Concentration: Monsters

THE AFTERPARTY

FEB. 12, 2019 — highlighter, pen, and watercolor

THE DENTIST

MAR. 12, 2019 — oil pastels and white pen

SORRY, YOU WEREN'T INVITED

MAR. 22, 2019 — watercolor and fine point pen

It's Too Late

APRIL 22, 2019 — watercolor, marker and pen

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? / DID YOU FIND IT?

APRIL 2019 — acrylic on canvas

For my concentration, I chose to continue the theme of monsters that I used last year.

THE AFTERPARTY: I knew that I wanted to kind of change things up a little bit; I haven't really been experimenting with materials lately (or at all, to be honest), and so I wanted to attempt to use something that I haven't really worked with. So, I decided to try playing around with the effects of using a highlighter. I sketched out a living room scene, with a bunch of food on the coffee table, added in some new, goopier monsters, and then went over the lines in fine point pen. At this point I began to worry a bit, since I spent a lot of time on the outlining and I didn't want to ruin the piece by attempting to color it with highlighter. So, I took a high quality scan of the image and printed it out on watercolor paper—this way, if I messed up, I would have another chance. I started by using a yellow highlighter to color in some sections (namely the electronics, such as the TV and the cellphone), and then I used black watercolor for the rest of the image. I went over everything in a sort of grey wash, and then I continued to layer on the paint to add darker, more dramatic shadows. I sort of went overboard with that and made the image too dark, so I ended up going back in with white pen in order to add some more noticeable highlights.

THE DENTIST: Continuing with the idea in mind with my last project, I was in the mood to experiment with more materials that I haven't really used. This time, I decided that I wanted to try out oil pastels, since they're pretty messy and it's difficult to achieve fine-point details with them (especially on a small surface). On black construction paper, I loosely sketched out the layout of the monster, and then I just went at it. I used red to set down a layer of fur, and then I went back in with pink and blue to add some more depth to that. I also wanted to kind of stray from using black for shadows, so I instead tried using dark blue and purple to add shadows to some parts of the face. After that was done, I used pink for the horns (adding orange and blue for shadows and highlights), used white for the eyes, teeth, and highlight of the nose, and then started on the background. I wasn't sure what to do about that at first, since I didn't want to mess up my monster and I didn't want it to clash too much, so I decided to stick with white. And, for contrast, I made the background geometrical as opposed to the scraggly-ness of my monster. I used a white pen to draw the basic outlines of triangles, but then at the suggestions of my peers I filled in some of the triangles to finish up the piece.

SORRY, YOU WEREN'T INVITED: I've had the idea for a while of monsters having a pool party, so I decided to make that a reality with this piece. I sketched out the basics, went over the lines with fine point pen, and then spent a very long time filling in all of the empty space behind the vines with Sharpie. After that, I used watercolor for the rest of the piece; I used green/orange for the vines (the orange marker that I used for the flowers bled, but that was okay), a light blue for the pool, and then a pink/red color for the pool tube. Once that had dried, I spent a while trying to use black watercolor for the shading, which required several layers and a lot of struggling; I couldn't get the black to be not-streaky, and eventually I just gave up. I wanted to make the pool look like it was glowing in order to achieve a different type of atmosphere, and at least I was successful in that regard. After that final layer of paint dried, I used a fine point pen and white pen to go over any lines that had faded and added white highlights.

WHAT'S YOUR EMERGENCY? For this piece, since it was suggested that I try to draw something on a larger scale, I decided that I wanted to work with oil paint sticks on 18x24" paper. I only had a vague idea, initially, of what I wanted the monster to look like; so, after sketching that out, I dove right in with the oil paint sticks. I used a blue one for the monster, and then I decided that I wanted to add some red and black lighting to either side, in order to get an interesting variety of colors and lighting in the piece. I had a difficult time with this—I'm pretty impatient, first of all, and I didn't like waiting for the oil paint to dry. Also, it was all smudgy and messy, which I wasn't a fan of. After laying down the initial colors and letting it dry, I went in with oil pastels to achieve some smaller details. I used white to draw out the scales, and then I used red, blue, and black in order to achieve a sort of "shine" on the scales. The eyes were pretty difficult, as well, so eventually I just settled on outlining them in various colors and adding some white highlights to contrast the darkness of the pupils. I spent a while after that scratching oil paint off with a pencil, adding some more fine details, and attempting to correct my horrible attempt at creating lighting.

IT'S TOO LATE: I decided for this piece that I wanted to continue to work big; however, I really wasn't in the mood to work with things such as paint sticks or oil pastels. Thus, I decided to draw small things on a large-ish piece of paper. I drew out a mishmash of monsters with a pencil, and then I went over the lines with a fine point pen and filled in the mouths using a Sharpie marker. For shading and color, I used red watercolor. I added shadows to the eyes, teeth, and edges of the monsters, which on its own took a ridiculous amount of time since I foolishly decided to use such a big piece of paper. After that, I used less watered-down paint to add some texture and details to the monsters, which also took a long time since I wanted the monsters to seem more individualized and thus I attempted to not repeat each pattern too often. When that was done, I spent a while longer fixing the small details and smoothing out the shading, and then I was finished.

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? / DID YOU FIND IT? For this piece, although it wasn't technically an assignment, I decided that I wanted to paint something on canvas; not only would it be challenging me once again to go larger than I usually like to, but it was a chance for me to experiment with a medium that I don't typically use. For the first one, I dove right in, kind of unsure what I was doing. I set down a base layer of the darker colors, and then I gradually added lighter shades as I worked my way up. First I created the background of the piece, starting with the grass and adding in the trees, and after a while I decided on a light source. Going in, I wasn't exactly sure where this piece was going, so I was kind of unsure what the monster should look like. Eventually I just decided to keep it simple, making it a sort of ghost-looking monster with dark eyes. Once this one was done, though, I felt like it looked kind of lonely, and I did have another canvas of the same size, so I decided to make a companion for it. In contrast to the greens of the first piece, the second piece was primarily done with grays and blues, since I wanted this scene to be more ocean-y. This was a struggle for me, since I've never really tried to draw waves or anything and I wasn't exactly sure what it should look like. After lots of layering and mishaps (I'm impatient and kept accidentally painting before the base layer was dry), I had a decent background, so I decided to add in the ghost. This time I made it look like it was rising out of the waves at the shore (sort of), added a few final details, and then I was done. I like the fact that this is a diptych, since I usually don't do stuff like this, and I like the story that the titles give these pieces.

This concentration is fun for me because I'm a fan of student-choice projects. I don't think that it needs to be said, but I obviously prefer to draw things that I like to draw. Through this concentration (the theme of which I've decided is ghosts / monsters) I hope to achieve a few things. One, I really want to play around with lighting and shadows—it's an interesting part of art and life, and I like the fact that it can add a whole new level to a piece of art. Two, I want to have a color palette that is pleasing to the eye—I like colors that work well together, and I think that color choice can "make or break" art. Three, I want to continue to develop my style. I feel like in the past I've been limited by my art style and what looks good in my art style, so I want to try and explore new ways of incorporating my style into different works.