Sustained Investigation #7

Artist Statement

The idea behind this piece was to have a multiple subjects that are all the same with one subject being different to show that it is out of place. I decided to put a cell phone in a bunch of bananas because of the way people sometimes hold a banana up to their ear and pretend that it's a phone. The phone sort of blends in because it is shaped similar to the bananas but it isn't connected to the bunch and it is ringing which makes it stand out more.

The materials I used for this piece were gouache and colored pencil. I started with a pencil sketch and then put a very thin watered down layer of gouache over it. I used this layer to show where some shadows would go and to just have some color on the paper to start with. The first thing I painted was the bananas by putting multiple layers of gouache to get the highlights and shadows right and then add details like bruises and green spots. Then I painted the phone with gouache as well and added some details with a dark blue colored pencil. I used colored pencil on the phone and not the bananas because part of my sustained investigation is using different materials on the subject that is out of place to make it stand out more. Then for the background I decided on purple because purple and yellow are complementary colors so I thought it would look good together. Then I used a dark purple colored pencil to added the outlines around the bananas and the text.

I created this artwork based off of the bunch of bananas I found in my kitchen. They were a perfect reference and it made this piece good practice for observational painting. I added rearranged parts of the observational drawing to make space for the cell phone. My project evolved as I decided which colors to use and how I wanted to fill the background. I made the cellphone blue because I wanted there to be contrast between the cool colors of the phone and the warmer colors of the bananas. For the background I was thinking of doing red because it would be another warm color which would make the phone stand out even more and it would create a sort of primary color theme. I put all the colors on a scrap of paper and compared red as a background with purple as a background. In the end I chose purple because I liked how it complemented the yellow of the bananas and made them stand out. I didn't mix enough of the purple to cover the entire background so when I tried to mix it again I got a slightly lighter color. I decided to just keep this color and make some visible brush stroke to add more value and texture to the background. My project also evolved as I changed the design of the outline pattern and the text. The final painting is different from the sketch because I thought it looked better that way. My next steps could be to continue experimenting with my use of materials.