SI #3

Artist Statement:

The creature I decided to draw for this piece was a Kelpie. It is a creature from Scottish mythology and there are many other myths about similar creatures in the surrounding area. The Kelpie is a male water horse that can shapeshift into many things, but usually only into human and horse form. In horse form it is black with long mane and glowing eyes, and it lives in rivers and streams. I chose to do a Kelpie because this creature creeps me out intrigues me at the same time.

For this project I used cardboard as the material I drew on, and I used charcoal to create the scene.

I started out by doing research about what this creature looks like and the environment it lives in. Then I found an image of a silhouette of a horse and tried to replicate that outline as best as I could. I filled in the outline with black charcoal and then I drew the mane with small highlights of white charcoal. After that I drew the water with the shadow of the horse's legs reflecting into it. I drew some banks with grass in the background and created a dark sky behind the Kelpie. Lastly I added the glowing eye with white charcoal. My project evolved because I decided to add banks in the background, and I added the star-like glow mark around the eye. My next steps would be to add a slight shadow as the reflection of the banks into the water, and maybe add some trees on the banks as well.