Creative Color Animal

CHILLIN'

OCT. 1, 2018 — digital

In this project, we were to create an observational piece of an animal, (preferably) using creative colors.

I initially was intent on drawing a half-crocodile, half-cow composite figure. I tried to sketch it out on paper, going through a few pieces of paper and having only one crisis, before I decided that it would be better to just draw a normal cow. I sketched it out on paper and then took a picture, tracing over my lines digitally. I went in with flat colors, and then I spent more time than I'd care to admit drawing each individual hair on the cow. After I was finally done with that, the process was relatively simple: I used several variations of purple to draw the grass, made a few layers of shading, and added some fireflies to the image (as well as some highlights to the cow). With that, I was finished.

Despite my struggles with this project, I think that it turned out okay. I definitely think that I have good texture (I should, considering the fact that I spent so long adding it), and that it adds to the piece overall. I also think that I made good use of contrast with the shadows and highlights; I like to create depth and environments in my works, so I spent quite a while on this one adding lights and darks, trying to make it look like it went deeper than just a 2D surface. Additionally, in order to have a better composition, at the last minute I decided that I wanted the right horn of the cow to be coming out of the frame (which entailed erasing the background on that side—a process which wasn't that fun). While there are some things that I'm unsure about—for instance, some of the highlights look a bit off—I am pleased in general with the outcome.