Sustained Investigation #3

REFLECTION ON WORK

• I used many different media for many different reasons in this piece. At the beginning of this process, I was gravitating towards using acrylics again because I had so much fun using them in the last piece. Thinking about the composition of this piece made my mind start spiraling though. I started thinking about the background which made me think about a map. I knew that I probably didn’t have enough time to paint it on, so I ended up using a poster and Mod Podge, but then I went over it with a mix of Mod Podge and liquid acrylics to tint it to the shade that I wanted. I then had a lot of ideas on what to do with the whales and how to differentiate them from each other. I was thinking about using just gouache or acrylics, but I then decided that using oil pastels and watercolors would ultimately be the best decision; they are skills I want to work on and I would be able to differentiate between different whale pods using different techniques really easily. I used the gel pens to make lines in the background to represent the “codas”, which are the clicks sperm whales use to communicate so that I could make them less bold than the paint pen but still noticeable. I also made these lines to make the background less bold because I wanted the emphasis to be on the map and more on the whales. It was a really fun process that I thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with!

• Lots of practice, experimentation, and revision went into this. The canvas was too big so I had to color match, the paper was bubbly with the Mod Podge, and everything was just not working. Getting on the next layer of tinted Mod Podge made it worse, and I had to trust the process and keep flattening it out and adjusting. My next issue was with the whales. They didn’t look different enough when divided into “watercolor” and “oil pastels”. With feedback from peers/my teacher, I made each pod out of one design and dispersed them on the map in places that predominantly speak one language. ( I have more to say but it would exceed the word limit)

• I am proud of myself for trying new things in this piece and even though it's not my favorite thing I have made, I think it gets the message across pretty well, and I am happy that I was able to use different media in this piece and in all of mine so far. From watercolor pencils, acrylics, oil pastels, and collages in multiple pieces, I am having a lot of fun with all of these. For my next piece, though, I think that I want to practice my skills and narrow in a little more. My topic for this one will be Chimpanzees and their ability to use sign language to communicate, similar to humans. I think that this is fascinating, and I want to be able to capture the moment between a human and a chimp when they can understand each other. I got feedback from peers and decided on a human and a chimp both signing “same” in ASL. I want it to be pretty close up as well so I can try to show emotion between the two. I am thinking of using acrylic paint again and working on my facial expressions and anatomy to get it as life-like as I can.