Sustained Investigation #2

Artist Statement

The idea behind this piece was to show that the girl felt out of place on the train by having everyone around her be skeletons. One of the skeletons is looking at her to make this message clearer. I tried to use color to show the feeling of being out of place and well as different subjects by making the skeletons and the environment more colorful and drawing the girl in black and white. I might make another version with the colors switched because I like the overall idea of the piece but the final product didn't turn out how I wanted it to. If I make another version it might also follow my inquiry question a little better. I also want to play with the perspective to make it more interesting looking.

I liked the look of the thumbnail so I took a picture of it and drew over it on another layer in procreate on my iPad to make the poses a little better and the details a little clearer. Then I tried to color it digitally with a watercolor paper layer under it to add texture but I couldn't find a brush that look good so I printed it out on watercolor paper. The ink didn't run when I painted over it so I used watercolors to color it. The lines were a little blurry when they printed so I went over them and added some more details with a black pen.

I tried to show the person who is feeling out of place with color by having the setting and the skeletons' clothes be colorful while the girl is in black and white. I think this would have been clearer if the skeleton's heads and hands weren't also in black and white so that's why it would be better to switch the colors. There is balance in the background because the seats and the wall of the train is pretty symmetrical. I used different values on the girl because she is in black and white with some grey watercolor for more shadows. I made the lines in the widow horizontal to show the movement of the train. I used cooler colors for the skeletons' clothes to make them stand out from the warm colored background but still made the clothes bright enough to show that the girl was the one out of place. My project evolved as I figured out which materials looked best and chose which colors to use. My next steps could be to make the second version with colors that make my inquiry question clearer.