Painted Clay Form

In this project, we were asked to create an animal using clay, with the future idea of painting it. So, I chose an animal which means a lot to me. I chose to create a budgie, a breed of parakeet. For this project, I created the base fully made of clay, and "painted" it with Copic Markers. This project relates to my life because I own two budgies, which is why I chose this animal. Copic Markers worked great for the aftermath of painting. Throughout the piece, I used a ton of different principles and elements of art. These consist of color, form, balance, and pattern. Color is the biggest part of this piece, as it makes up the whole second part of the project, and really causes the piece to jump out, and allows the animal to be more recognizable. For form, I needed to know roughly how the bird looks, and their anatomy. Of course, my representation isn't quite accurate, though it is close enough that it's a fun version of an existing animal. I used balance while painting the piece, and I knew the colors I wanted to use, but I didn't want them to not flow well. So, I blended a bunch in order to get the perfect blue. Finally, pattern was a big part of this piece, not only creating the clay form, but also with the coloring portion. This allows the piece to be much nicer on the eyes. As I continued to work on my piece, the size of the bird kept fluctuating. I ended with a pretty plump size, but I still very much so enjoy it. If I were to change something about this piece, it would be the dark blue line I drew underneath the chin, and I would make the wings stand out significantly more.