Sustained Investigation #15

Artist's Statement:

Jillian Wight

Medsker

AP Art and Design 

28 March 2023

This was the final piece in my sustained investigation, and I wanted to really capture what I’m feeling right now, especially with so many endings happening in my life (though all leading to a really exciting beginning).  I drew a child standing in a cul de sac, staring out at the exit.  The child’s bike is kind of strewn to the side of the road a little farther ahead.  I wanted this to show hesitancy to take the next steps into unfamiliarity, since soon I’ll be starting college and I’m definitely a little apprehensive.  I wanted the bike down the road to kind of guide the eye out of the cul de sac, and show how that path was the right one for the child.  Finally, I used a circular composition with an empty space in the middle to show how the future is unknown.

I used oil pastels with crayon highlights to create this piece.  I wanted the richness of color from oil pastels, but I like the nostalgic and childlike feel of crayons.

I experimented a lot with the composition of this work.  I thought about taking a more traditional approach, however I thought this perspective emphasized the smallness of the child, was very visually interesting, and had a cool connection to unfamiliarity due to the perspective of the road leading out of the cul de sac and the empty space in the middle.  Another choice I made was to depict the subject as a young child rather than a teenager like myself.  I wanted to emphasize the youth of the figure to show how kind of unfamiliar and young I feel making these big decisions about my future!  This is also why I made the houses look very childish like the cul de sac was a sheltered childhood place.  Another major goal I had with this piece was to add depth and bring in some dark darks and light lights.  I have been really struggling with this, and while there are some present in this work, I want to push it a little more.  I think I need to rephotograph in better lighting, and maybe go in with some charcoal to add deeper shadows.

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