Sustained Investigation #14

Title: Growth Marks

Size: 7" x 20"

Statement:

This piece shows three images of sections of the female body. The bodies are created through individual lines. The spaces made by these lines are then filled in to create a more solid figure. These line that make up the bodies are meant to be representative of stretch marks. Stretch marks are often seen as ugly in female beauty, but I think they are beautiful. When I think of stretch marks I think of how they remind me of striations in rocks. Because of this, I decided to create bodies through this similar linework.

For materials, I used markers on thick paper. For the red lines, I used a thin red marker. For the orange, I used a paint brush tip marker to cover more space and have an even tone. Outside the borders, I used colored pencil to smudge light yellow/orange.

I started this piece by lightly sketches the overall shape that I wanted the lines to eventually create. I then began making lines to create the shape. The lines that are together show depth and perspective. After making all three like this, I wanted there to be more to the bodies. I decided to fill them in with a rich orange marker. At first I didn't like how it came out because some of the linework was lost in the mixing of colors. So, I went over the red lines again with the same marker to make them stand out again. After doing this, I still felt like the bodies looked too uniform, so I took the lines that stuck out from the figures the most and extended them out of the border. lastly, I added a smudge of color outside the borders to make the boxes pop.

If I were to add more to this image, I might work on making the smudges colored more vibrant. I might also add something to the background inside the borders to hold the bodies in place.