SI #5

Artist Statement:

The creature I chose to draw in this project was the Phoenix. It is a creature from greek mythology that represents life and the sun. The most common version of this creature is red-orange coloring, a hawk-like form, and hints of peacock feathering, so I decided to go with it. I chose to do a Phoenix for this project because I think their coloring is very cool and they have a very magical presence. Their fiery figure and how they can reincarnate from their own death-ashes is a cause of intrigue for me.

The materials I used for this project were bristol board and watercolor.

I started out by researching different bird positions and went with this one, where the wings are raised above the head and the mouth is open mid-call. Then I layered orange and red feathers in different shades all over the phoenix's body, even for the beak. Then I went back in with a yellow tinge on the wings and tail, blowing the droplets of yellow pain across the edges of the paper. After than I tried to made smoke and ember plumes around the phoenix by sort of splotching grey and red watercolor around the phoenix in streams. My next steps could be to fix the smoke/ember plumes because they look a little strange, and to add something in the back so it is not just white paper.