Sustained Investigation #15

Artist Statement

The idea behind this artwork is that the little kid wearing a dinosaur costume is out of place among the actual dinosaur skeletons being displayed in a museum. All of the dinosaur skeletons are sort of facing the kid and surrounding him while he looks up at them. I made the costume more brightly colored so that it would stand out even more against the neutral colors of the bones and the room.

I started out by drawing the design with pencil. Then I went over the dinosaurs with a pen to make the lines more clear before erasing the pencil. I wasn't sure what materials I wanted to use on the kid yet so I didn't go over those lines with pen at first. Then I used a few layers of watercolors to color the skeletons and add shadows. I also used the watercolors for the floor and the wall in the background. Then I colored the kid with watercolors and went over the details on the kid with pencil. I decided that the kid needed to stand out more clearly so I redrew the lines with pen. I also darkened the shadows on the costume with colored pencils. Then I went over the dinosaurs again with pen to darken the lines that had been made less clear by the watercolors. I also used small lines to add some shadows to the bones.

I started my research by looking up images of dinosaur skeletons and drawing two of the skulls in my sketchbook. My original idea was to have a small dog sitting in between the dinosaurs so I also drew that in my sketchbook but then I decided that a little kid in a dinosaur costume made more sense. I drew the two dinosaurs and the kid on the final piece of paper but I felt like the page looked a little empty so I added a third dinosaur in the background. I kind of figured out materials and colors as I went but I made sure that the environment was warmer colors so that the cool colors of the costume would stand out more.