Macro Leaf Project

Artist Statement:

The subject of this piece is a zoomed in view of a pine cone. To create this piece, I used graphite pencil to sketch the scales of the pine cone, and then used oil pastel to do the rest. I chose to create this specific piece, because I like creating mildy abstract pieces out of objects. I liked drawing the naturalness of it (if that makes sense) too. In this piece I used the element of shape, because it is composed of the different shapes the pine cone had. I also used the element of color, because I used the brown color scheme. I also used the principle of pattern, because the pine cone looks like a pattern the way it repeats, and is composed of mostly similar shapes.

Throughout this piece, I think I used the composition rule/technique of soft focus, because it looks a little blurry in a way, and I believe that it was the oil pastels that gave it that look. For this project, when we went to find objects to base our pieces on, I picked a piece of bark along with the pine cone I drew, and I planned on using the bark originally, then changed my mind last minute. I also thought about using ink to create the pine cone, but obviously decided otherwise.

This project relates to my life, because I love nature and the outdoors, so it was nice to draw something from that setting. If this piece could be made any stronger, I would sharpen the scales a little more, and make the pastel more opaque in the areas that have white space.