Time Capsules

Artist Statement

The idea behind this artwork was to take 20 minutes and sketch three different things, my face, my hand, and three objects that I use in everyday life. I didn't really have a plan going into these sketches. I just drew what I saw and tried my best to make it realistic in the short time that I had. The proportions however did not come out great, and drawing fast has never been a skill of mine so the sketches are not my best. With this artwork I wasn't trying to portray any certain message, however, I was attempting to show a bit of what my art style is like within these sketches. I think my self-portrait best represents my art style, a sort of messy unrealistic style. I was told my self-portrait resembles a Tim Burton piece, which makes sense because I love the way his characters look and I think I unconsciously try to resemble that kind of my art in my work.

I used graphite on drawing paper to create these sketches. I chose graphite because it's the easiest tool for a quick sketch and I went into this project knowing I was going to need to do a lot of erasing. At first, I was accidentally using a 2h pencil but switched to a 6b to add shadows. If I were to have spent more time on these sketches I would have used all of the b pencils to create a more realistic and proportional image with correct shadows and highlights. I chose to use drawing paper because no other fancy paper was necessary for these quick and simple sketches.

The process for creating this work was simple. I put my object in front of me, and then I tried to draw it as best I could in 20 minutes. I didn't do any research or anything for these sketches because that wouldn't have been necessary. I chose to draw a candle, a chapstick, and a book for my three objects because I use those objects every day when I study for school. I had to restart my three-object drawing once because at first, I was going to draw my water bottle, but decided I want to draw three objects that were at my house instead because they are more important representations of what I use in a day. I chose to start adding some shadows to this work (the three objects) because I decided it would help show more clearly what my three objects are.