Concentration

Anna Labbe

Layers of Fossils

For this project, as I'm still exploring my dinosaur concentration, I wanted to go back to kind of my roots, ya know? I wanted to go back to working with acrylic paint because it has been wayyyy too long since I did!! I really enjoy acrylic paint too, and find it a faster and less impatient process, so I was excited to explore with it. One artist duo that I have been really into lately is Shelby and Sandy, who are artists based in L.A. They make gigantic, cartoon and clean-like paintings with acrylic paint. The work is so perfectly even and precise that it looks like it was made digitally, and I really like that kind of effect, so I decided to embrace that style with my concentration!

I really wanted to make a cartoon-ish, stylized dinosaur image inspired by Shelby and Sandy, but I wasn't really sure what type of scene or dinosaur I wanted to depict. Then I remembered the stained glass project that I made in Art History with the layers of fossils under layers of dirt, and how I really enjoyed the image that I created and wanted to take it a step further, but never did! So this was the perfect opportunity to re-create that image. I also decided to do it on a stretched canvas because I knew it would be a project I wanted to keep with me (and also not have to matte!). However, painting on layers and layers of acrylic proved to take a much longer time than I originally thought, because I really wanted the colors to be pure and perfect, to give them that digital effect. There also was already another (failed) painting on the canvas, so I had to paint extra over that layer. However, I really like the way that the design came out and painting on the layers and layers without having to worry about making the image perfect in shadows and shading and blending was almost calming in a way, so I really enjoyed the process!