Change Project

I struggled with what I wanted to do this project over for a while. I had a plan originally, but I wasn't really in love with it. I remembered that I really enjoying creepy teeth and monsters and remembered a sketch practice I had seen from another artists on Twitter. They had drawn all sorts of different mouths and expressions, just for practice. That inspired me to do this project over the change of expression, but using a creepy monster mouth as the subject. I used a piece of cardboard with four faces to help show the transition of a neutral(ish) expression to one of rage. Originally I also wanted to use different colors in the gums to further emphasize the transition of emotion, but the canvas didn't work well with my colors.

I had to paint over the cardboard at least 10 times just to get it white enough for me to work on. Then I had to draw each mouth at least four different times because the canvas was such a struggle to work with. The pencil and ink smeared like nothing I've had to deal with before. It took a lot of erasing and re-tracing to finally get each section to a place I was happy with. This whole piece was a struggle. I used angles and depth I've never had to work with before and used a level of detail that I usually get too tired with half way through a piece. I normally never finish pieces like this. In the end I learned a lot and feel like I gained a lot of experience creating this and grew a little as artist. For me, this is my best work.

Line Project (First)

For this piece I had a few different ideas going through my brain, but the things that stuck were triangles, my favorite shape, and planets. For someone reason I really wanted to color a planet and attempt to draw an asteroid belt. I ended up with a triangle portal to another universe, opening up in front of a planet and its asteroid belt stretching out into the other side of the portal. This is really just doodle line with my attempt at a little bit of pointilism. The whole thing was actually pretty fun to create.

2NE1 Mandala (Finished)

I wanted to continue with the two main themes I had in mind near the beginning of the project. I wanted it to be colorful, but also evoke the same hint of Mexican culture I felt when I first started painting with the green and red. To fit both of those themes into one I added Mexican Marigolds which are commonly used in ofrendas on Día de Los Muertos. They're an iconic and very recognizable piece of Mexican culture, but also very bright and colorful.

2NE1 Mandala

Almost done! Need to finish the last sections of paint and go over the outline one more time.

The color scheme kind of evolved over time. Originally I started with the green on the edges and the small red triangles. The specific shades of the two colors made me think of the Mexican flag. From there I decided I wanted a lot of bright colors like what people imagine when they think of Mexico. I wanted the warmer colors on the outside, and the cooler colors in the middle section. The only exception was the golden triangle in the middle which was meant to be a contrast to the cooler colors, but is also the complimentary color of the shades of purple around it. Eventually there was meant to be one last shade of red in the last four empty triangles, and then there was going to be some orange and golden orange marigolds on the outside. I used a silver metallic sharpie for the lines so they would really pop.