Sustained Investigation #2

This art is based off of the song Across the Universe by The Beatles. I was struggling emotionally in the summer of 2018. I jumped from house to house as I was moving to Maine, but I found the most sanctuary at my Grammie's house in Massachusetts. One dreary day as it was about to rain, I stood on the balcony of the room I was staying in and played ukulele. I love rainy weather. I started playing across the universe, and this sense of peace washed over me. I wanted to portray that sense of peace, as well as visualize some of the lyrics. "Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup," "Pools of sorrow, waves of joy," "Images of broken light which dance before me like a million eyes," "Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box," "Limitless undying love which shines around me like a million suns."

The materials I used were black ink pens for the line art, watercolor paint for the clouds, water, hands, eyes, and myself, and water based marker for the rays of sun, hands, and the shroud around me. I also used white charcoal for some outlining on the hands.

I used lots of color in this piece to signify the imagery in the song, and lots of line. I also tried to weave all of the images through the space. I wanted to create contrast between all the background and my person, to show how music brings color to my life. I also tried to show a lot of movement throughout the piece. In the beginning there were none of the lines like cracked glass, but I added them to make better use of the space. I also at the end added the cup overflowing with water, and made the black on the hands fade down the arm. My next steps would be to make the fade on the hands smoother and add more texture to the person in the corner and more shading.