Midterm Circles

Artist Statement

The main idea that guided this work was creating anything out of paper with a bunch of circles on it. I decided to take this project less literally than a lot of other people may have. When I saw these circles I didn't see a specific thing but I saw an abstract idea. I wanted the circles to be like windows that are lit up, and everything behind them to be dark. I wanted the circles to highlight certain parts of the face and to have a very high level of contrast surrounding it. I was inspired by Picasso's style of art in the way that certain parts of faces are unique colors, shapes, and sizes. With this work, I was trying to figure out how I can emphasize certain human features.

This work was made with watercolor paper with a bunch of circles on it and oil pastels. I used oil pastels because they are so bright and I wanted the features of the human face to pop out compared to the background. I like the way oils and pastels smudge and are very easy to blend. Another reason I used oil pastels is that we only had 90 minutes to this so I wanted to use a material that I could work quickly with and was already comfortable with. I also used graphite to sketch out a human face before I went over it with the oil pastels. We were required to use a certain paper that had a bunch of identical circles on it as well which was difficult to work with but the oil pastels did the job.

The process for creating this work started with coming up with an idea. As I mentioned above I had the idea to play with contrast and facial features. I started by using a pencil to just sketch out an abstract-Picasso- inspired face. After I did this I erased all the lines that went outside of the circles. I did this because I wanted to be somewhat proportional and make it seem as if you could only see the parts of the face in the circles. I chose to make the background completely dark because I wanted to have a lot of contrast and make it seem as if the lights were turned out behind the face. I used bright colors for the eyes and eyelashes because I liked the way they emphasized the eyes which I think to stand out the most in this drawing.