Artist's Statement:

Jillian Wight

Medsker

2D Design

10 September 2020

To create this piece, I first sketched out the themes of the prompt (a ghost, a pretzel, strawberry milk), and played around with how I would position them. I then began working on a very cartoony, childish drawing of a small ghost at a carnival. However, after I was finished, I realized that my work was lacking in detail, depth, intrigue and overall I simply wasn’t happy with it. I decided to start over with a new approach. I wanted the drawing to look realistic, intricate, and spooky. In the end, these ideas were certainly visually evident. Another theme that is present in my work is text, and I did my best to use color and font to tie the writing into the drawings themselves. I wanted it to feel like part of the artwork, not a side note. I think this was successful, especially since I was able to add a light background to fill the edges of the paper and make the text fit the space more appropriately. I think there is still a bit of a childish air to the drawing, and I like it! The contrast between the silly theme and the ominous manner in which the piece was arranged and drawn makes the viewer think, adding intrigue and therefore value to my work. As far as relating to my life, the subjects of the piece themselves don’t, really. This is because I had to draw specific things based on a prompt. However, I did what I could to make the drawing relative to my life. For example, my choice to have the ghost hovering over a human in the hopes that it will be able to take the man’s food relates to my childhood. I have always been a bit scared of the dark, and very jumpy in general. Ghosts especially terrify me, because I used to believe that they were real and that there were ghosts in my house. The idea of one hovering right behind me like the man in the drawing brings back memories of the lengths I would go to in order to avoid going upstairs alone in my own house. I also let the style and colors reflect my personal style. I love working with ink, and I love realism and intricacy. I also enjoy using bubble letters and bright colors, as is demonstrated in many of my sketchbook drawings from last year.

I used a few different materials to create my piece. I started on a piece of printer paper, and for the final drawing switched to thicker, multimedia paper. I sketched my design using a pencil, and then used black gel and felt tip pens to create the subjects— the ghost, the person, and the strawberry milk and pretzel. I then went in with a pen that was running out of ink to shade, so that it was easier to get a wide range of greys and blacks. In the darker, larger areas of the ghost’s dress, I used a black dual brush marker to cover more space. Once I finished the ghost and human, I used a felt tip pen to outline the text bubble and draw in the letters, following with dual brush markers in pink, orange, and yellow and using a blending brush to fade the colors together. I then used a black colored pencil to lightly suggest a background, but one that was simple and repetitive so it wouldn’t distract from the rest of the drawing which was already busy. Once this step was completed, I used a white colored pencil to go over what I’d done in ink and add details and highlights on the dress and in the eyes. After the highlights were completed, the drawing was done!

To create my final work of art, I began by sketching lightly onto my paper and playing around with the composition of the prompt. I then used a pen to create form in my drawing, layering my lines and using thicker/thinner tips to accentuate shadows and highlights. I made sure that my lines were all moving in the same direction and following the body movement of the ghost to create a deeper level of realism. Once I was done with this, I created a milky, sickly effect in the eyes and on the bones with white colored pencil. I wasn’t sure if this would work, but it ended up being very successful! I am happy I tried this technique. Another process I used was to color the text and highlight the details. When my ghost drawing was done, I realized that it was very hard to see what the prompt was about. To solve this issue, I added a text bubble and drew attention to it using pops of color. I also used color to emphasize the pretzel and strawberry milk. These brightly colored objects contrasted with the terrifying, dark drawing behind them and I think it really added to the composition. In order to create a clean ombre in the text bubble, I selected colors that would fade easily into each other and went over with a brush that blends this type of ink together. This ended up working very well! Finally, texture was created in the background. I didn't want this to be distracting, so I drew very lightly. Colored pencil is not a material I am familiar with, so I’m happy with how it came out. I would say that my project evolved from a very cartoony, uncreative, generic interpretation of the prompt to an intriguing piece of work that I am proud of and that draws attention. I think my next steps should be to play around a bit more with colored pencils to finesse my technique, and learn how to apply color a little bit more evenly. I think in the future I would also take more artistic liberties, such as making the pretzel and milk a little bigger so that they were more a part of the piece.

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