Up Close and Personal

Since our theme was Up Close and Personal, I tried to find things that were personal to me that I could draw up close. At first I wanted to draw the Apex high school marching band fedora, but I realized I wouldn't be able to incorporate color into it since the hat is just black and white. Then I decided I should do a sea animal since most of them tend to be fairly large. I went with an Orca whale since they are one of my favorite sea animals. I showed emphasis in my work by making the Orca whale really big in comparison to the fish and the rocks. The medium I chose was colored pencils. I chose them because I wanted the whale to look smooth since it's a hairless animal, and I had already used charcoal in my last project. I didn't take any risks with this project. If I had chosen oil pastels, I might have used water color for the water in the background.

What's the Point?

The title for this piece is "What's the Point?". During the process of trying to come up for a final sketch, I went through several ideas. Some of which included a brain because they make people sharp and allow us to make points. I also thought about just using a plain rose since they have thorns on their stems. I chose to do a skull with vines covered in thorns wrapped around it. I chose this piece because of the contrast. The contrast is shown by having various shades of black for the shadow on the skull. Contrast is also shown by having the roses represent life, while the skull represents death.

 The medium I chose to work with was charcoal. I found charcoal easier to create value on the skull. A risk I took with this piece was adding red pastel on the roses. The message I am conveying with this piece is that life can be found in the darkest places. It is shown by having the roses grow around and out of the skull's eye.