Artist statements

Pen & Ink Snake

The piece I have created is of a snake leaning over a glass of poison. The snake has its mouth open and is showing its teeth. The glass of poison is emphasized to reflect the Inktober prompt which I chose which is poisonous. I intentionally added little dots to the snake to make sure it didn't look two dimensional.

The process behind this piece started with me having to choose an inktober prompt. I chose poisonous as my prompt and decided that a snake would successfully portray this prompt. I made four sketches of my piece and chose the sketch that i liked best and copied it onto a bigger piece of paper. I outlined my subject matter with pencil. I then went over my outlines with sharpie and added some texture to give the subject matter more form.

The inspiration behind this piece was the inktober event taking place now. I chose a concept which I was not to familiar with which was poisonous as I have never created a piece that dealt with that concept and i wanted to challenge myself.

My goal for this project was to finish with my project early or at least before the deadline which I accomplished. Another goal was to challenge myself with a concept I wasn't comfortable with.

I'm overall satisfied with how my piece turned out. It came out better than I had hoped and I finished before the deadline which is rare for me. I learned from this project to not be afraid of concepts and subject matter which I'm not familiar or comfortable with. This piece will influence future artwork as I wont be afraid of tackling different artistic tasks.

Bear Bust

The clay bust I have made is of a bears head. The piece is only of the bears head and has a textured surface throughout. This was made on purpose to give the piece a more realistic feel to it. The element of texture is very present in my piece and helps create the principle of emphasis since the fur is what some people notice first.

The bust is made of clay and started out as a large slab of clay. From the there I proceeded to make the bust hollow on the inside. After I made it hollow on the inside I sculpted the ears on the bust and got rid of any trapped air inside the pieces I attached. Afterwards I proceeded to the most challenging part of the whole process which was attaching the bears snout. What was challenging about this was that I had to make the snout hollow too. Finally after I attached the snout I added the bears eyes and added texture to the whole piece to make it look like it had fur.

I was inspired to make this by the fact that animals can be misrepresented sometimes. For example, sharks. Sharks are often seen as animals that frequently attack just to eat. They're seen as dangerous and ruthless but in reality people are attacked more by cows than sharks. This is the message I conveyed through the bears head I made. I chose to do a bear because I have always been intrigued by bears for the way they can be gentle giants but also very protective.

I tried to challenge myself with this project again the way I did with my inktober piece. This was the first time I made a clay bust or even worked with a large amount of clay. The last clay piece I made had pieces falling apart and was structurally weak. I decided that with this clay project I would make something I hadn't done before with a subject matter I've never done before too. Another goal I had for this project was also to make my piece strong and not to make it brittle.

This piece came out better than I had thought. I was getting second thoughts midway through the project but decided to finish it either ways. Overall I am satisfied with the way my piece turned out. I even learned new things with this project like how to add texture to clay. This project also expanded the way I see the types of things I can do with clay.

Art Show Piece

My piece shows a oil pastel and prisma color pencil, portrait of the band Led Zeppelin. It only shows the lead singer and guitarist, and doesn't have the drummer or the bassist. The background is mostly black and a few different color spotlights are shown as well. The piece shows the two men in the front with an emphasis primarily on the lead singer due to the vibrant colors used to create him.

The piece was made with a combination of oil pastels and prisma color pencils. Oil pastels were primarily used for the background, and the male characters were drawn using prisma color pencils. I used prisma color pencils for the characters so that I could add small details to the characters, as this was not possible with the oil pastels. I used lots of layers for the characters outfits as well as for their skin tones, and hair. I also used layers to create the background and to create the different colored spotlights.

My piece was inspired by the rebellious culture associated with classic rock music. I decided to use the band Led Zeppelin as a subject matter as they were a controversial band during the nineteen seventies. I thought they would fit best with the culture I tried to portray in the piece. In the piece the characters are shown performing with a visible rebellious attitude.

For this piece I tried to incorporate two different medias as I've seen different medias being used on a single piece and I've liked the way they turned out. Another goal I had for this piece was to draw two characters in the same piece as I've normally just drawn one character in each piece. I also wanted to create a piece using oil pastels and I also wanted to work on my blending. I feel as though this piece helped me accomplish these goals.

I am overall satisfied with how my piece turned out and also how my technical skill has improved. Through this project I learned to not let my art making problems affect me and affect how my work turns out. I also learned not to be afraid of tackling different subject matters and different medias which I dont commonly use.

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Pop Art Woman

My inspiration for this piece is Roy Lichtenstein's pop art style. My piece is also inspired by the problem of truths and voices being silenced through social media and through other means.
The process of creating my piece started with the mapping of the idea I had. I transferred one of my four sketches over to a canvas and colored in the figure first. I then added the bold outlines to my figure.

John fogherty Portrait.

- My inspiration for this piece were the emotions of relaxation and calmness. These emotions are conveyed through the portrait.

- The process began with me first choosing an image to draw. I then mapped it out on a large piece of paper. My piece still isn't complete because it doesn't have charcoal.