Sustained Investigation #9

Artist Statement

I was inspired by the style of old cottages on England for this artwork because they often have pretty dull colors and look old so I thought it would be interesting if there was just one house that was very brightly colored and new looking in the middle of those houses. I also wanted to challenge myself to just use paint markers to color the house that was out of place because I only have a few of them and they are all very bright colors. This made the style of one house look more like a cartoon while the rest of the houses were more detailed and realistic looking. I arranged the houses to be pretty crowded so that there would be more houses in the image and it would be clear that none of the other houses are that colorful. There is one open space between the houses that creates lines to lead the viewer's eye to the house in the background.

The materials that I used were watercolors, ink, and Posca paint pens. I started by drawing everything in pencil and then finalizing the lines with a fine point pen. Then I used watercolors to color the houses, the grass, and the sky. For the house that is out of place, I used the paint pens. I tested out a few color combinations first on another piece of paper before choosing red, pink, blue, and light blue. This way I could create the illusion of shadows with the red and dark blue. I also used a green paint pen for the plants. I couldn't get a lot of detail with the paint pens because they make pretty thick lines so I ended up going over the house with the fine point pen. This allowed me to add some more cartoonish details to the windows.

I created contrast in this piece through my use of color and art styles. In most of my sustained investigation pieces I used different subjects to show which one didn't belong, but in this one all of the subjects were the same but the style is what makes one house stand out. I experimented with a new material by using the paint pens because I hadn't really used those before and they were kind of difficult to control.