Sustained Investigation #3

Artist Statement

The idea behind this drawing was to show the feeling of being out of place by putting an object in an environment where it clearly doesn't belong. I chose to put a boat in the middle of the forest. I thought about adding some plants and things on the boat but then it would blend it and seem like it belonged which would make the message less clear. I chose to use both color and materials to show the contrast between the boat and it's environment. I got the reference image of the boat from my photos because I took a few pictures of boats I liked over the summer with the intention of drawing them at some point. I didn't use a specific reference picture for the forest, I just looked at a few images for the general idea and then placed the trees in a way that would frame the boat.

The materials I used were graphite and colored pencil on smooth bristol paper. I started with a pencil sketch of the whole image and then went over the forest with multiple layers of pencil to darken the background and the details of the trees. Then I tested a few different color combinations in my sketchbooks to use on the boat.I chose light blue for the first layer of color and then added in the details and shadows with the dark blue. I used the yellow for some highlights and then added some extra marks in green for more texture and color. Then I use pencil again to add shadows around the chain and the boat.

My project evolved as I added details such as the anchor and chose where to put the color. I thought it would be better to color in the boat and leave the forest gray so that it stood out because there would have been a lot of different colors in the environment that could distract from the boat. I experimented with creating an environment from my imagination because I don't usually like drawing all the details in forests so I made a more simplified version of one. I darkened the background to add some depth and the placement of the anchor helps with depth too. There are lots of patterns and textures in the background and on the trees and grass. I also added texture to the boat so that it fits with the drawing while still being clear that it doesn't belong in that environment. The color and placement of the boat adds lots of emphasis to it and the trees are positioned in a balance way. I used different sized trees to show that some were further away. My next steps could be to use colored pencil on this type of paper again because I think it works well on it and the colors turn out better than with watercolor paper.