09. Independent #1

Artist Statement

For this assignment we were given little to no criteria, except to think about if the piece that we created could be included in our college portfolio or submitted in for a competition. Since this piece was ours to create, I choose a media that I both loved but also wanted some more practice with using; black ink. I started with a basic light pencil outline on watercolor paper, just getting down the rough shapes of the figures that would be in my piece; not going into much detail because I knew I could add in finer stuff with the ink once I was ready. After finishing my light sketch, which included the main focus being a Doberman breed dog dressed in a suit surrounded by crow feathers and other appendages, I went back in with black indian ink to outline my pencil sketch which I applied to the paper with calligraphy pen.

I would stay that since my first drafts, this project has evolved a lot over time. In my first drafts my focal point was still the dog, but I was going to make it much more colorful with textured and patterned paper; but I dumped that idea after I decided that I wanted to use black ink and go for a bit more darker vibe. I also was jumping back and forth about how I wanted to project the dog. I was jumping back and forth between doing fur texture with cross hatching or just doing a sleek wash of gray; in the end I went with the gray wash.

I think there are a lot of ways that this piece of artwork can be interpreted, most of them leaning towards the darker side just because of the overall tone and color pallet that incorporates the piece; but honestly the reason why I think this piece got so dark was because I was pretty miserable when I was creating it. I started the rough draft right on the day that we lost power from the wind storm, and I continued to work on this piece as the days stretched on with no power; my misery about not being able to take a proper shower or turn on the heat having quite a say in how this piece turned out. Overall though I have mixed feelings about this piece. I really like how my background came out, but I found myself struggling when it came down to the dog itself. Originally I thought the ink wash was a great idea, but after I put it on the page, I hated how streaky it mad it look. I also find myself conflicted on how I'll fill in the suit; so I'm just leaving it blank for now.

In the end I know that I'll be revising this piece. Since I'm super proud of how the background came out I want to achieve that same level of proudness when it comes to the rest of the piece; meaning that I'll be revisiting the drawing board. I want to brainstorm more ideas for the dog to cover up all the streakiness, and I'm also still contemplating what I'll do with the suit; though I'm pretty sure I'll go with a solid color or some sort of cross hatching. But besides those two faults, I'm really happy with how this piece came out.