Extended Blind Contour

Artist Statement:

The main idea behind this artwork was to take my blind contour drawing and turn it into something similar to the beautiful oops project. After drawing four different people in my art class, I looked at my final blind contour drawing and immediately noticed it looked like three girls doing each other's hair. I decided I wanted to take this idea and extend it so I thought about in what circumstances would girls be sitting down doing each other's hair: a slumber party. Once I had figured out this idea, I decided that the figure to the left of the drawing would also be a member of this slumber party but something about the hair on this girl stood out to me. I was inspired by jughead jones in the Archie comics because that character is always portrayed wearing a crown, so I made the girl wearing one as well.

This work was made with oil pastels on watercolor paper. I used these materials for the blind contour because that is what was required however I also decided to use them on the extended as well. At first, I considered using watercolor on the extended to add some texture to the piece, however, I deiced to use colored oil pastel instead. I made this decision because I liked the way the oil pastels made it sort of messy looking. I was sort of inspired by the artist Gustav Klimt's style because a lot of his art is like a messy abstract look.

The process for creating this work started with creating the blind contour drawing. After this, I decided what materials I wanted to use and what image I wanted to create which I previously explained. I didn't do any research going into this project, I just decided to go for it and draw what I imagined. For this piece, I didn't start over or do any erasing, I just used each mistake as a beautiful oops. I decided to use bright colors because I feel like that captured the essence of a children's slumber party and almost had a sort of innocence to it that paler darker colors don't.