Sustained Investigation #5

This piece was based off of the song "The Pros and Cons of Breathing" by Fall Out Boy. This song has strong imagery of being hurt by someone over and over yet still crawling back to that person, wishing that you had the ability to hate them as much as they seem to hate you. I was in a relationship once where this person hurt me (emotionally) over and over, yet I would always go back to her because I loved her. This song was one that I always felt described how I felt in that situation. I used lyrics in the song such as "bury me standing on your window with this cinder block in hand," "if I could move, surely it would only be to crawl back to you," and "I must have dragged my guts a block," to visualize the song.

The materials I used were my black Faber Castell pens, watercolor paint, and a white gel pen.

This time I wanted to focus on how the song affected a person instead of the specific imagery I get from it. Thus this drawing just has one subject against a black background. I wanted to create contrast between this drawing and the part two that will be my next project, which will be mostly white. I also tried to show movement as if the subject is crawling upward and the intestines are dragging and getting tangled in the legs. I also wanted to show the cinder block holding the subject down. I also tried to incorporate texture in the blood by using a paper towel to press liquid red watercolor paint on the paper, making it look like a splatter or smudge of blood. This project ended up much bloodier than I planned. I got very excited once I discovered the new technique of blotting it with the paper towel. My next steps will be to finish the part two of this drawing, my next project. I could also touch this one up by adding more value or texture. I also feel like I could add more blood on the clothing and body, especially on the jeans and on the arms and head.