Makin' My Way Downtown

For this project we were supposed to work on developing a concentration. As I have yet to decide what my concentration will be, I decided to just work on my portfolio. I wanted to try a new material, and I wanted to come up with a new focus. I ended up deciding on burning a snail.

I started by selecting a piece of wood: a small dark piece. I looked up reference images, and began on the snail. I experimented with some different tips and heats, seeing how each one produced different levels of thick dark lines. I made the shell first, adding lines and shadows to show the layers. The body of a snail is typically slimy and scaly looking. This I knew would be difficult on wood, so I outlined and left it plain at first. I then moved on to the background. I added a leaf for the snail on be rested on, as well as stems and leaves in the background. At this point there wasn't much contrast in the piece, so I got a fine point with high heat to add dark lines and dots in the snail and the background.

At this point I still wanted to add more contrast. I added polyurethane in the background, which I think helped a lot. If I continue to wood burn in the future, I would consider sketching before free handing. This piece might end up in my concentration; I have considered doing a macro study of zooming in, or perhaps I will draw more snails.