Space 

Artist Statement For Zentangle Value Strip: 

I thought that an animal would be a cool way to represent this project, so I picked one of my favorites. A little owl. From there I just followed the project guidelines to make ten unique different patterns varying from darker to lighter. I also wanted to make some patterns have uniqueness, so I tried to make a few of the patterns a little different than others may make. 

I used a graphite mechanical pencil to draw a rough sketch of the outline of the owl. Then I drew over the best sketch lines with a gel pen and then erased the graphite. And ones I had the outline of an owl, I continued to do all the designs with just a gel pen. 

Once I had done the outline, I created the ten different lines separated out for the different designs. I tried using more compressed shapes with more lines when I wanted to make a shape darker, and wider, fewer lines when I wanted it to be lighter. I was originally very concerned just to drop right into the design portion of this. But I ended up adapting and adding to the design if I made a mistake with the gel pen. I turned out very happy with this piece and tried to include every possible detail. This is one of the best pieces of artwork I have ever made. 

Artist Statement For Negative Space Hands: 

For this drawing, I purposely chose one with a great amount of negative space (the peace sign). One that was more complex, to show more of my art copying abilities (the pointing hand). And the last drawing, which was just honestly a random one without a specific purpose (the thumbs up/sideways). 

I just used a graphite mechanical pencil for this drawing. 

All I did was a loose sketch of all my hand positions and then made all three into concrete drawings. I also filled in the negative space with a fully colored-in pencil, to represent the negative space. And another aspect I needed to do for it to be a true negative space drawing, was to erase any other inside lines. 

Artist Statement For Negative Space Leaves:

After I created my base leave outline, I had to decide on a background design.  I had a feeling it was a unique and creative idea to bring the negative space incorporated into the drawing. I used the shapes of leaves to make a fall-type background and also added negative space pawprints. I wanted to make these and the leaves really pop beyond the assorted colors.  

I used a graphite mechanical pencil to draw the outlines and make quarters of the piece. I also included the outlines of the paws in graphite pencil. I then used a Sharpie gel pen to run over all of the outlines I just mentioned, except for the inner quarters. And since the leaves and the paws I created as negative space, I colored in the space around them with red, orange, and yellow colored pencils.     

I tried to make very clear outlines and borders and did this by layering the gel pen multiple times in a row. The pawprints I tried to sketch the to imitate a fox print or dog print in the fall. I felt like it really completed the image. And to cover the non-negative space, there were clear gaps that were separated from each other that I filled with colored pencils. I didn't exactly burnish it, but I just very lightly shaded it trying to color every little bit. And for the final touch, since my goal was to make it look like a fall background, the different colors now occupying the blank white space represent the scattered color patterns in the leaves of fall itself. And this highlighted, even more, the negative space leaves.