16. Concentration #1

Artist Statement

The first piece in my concentration for AP Art Studio, I decided to turn away from my original prompt "What's in the woods...?" and delve into some portraits instead. Seeing some common themes from last year with these pieces (1 & 2), since I do enjoy making portraits I decided to explore it again since I wasn't feeling to inspired with my original prompt.

The materials that I used for this piece were pen ink (both black and blue) and watercolor paint. I started out by outlining the fish forms and human form in ink (fish blue and figure black respectively), before going back in with watercolor and filling in the forms. I then painted a light wash of grey into the background to bring more depth to the piece.

Though I started out strong with my line work, I struggled with the watercolor. My figures shading came out fine, but I'm not happy with the overall product of my fishes. Personally, I think the watercolor came out messy and made the scales and other details look blended. And my mine fish scales look duller then the rest, something I didn't want to do. But as I mentioned before, I am happy with my figures shading. The depth I was able to add really appeals to me and I like the overall color choice and gray and I believe it contrasts well with the blue.

Overall, I'm feeling ok about this piece. I like the overall concept, layout and my main figure; but the fishes less so. In the future I do think I'll revise this piece. Try to fix the scales with some etching maybe or add some more ink.