Midterm Circles

Artist's Statement:

The idea for this project came from a template that we were given at our midterm, that had a grid of circles, 4 across and 5 along. I started out by making a border, because I was not yet sure what to put inside the circles. Then I got thinking about circles, and their symbolism, and how I could incorporate that into my project. I decided to draw animals in the circles. Once I started drawing, I realized that they all were from a similar region, the NorthWest Pacific Coast, so I wanted to continue with that theme. 

The materials I used were black ink pen. I knew I wanted to have high contrast, so I chose this material. I also think that this material is good for detail drawing. I also wanted to use this material to draw attention to the circles, which is why I chose to do alternating black and white. I think that this worked and that the circles are indeed the centre of the project.

As I mentioned, I started out with a border, because I was not entirely sure that to put into the centre. At first I wanted to do a sequential drawing. I thought that maybe I could do one panel inside each circle, and in this way tell a story. But then I decided that the border looked a bit like the ancient pottery I have seen in art history. I then thought of Tim Christensen, and his designs. So I decided to do animals, because I thought that they do indeed go nicely with that kind of border, and also because I admire his artwork a lot.