Sustained Investigation #2

REFLECTION ON WORK

• I chose to use acrylic paint on a canvas for multiple different reasons. For one, I am very comfortable with it, and I know how it feels to use it and its characteristics. I was very happy with how the collage elements with watercolor pencil came out on my last piece but ultimately decided against doing something like that for this project. While it definitely could have been cool to experiment, I went into this project knowing what I wanted the style to look like. I did want to make it different from my previous work, but I did that through stylistic choices such as colors and brush strokes instead of using different mediums. Acrylics are bold, and match the energy of the bison and the sort of stark decision that they have to make that I was trying to portray. I knew that with large brush strokes, I could achieve the colors and arrangement of the bison that I wanted as well, and in a time crunch, acrylics were my ultimate decision. I also really liked being able to layer very easily because of how quickly they dry, and this would not have been possible with oils or less opaque mediums such as watercolor. I think that acrylic paints were able to accomplish my intentions for this piece and were really fun to work with. 

• My piece shows the evidence of practice, experimentation, and revision in a few ways. I had never really painted with the style or colors that I had chosen for this piece for the bison. I did decide to go right into the painting because I felt fairly confident in my skills and could always cover it up, but I ended up liking the bison right off the bat. I did have to do some research and was inspired by works of artists such as Joe Don Brave. I did media tests in my journal to make sure the colors would dry the right colors that I wanted. I ended up redoing/revising the clouds to make them more realistic as well, adding more dimension and shape to their forms. 

• This piece was very informative on my work moving forward in many ways. Because I have used acrylics on the past two pieces, I might want to switch up the medium and try something new, like pastels or gouache. I also really liked experimenting with different canvas sizes, and I think it added to the painting (having a long canvas vs. a normal one). My next piece I am not really sure about, but I think it could involve whales and how they communicate with each other with different dialects. I could do this by doing a collage of different pods, for example, one pod could be made from watercolors, and another pod be made with oil pastels, and I would layer them throughout a cool background with sound waves all around different shapes to show how different pods use different “voices” to communicate. It is hard to explain over text, but I think I am going to sketch it out and try out a lot of media tests for this one. I need to step out of my comfort zone and I think this would be a great way to do that. I am tempted to use embroidery in the background, but we will see! I have a lot of ideas flowing now. 

This is my visual art journal that I made before/during my piece, and it was brainstorming that I think is really important to document.