Independent Project

Artist Statement:

The subject of this piece is a snake. I used acrylic paint and water color pencils to create it. I created this specific piece because I wanted to create something with a cool texture and would fit a large-ish canvas (12in x 24in). I also really like snakes, and with the shape they are, they seemed like a good thing to create on the canvas I had available. This piece has some elements and principles, one being shape, because the whole snake is made up of small parallelagrams and triangles, and the background is made up of squares (though they aren't perfect ones). This piece also contains the element of color, because it has a couple different colors in it. It also has texture in it, because the scales are different colors and shapes. I think it also has the principle of contrast, because the pink, purple, and blue background contrast with the different greens in the snake.

In this piece, I believe I used the composition rules/technique of rule of thirds, because when divided into ninths, the snake head is on one of the dividing lines. When creating the independent project, I originally was going to make a mixed media drawing of an owl, with ink, charcoal, and graphite, but then when I decided to use my 12 inch by 24 inch canvas, I wanted to do paint. When creating the snake painting, I had a hard time figuring out what size the scales should be, and I expirimented with different sizes. For the background, I was originally going to just blend some watercolor, then I decided to keep the grid and fill it.

Snakes are one of my favorite animals, and they are very fun to sketch, so I wanted to create something more than just a sketch, and I wated it to be larger scaled with detail and texture. If this piece could be made any stronger, I would blend the water color in the background more, and make some of the scales on the snake more opaque.