WhatchamaDRAWit Game

Artist's Statement:

Jillian Wight

Medsker

AP Art and Design

2 September 2021

To create this piece, I was given the prompt “Draw a musical instrument that looks like a harp but is played with your feet” and very few other guidelines. It was up to me to experiment with perspective, space, color, materials, etc. I did my best to create a fun and engaging take on this theme, while still including as many elements of art as possible. Specifically, I wanted to play around with perspective. While it would have been easy to just draw this image from straight on, I thought the angle I had come up with was much more intriguing. I sketched it repeatedly until I thought the placement of everything was just right. I used shadow and scale to create depth in the piece, and made sure that the background was fairly simple so as not to overpower the viewer. A few other guiding factors in the epice were space. I wanted a funky perspective, but I didn;t want the page to be crammed or the proportions to be off. I played around a lot with the placement of the harp, foot, and chair, but in the end came out with a nicely balanced final product. I’m really proud of my utilization of perspective and space to create an interesting response to the prompt!

I started with a piece of scrap paper, and used a graphite pencil to sketch out the basic layout I wanted for my piece. I then moved to my larger, final paper and once again sketched very lightly. Although I usually opt for pens or markers, I decided to take a risk and use colored pencils to create my final work. I thought that the textures and colors would blend together more effectively. Although I like the outcome of the piece, I think I should have stayed true to my usual methods as some of the fine details would have looked better in pen, and I think I would have had more fun creating the work. Nevertheless, I do not regret experimenting! After I had finished with colored pencil, I went in with some fine point pens and accentuated some finer details such as the strings of the harp.

I went through a number of processes in creating this piece. In fact, I revised the layout of my drawing numerous times before settling on one that worked. I made sure to include leading lines that emphasized the figure, and engaging details such as the pipe and hat. I tried my best to create the illusion of motion in the harp string in a manner that suited the drawing. I also had to experiment a bit when it came to drawing with colored pencils. I found myself burnishing them in multiple places, and then I was unable to get fine lines when I needed them. This is definitely something I should work on going forward, but for now, I just cleaned up my lines with a pen. I’m really happy with how I interpreted this piece. It was definitely very experimental, but I learned a lot!

. . .