Color Observational Animal

This is a drawing of a ram figurine that I did from observation with oil paint sticks, and I added a background of mountains from my imagination. I created this piece by first outlining the major contours of the figurine such as the head, jaw, horns, and body. I then used blue and white oil paint sticks to depict the coloration and highlights of the head and body. I used purple and white for the horns, and lastly did the background of red-orange mountains against a yellow sky. I chose to draw the ram figurine because I found the horns unique and intriguing. I wanted to use nontraditional colors and chose to do cool colors against a warm background. I think that the complementary colors of blue with orange and purple with yellow create good color contrast but also give the ram a better place in the space of the piece. The addition of white oil paint stick allowed me to create the highlights which give the ram a better sense of form.

For the composition of the piece, I applied the rule of thirds by offsetting the ram to the right side. I also used a high horizon line to give an angle up effect. This piece evolved in that I originally made the ram's horns the same smooth texture as the body. However, I wanted to differentiate between textures and so I went over the horns in a thick layer of oil paint and used a carving tool to scrape the oil away to create a rough texture that is unique to the horns.

When I chose to draw the ram, I found that it looked very regal and powerful. For this reason I placed it on top of a mountain, as if it is ruling over the land and protecting those below. This project relates to my life in that I modeled the mountains off of those that I've seen before when I'm skiing in Maine. I think that this piece could be stronger if the sky had better tone variation. I added white to give parts of it a lighter hue, but overall it seems fairly flat, and would be stronger if there was more contrast within the sky.