Artist Statement:

For our midterm project we were provided with a 4x5 grid of circles on watercolor paper. Our instructions for this project were to create something out of this grid to demonstrate how our minds worked creativity-wise. We had a 90-minute period to begin our project in class.

For materials, I used the paper given, watercolor, and gouache. I began by sketching out the animals, and structure of the lily pads in pencil before going in and painting it all with watercolor. Specifically for the beaver I used dry brown paint and did a stippling motion for the fur texture. And for the lily pads, I used lines of different shades of green and blended them from the outside to the center with water. After this, I painted the water with a mix of blue and green gouache and added shadows with dark blue. Finally, I outlined everything with black gouache.

It was difficult to initallonally come up with a prompt for this project as I have never worked with this sort of layout. I eventually saw lily pads in the format and wanted to create a pond environment. I researched different animals that lived in this sort of environment. I used photos to make them as similar to what they looked like as possible. It was really interesting to learn about these pond animals and I enjoyed making them.