Sustain Investigation

Artist Statement

The main Idea that guided my artwork was my inquiry: How can I convey the Human body in different ways? For my first one, I wanted to create a piece centered around the similarities to my own body: a female athlete. although the work is not the same as mine this is the stereotype of female athletes. the point of this was not to fit that stereotype of breaking it. The point was to create something that was relatable to me and that I could connect with. The bold colors were representing the differences between my body and the outside words.

The original materials I wanted to use were pastel paper and oil pastels. I ended up changing over to a black canvas because I liked the back background. I wanted the bold colors of the oil pastel to stick out against a blank background and the black helped this do so. It was also a new material to me making this an experiment. It was also difficult to blend the oil pastel on the canvas. I tried to use a tortillon but eventually stopped because this took too much time for little to no payoff. I also chose the oil pastels because I liked the color palette they gave me. It allowed for bright colors that stuck out and caught your eye. I wish I has just stayed with the white paper by the end because of the blending ability. This would have given me a smoother outcome and a better ending piece.

The first thing I did was create a mind map. This helped my ideas create and also allow me to create an inquiry for my different sustain investigations. Once I knew the inquiry and the area I wanted to study, I used inspiration from the photos/research such as the ones above. I liked these pictures because they showed silhouettes of the female body in different ways. I started on the white pieces of paper above and then moved over to the black canvas as was explained above. I used oil pastels the entire time just moved from different papers. I also did originally start with a light sketch to start the idea and proportions. I started by drawing the body with white oil pastels. I then moved on to the body and used cold colors and on the outside, I used warmer colors. I wanted to create a certain mood and focus on certain areas of the body. I also drew with black oil pastel to create a colorless area to bring a focus to the undergarments(creating a contrast against the color).