ART CONTEST

My art teacher recommended an art contest to us in class. I saw one of them: Animayo International Poster Contest. To my interest as well as the encouragement from the teacher, I decided to sign up for the contest. 

Planning:

• Since the second year of IB is getting very intense, I need to manage to find time to work on this project. 

• I decided to try to work on it at least 2 hours a day, because I want to take my time to submit something that has the best quality for presentation. 

The rule from the official organization did not specify a topic for the illustration which creates liberty, and I’m not expecting myself to get nominated in the contest anyway. So I’m actually just using this chance to experiment and to try out different styles. For this time, I want to attempt to create fables, fantasy-like artstyle. 

The interest in making this art style arises from a music album Masstaden under vatten. In this album cover, it illustrates a majestic yet grotesque visual compilation. I was very hooked with this illustration and took this as an inspiration to make this artwork. 

The overall process of making this is painstaking. I spent the first ten hours working on the lineart and overall composition. The next 12 hours I dedicate my time to coloring the artwork. The difficult part being the choice of colors, because the colors I used weren't cohesive at the start. So I decided to pick base colors from the album cover that I referenced. Since this style is something I’ve never tried before, I have to search up on Pinterest to study and understand the techniques and characteristics.  In addition, I used several brushes that I rarely used for rendering, like water paint brushes, an opportunity for me to step outside of my comfort zone. 

This activity grants me the chance to practice compositions. Since this illustration incorporates multiple elements, lack of composition can make the overall visuals confusing, so accounting the arrangement, as well as avoiding tangent(subjects/object silhouette touching each other) is essential. 

I am pleased to see myself being able to achieve different forms of visual presentation. Although I know I have the capability to do them, I usually stay in my comfort zone so this is a milestone for me to not only embrace something new, but also a great occasion for me to put my skill to the test.