05. Extended Animal Blind Contour

SWAN

SEP. 22, 2017 — acrylic and marker on watercolor paper

In this project, we had to draw animal figures using blind contour, and then turn that into something presentable.

To begin with, after choosing the animals I wanted to draw, and I just sat down and drew them over and over. I didn't care whether or not they overlapped—I just hoped that by producing a large quantity of drawings, something of decent quality would come out. In the end, I decided to use the swan that I'd drawn, since I thought that it looked the nicest out of the drawings. I cut it out and began painting, layering over the background with red paint. I had to spend quite a while doing this—painting, waiting for it to dry, repeating the process—because of how thin the paint was. However, this wasn't particularly difficult work, just tedious. Finally, I decided to add some specks of other colors, since the red background looked too plain without them.

I actually liked how this piece turned out; to me, it looks like it could be a business card or something, but I don't know. I do like the simplicity of the background, and the contrast between the vivid paint and the black/white of the swan. I also liked the looseness of my lines. I'm typically stuck in my own sort of art style, which calls for stark lines and crisp drawings. However, it was kind of fun to switch it up, and I'm glad that it turned out ok.