Artist's Statement:

Jillian Wight

Andreson

Foundations of Art

October 10, 2019

To create my piece, I used a wide range of materials. As a start, I used a light (hard) pencil on a scrap piece of paper to create small thumbnail sketches of the negative space I wanted to capture. The subject was a plie of stools, so the angles and lines were fairly complex. It took me three tries to find an angle and focal point that I liked. After I had finished this stage of design, I moved on to a larger piece of white paper. I used orange and red sharpie to outline the negative space I’d drawn, and faded the colors with each other to create the illusion of movement. My next step was to use a white crayon to lightly shade the corners of the drawing. I had hoped that after adding watercolor, it would create the effect of frost on a window. After I had perfected the shading I wanted with the canyon, I mixed a variety of blue, purple, and red shades and added them to the negative space, starting with a darker blue at the bottom and fading to a much lighter shade (achieved by increasing the quantity of water). I continued creating the background, experimenting with the idea of stars. I tried to use salt to create the effect I wanted, but the color had already set and I didn’t time it correctly. I know I’ll try this again in the future when Im better prepared. In the end, I used white gouache to make tiny pinpoints on the brightly colored background. With a light pencil, I sketched out an arc across my paper, which I then populated with 5 large white circles, also created with gouache. I outlined them in gold, and added lines to introduce the idea of moon phases. With the gold sharpie, I also created lines to look like craters and dots in between the moons that connected them like a celestial map. However, after stepping back, I didn't like the overall effect. That night, I used a bright pink gel pen to create stippled clouds across the space. I made sure they continued through spaces, not ending with the white space. Outlining what I’d done in gold sharpie with the gel pen, I mixed acrylic paints (red and white) to produce many different shades of pink. I used blotchy brushstrokes to fill in the moons, producing a three dimensional, almost wrinkled look. Finally, to add interest, I used gel pen to create stipple designs in the background, and black watercolor to add bubble like shapes. Overall, my project evolved from something fairly ordinary that I wasn’t confident in, to something that I can honestly say I’m proud of, and that challenged me a lot.

In my project, many elements of art are present. The first, and most obvious, is space. The entire project was based around the skill of drawing the negative space in a complex scene. This is largely present in my drawing, and the way that I chose to create the background truly draws the viewer's eyes away from the positive space, which was my goal. A few more elements of art are present in my drawing. Texture and form go hand in hand, as when creating the pink orbs I paid close attention to detail and was able to fade the colors so that they looked more three dimensional. The method that I used to do this involved texture, created by using a rough paintbrush and thick paint. This achieved a more blotchy effect. The last element of art that stands out, though many more are present, is color. Not only are the colors very bold, but I paid close attention to the way the colors stand out and complement each other leading to my choice of pink for the orbs. In the late stages, I chose to add a stippled design over the background. It fades from purple to yellow, and adds interest to the piece. Emphasis is one principle of design that I included in my work. The planets stand out, as they are the only parts of my artwork that have form and a different color. Since the planets flow through the boxes, not ending in one, and the scene doesn't change from box to box, unity is created. This unity in the negative space then emphasizes the positive space. I had movement in mind when creating my piece. I faded colors so that the temperature of the artwork fluctuate, and I balanced and connected the location of the orbs with gold and pink dots so that the eye would drift through the negative space in the artwork.

I suppose that, although my piece is fairly abstract, the idea of a galaxy is present in my work. It is conveyed through the planetary orbs in the sky, and the stars and clouds that populate the background. The many different orbs suggest a passing of time, and so a few people have compared my pieces to a celestial map. Overall, I would say that outer space was what I had in mind for this drawing, however I hope that the small details I included along the way adds a deeper element to my piece that causes the viewer to think. The project itself doesn't relate much to my life, however the process that I used does. In the last piece of artwork I created, I used the same stippled pattern in the background. I found that it truly added something to the piece and many people found it interesting, so I incorporated it into this one too. I’m excited to start developing a style of art, and I think that this is a good starting point. In my work, I am most proud of how I used many different materials to create one final project. In the end, it came together well, and I didn;t notice that anything seemed out of place. My goal was to stay in control of my materials, and I think I achieved that because I was able to experiment with a wide range of methods and still create a project that came together nicely. As with most projects, I struggled in the earlier stages of this one. I often have trouble picking one idea and sticking with it, and so it's pretty common for me to end up second guessing myself turning something I’ve already created into something else, and switching my topic part way through. I experimented with a few different ideas throughout the project, and at one point I wondered if I should scratch the space plan and try to paint a large, vibrant fish. I believe that next time, if I choose one idea that I love and really commit to it, planning carefully, I will be much more pleased and will have an overall neater outcome. In this project, there are some areas where I feel it looks like I tried to cover mistakes. I was able to bring the loose ends together by adding pattern in the foreground and making the planet a different color, which caught the eye and became more of the focal point.

. . .