Negative Space Leaves

Obscured Emotions

14" x 17"

The main provided prompt was to use leaves for negative space, which shaped my idea and meaning for this project. Since leaves cover things, and sometimes people hide/cover their emotions, I thought to use this as a way to use art for awareness and for a deeper meaning. A perfect way to represent this would be by using emojis. 

First, we needed to go outside and collect several leaves. After doing so, we arranged them on a small printer paper sheet and taped over them with clear packing tape. We eventually used the 14" x 17" sheets and made our 1-inch border. After this, we lightly sketched out the leaves with graphite pencils. We had to draw them double the scale of the leaves that we collected and arranged. We then erased the lines we didn't need and went over our outlines with a fine point black gel pen. You had to keep in mind that we were doing negative space, which means that there will not be lines inside the leaves or any lines where leaves are touching. After this, I used another lighter grade graphite pencil to sketch my emojis. After making each sketch, I went in with two darker graded pencils and added inner details and shaded/blended to make gradients. Then, I used a dark graphite pencil and made shadows from the leaves to show depth. After every emoji was finished I put down many old magazine pages on the floor,  and then dropped many ink drops on the page. After this, I let them dry for an hour or so. They did not end up drying much. I then used a black colored pencil and went around and colored in every single empty space other than the leaves. Finally, I erased the many graphite smudges and added a border with the fine point black gel pen.

I went through MANY processes when producing this artwork, and came across a lot of problems. For the leaf reference, we collected the leaves and arranged them. For the emoji references, I added several emojis to a digital canvas on my IPad. I then used a filter to make them black and white. I used black and white to show the feeling of these emotions, and how you view the world when you are in this depressing stage of life. I chose the black background to add even more depth and also color cohesiveness. When doing the ink drops, I went off of the drawing and into the white border. I think that it was a mistake but also a choice. This added meaning to my artwork because it "broke the barrier" and added an element that was different from everything else. The colors of the ink were purposely chosen to add and exclaim the element of pain and hurt. I think that all of these decisions for my artwork strove towards and achieved what I wanted to do. One problem I encountered was someone's paint on one of the negative space leaves. There were several small drops, but also it was smudged. To fix this I had to add holes in the leaves, then filled in the holes to cover the paint. Another problem I had was the ink not drying. I should have used the colored pencil for the background first, but I didn't. I had to draw around the wet ink, which took longer, it was more difficult, and it didn't come out looking as good as it would have. Additionally, another problem I had was smudging of ink. I think it still blends in, but I would have really liked if it hadn't smudged. I think it would've added to a more solidified and finished look. I had many other problems, but these were the several major issues I encountered. I enjoyed making this because I was able to express my creativity but also experiment with other media types to create one conjoined piece.