Sustained Investigation #6

In my art, you can clearly see leaves the color of fall, red, yellow, brown, and small inch worms climbing high in the sky. The story told is different colored leaves taking over the view with their long fall filled branches filling the sky. I chose to make this because since the current season right now is Fall so what better way to create an image of fall than with actual fall leaves. This relates to my life because fall is one of my favorite seasons. Fall has warm tones amongst the trees and when you look at a tree in the fall you can feel the seasons beauty. So I wanted to create a closer view of the leaves you'd see in fall and what would appear on those branches to capture that beauty. I also really find leaves very fascinating in nature so I thought it would be fun to incorporate them into my work and add white highlights and more veins on top.

My work was made by cutting a piece of paper so the image would be smaller. I then added a small border just enough so the leaves could extend off of it. I made outlines with graphite, so it could be erased later, to show where the branches would be placed. I used watercolored pencils to color the branches and background. For the branches, I used brown and black watercolored pencils and then blended with water on a tiny paintbrush. For the background, I used blue, pink, yellow, and tan watercolored pencils and blended with a paintbrush and water. I continued to layer up the watercolored pencils in the background and blended until I was satisfied with the outcome. The placement of the leaves was chosen at random, I simply placed them where my heartfelt it was right. To keep the leaves in place I hot glued them on. I then had to go in and make sure that none of the hot glue strings were showing. Once everything was in place I went in with a white pen to add highlights to the leaves and branches. I also added some more veins to the leaves.

The process of creating my art was difficult since the leaves were small and I had to use hot glue to glue them down. That part was the hardest part because since the leaves are thin I could feel the warmth of the glue so I burnt my fingers multiple times. But by using my fingers I was in more control of the leaves placement so it was worth it in the end. My project evolved because I started off with plain leaves and a plain background. I then went in and added more blue to the background and added highlights and shadows to branches and leaves. This brought the leaves back to life. My next steps could be to add faint leaves in the background such as grey leaves in the distance. I could also add even more different colored leaves to show diversity in nature. Overall, I am proud of this piece and after this experience, I want to continue to experiment with my material to see where my art can take me.