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9 3/4 x 7 1/2, black ink and colored pencil on paper
Movement + contrast to show our perception of ugliness through natural insects v. beautiful decor
Cut out paper for layers to imitate insect's habitat and excessive decor/wealth, pen for small detail
Initially, I decided to focus on movement (/rhythm/pattern) for this piece. I thought about ways to express my idea about our perception of beauty and natural ugliness that would involve movement, eventually landing on a sort of invasion of bugs in a seemingly beautiful scene. Deciding my subject, I then chose to work on paper as I could cut out different layers. Not only mimicking an ant-like insect’s habitat, the layers would symbolize the excessiveness of the decor that surrounds the indulgent, and wealthy woman. The pen I used on the paper also allowed me to get very small details which was helpful due to the naturally small size of most bugs.
Having worked on this piece for so long, I have already started my next one, so the content/composition is decided. However, I still obviously have things to take away from this piece. I think a success I had in this piece was how much thought I put into it. This doesn’t mean I plan on spending the same amount of time thinking about it as I did on this piece… but having that much thought helps to articulate what I want to say better when I write. Also having medium choices that directly relate to the subject/what the piece is about is something that is very clear and easy to write about. Similarly, using a principle of design is just as helpful and something I plan to continue throughout my portfolio.
I worked on this piece over a very long time, setting it down and picking it back up again to refresh my view on it. Through that time, I used my peers as a resource to figure out what was/wasn’t working, and my further steps. By doing this, I was able to see things that I hadn’t noticed before, or that I didn’t think were hurting the piece. For example, the size of the plate was very small in the beginning and I changed it four times before I finally ended on the right size. This helped to make the small bird on the plate look in proportion and as extravagant as I wanted it to, adding to the frivolous and excessiveness of the background I was trying to get to emphasize the meaning of the piece. In addition, I utilized editing the photo online. Specifically, I’d take pictures of the piece at varying stages and go on top of it online adding color or moving things around. I also did this by hand by printing out a picture of my piece before I added color and adding colored pencils to the top of the printed picture. This helped me to see realistically how the colors I would use would look on my piece and gave me a guide when I started to color in the real thing.
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