Artist Investigation: Egon Schiele

Brainstorm

5 Process Pictures

Final Reference Picture

Drawing Artist Statement

For our final project, we were asked to capture a part of the body and explain its significance to our life. We were asked to do this specific project using a medium that could be used to represent value. The title of my work is Latched. I chose this title because it reflects the emotional dependence of a friendship that I wanted to convey through a physical representation. The word Latched signifies a physical connection that is unbroken and unwavered. Strong female friendships have played a big role throughout my entire life. My close friends have always had priority in my life due to their huge and constant impact on my emotional well-being. I wanted to devote this art project to capturing the intense, close, but beautiful female friendships I have experienced and will hopefully continue to experience throughout the rest of my life. 

Form and value are heavily represented in my drawing. I used form to depict the physical intimacy between two female figures. I used value to bring life and texture to the human body. Constrast and rhythm/movement play a big part in conveying the story through my artwork. I incorporated rhythm/movement by using a closeup and specific angle that forced the eye to focus on the women's naked backs. Constrast was shown through the bright white highlights that I added on the jewelry and tags which contrasted with the dark shadows on the girl's spines. I hope my art is seen as a reminder of how impactful friendships are to everyone's well-being. Regardless if you are thinking back on an old boyfriend or a current one, every close person has shaped and changed us to help us evolve. I feel an intimate and vulnerable mood conveyed through my artwork. The angle of my reference picture combined with the dark value shadowing creates this specific artistic atmosphere. 

I began my project by outlining and filling in the darkest values that were on the reference photo. This technique helped me map out my art better and clearer. When I first formulated this concept I planned on using a scratchboard or pen. As my idea began to grow and be more fleshed out I chose charcoal for my chosen medium because it would capture the texture and value most accurately. During my drawing process, I looked over at many of my classmates as they drew and formulated ideas. Both Gibson and Noah pushed their highlights which was something I was very against at first but decided it would push my artwork better if I included a few minor highlights. I was against using the white pencil because it was so contrasting to the dark values and came off as "cheesy" to my eye. Aimee pushed me to ask why I didn't incorporate the traditional amount of highlights and as I thought more about the absence of highlights in my work I realized why I prefer it that way in this specific project. The "cheesy" look came off as fake and materialistic, which was not what I imagined for my project. I decided to only use the bright white on highlighted jewelry and fabrics. Zero highlights on the human skin represent a raw real texture of the alive skin. The one edit I would have added looking back would have been expanding the width of both girl's wrists to improve the realistic look of the overall arm. This project taught me to push my limits and to push my art to always have deep and purposeful values.

LATCHED Completed Drawing