etching that happens in printmaking gives the piece a unique personality, and not every print is going to come out the same (so every print has it's unique distinctions). Unlike any other media at the time, printmaking gave the artist the ability to create multiple prints to expand the range of his audience (influence more people), which was something Goya wanted to
do.
After learning from Goya's prints studying his techniques I begun to appreciate printmaking a bit more. I tried my best to incorporate a perfect blend between both etched lines and aquatint values to stimulate Goya's style. What I found interesting about his process was amount of etching he decided to do to create dark value when he could have just aquatinted those sections (mostly done for style). Throughout the project I found many tricks that I can keep under my sleeve for further projects. Oven thought my idea/concept is not as dark as Goya's I thing his style did contribute to my print by creating a stark and lonely-sinister-complex scenario (even thought my subject was a clown and a horse). Overall I am satisfied with the results; the few mistakes I did make only contributed to the plate's and print's characteristics—that was when I came to a realization that was what made printmaking unique. Some stuff I would do differently are to complete are my etched lines on the first bath in order to prevent from having awkward line values.