Extended Blind Contour Drawing

For this project, we started with blind contour drawings of our hands and face using thick black sharpie. Later, we added more detail and color to our projects to make the piece more complete. I used thin black pen to add the small details of the feathers and to touch up a few lines, as well as watercolors for color. I experimented with various techniques of watercolor, as well as different thickness of pen and sharpie. My project started as a one-line, shaky blind contour drawing of two hands and a face, completely in black and white with marks and fecks where my sharpie had skidded or touched the page accidentally. By the end I had turned those marks into a more detailed aspect of my project, had made one of the hands a little more complete, and added color and story to the piece.

In my art piece, I used elements of art such as line, shape, and color to create principles of design such as balance, contrast, movement, and unity. Specifically, I used lines to create shapes that would balance the page and make the overall image more aesthetically pleasing. I also used lines but more frequently colors to add contrast to the picture, specifically in the darker purples of the hair compared to the washed-out face, and the darker blues of the water coming out of the hand against the white of the hand and the light blue background. I used the shapes created by the overlapping lines of the blind contour drawings to add a geometric and unified aspect to the image, and the dripping technique of the paint colors to add movement, as well as the shape of whatever is coming out of the hand. Finally, I used a few designs/techniques in different places around the page to build an even stronger sense of unity, such as the various techniques of paint (dripping, splatter, fill), the feathers (created by lines which formed texture, another design principle,) and the combinations of color to add to the piece's story (red and blue held by the hands, which made purple).

A few different aspects of my piece contribute to its overall story. First, I used a pattern of colors (red in one of the hands, blue in the other, and then purple, a result of red and blue mixed together on the face,) to imply that the liquid/magic/whatever the hands are holding were combined to paint the face; perhaps the face was blank before and the combination of those two elements gave it life. Second, I added feathers mainly as a way to conceal the marks I had accidentally made on the page with my sharpie, but that could also be interpreted as an element of whatever is gushing out of the hands and going into the hair. This project could relate to my life in the sense that I love working with watercolors and frequently my hands are stained by them, and through that passion they are a part of what makes me (it helps that the face in the image is also drawn off of mine). I would say that I'm proudest of the illusion of movement in the liquid coming out of the hands, both in their swirls and drips. I struggled when filling in the background for the top of top of the piece, as it came out too dark for my liking. I attempted to fix it by adding more water and then absorbing the color which has worked for me in the past, by this time I was too rough with the paper and it ripped the page. I decided this added to the originality and texture of the piece, and continued to rip it in a few other places hoping it would look less like a mistake.