Materials: India Ink, Charcoal Pencil, White Charcoal Pencil, Conté Crayon
Size: 22×30 in.
Midterm: Composition
I wanted to try something new for the midterm piece. From the beginning when I began researching and trying to find inspiration for the piece, I knew I wanted to divide my space with a broken glass effect. I was drawn to the skeleton in class and I wanted to balance something anatomical with the gentleness of flowers. It was unintentional in the beginning, but the mixture of skeleton and flowers became a theme throughout the piece. I experimented with India ink, a medium I have never used before, in conjunction with black and white charcoal. I have to say that I did like how the combination turned out because the mediums create contrast with each other.
The biggest problem with the piece in my opinion is how dark it is and how the glass theme did not translate as well as I wanted it to. Aside from the right section of the spine and flower, everything else is a little too dark. I wish I would have lightened the ink in some places a little more than I did to provide some stark contrast, especially at the bottom. That lightness would have probably brought out the glass cracking effect I wanted in the beginning. I think going too dark is a problem of mine and it is something I want to try to move away from because at times it drowns some elements that I want to bring out.
Though the glass effect did not translate like I wanted it to, during critique others saw the division as something else entirely. Some saw it as ripped pages from a book, and other saw the division as being part of a bigger pattern of fracture lines on a skull. It was interesting to see how other interpreted the pattern differently from I did because before I saw it as a failed glass effect and others saw it in an entirely different way.
In general, I think I did step out of my comfort zone with the piece because I used a medium I have never used before and I have a slight dislike of painting. Going forward I would like to work on translating my ideas better and exploring new ways to use mediums together while also trying to create contrast in different ways then just stark black.
