Extended Blind Contour Drawing

The Creatures in the Night

Oil pastel, Sharpie, and acrylic paint on drawing paper

9" x 12"

Artist Statement:

In this piece, I decided to draw an alien hand reaching to the sky, with a space background including the moon and a satellite. This piece came from doing blind contour, so I kept the lines that I drew with Sharpie and turned them into art. The main thing that guided my artwork was background. I wanted to create a good background that you can immerse yourself in. I wanted to make sure that there was no white space. The other idea that guided my artwork was color. I wanted to choose colors intentionally, and have a reason for color.

I used Sharpie, oil pastels, and acrylic paint on drawing paper for this piece. I used Sharpie because the first thing that I did was blind contour. I had to draw things without looking at my paper, also keeping a continuous line. The things that I drew in Sharpie were a classmate, a water bottle, and my hand. I then used oil pastels to create the majority of my piece. I blended the oil pastels with my fingers as well. I then used white acrylic paint to use as stars. I used my finger in the paintbrush to splatter the paint over the piece to make it look as sporadic as the stars really are. 

While creating my artwork, I relied on my imagination. I first sketched the things that I saw in the blind contour that I could use for my final piece. I did some experimenting with this, but ultimately ended up with the satellite, hand with fire, and the face in the moon. I decided to draw the alien hand because the blind contour I created reminded me of the Statue of Liberty's hand. That's why I made the hand green and added fire coming from it, similar to the torch on the Statue of Liberty. I drew the moon because my blind contour resembled a face, and I thought of the phrase "man in the moon". That's why I drew an abstract person and put them as the face of the moon. I also drew the satellite because I felt that it fit well with the scene I was trying to create, and added more to the background. For my process, I also did a lot of blending to get everything how I wanted it to look. Overall, I made the choices that I did to create an immersive piece.