Picture
Sine Voce is the Latin for "without a voice". I like how this has become praised as one of my most interesting pieces of work so far because I have spent the most time on this. Not that I invested numerous hours on the physical piece, but the concept and idea of "sine voce" is one that has been culminating in my head for actually several years. 

This is a piece that started out as a notebook doodle several years ago, then recreated later on a piece of think card stock with Copic pens and markers, and now has been recreated digitally. It was probably drawn a few more times in between, but each time I drew it, it slightly changed. The face itself had become simpler (it now lacks any facial features other than the mouth and nose) and more emphasis has been put on the drawing of the mouth, neck, and knot in the throat- the one thing that has been consistently present in every draft of this idea. 

Now that it has received some attention and is becoming a more finalized piece, I have been trying to analyze the piece- especially as it has changed over the years. My first draft was detailed; it included hair, eyes, ears, a shirt, and the knot in the throat. The second one was also detailed; it also included hair, shading, colors, and a full set of facial features. The difference between the first and second drafts is that a lightning bolt with the word "sine voce" on it protrudes from the mouth of figure in the second draft. Now in the latest replica, the vocal throat area is all but exploding out of the neck area- though there is nothing coming from the mouth. Is this because I have finally found my voice? Is it because I am making progress with my social and emotional anxieties? Or is it less because of my progress in actually gaining this voice but more about the realizations I've recently come to about things I was previously afraid to address.. The actual meaning behind this piece will come with time, just as the piece itself did.

This really does prove that my best art is made when I'm not aiming for a specific goal, reward, or concept. These pieces are also starting to come less sporadically, and I am more consistently making art that I am happy with. I really do need to continue making art in this fashion- especially after I recreate this piece with physical media. 
I will later try to find some of the previous drafts of this piece; I know I have the Copic Marker one, but I am not terribly sure about the original materialization of the concept that most likely occurred on a stray piece of paper or in a notebook during class.

It's funny. The other piece I plan to submit to Scholastics also originated from a doodle.


 
Picture
I'm not entirely sure if I like this one. I tried to be more "expressive" and add more colors but I feel like I got a little carried away. My work looked much better when I only had one color, so maybe I should just have two colors or several shades of the same color. It seems to work best when I keep it simple.

I'd also like to try a Guy Denning sort of thing with the multi-colored skin tones, something I experimented with my summer work and with some of my digital work. Maybe I could combine my meticulous line work with the multi-colored shading like I did in my summer work. Or I could continue keeping the people monochromatic and more line-oriented and use a single paint color to add the expression.

I'm still not sure which direction to take, but I know I'm not all that happy with this work.

It may be the quality of the wood, or the fact that I didn't really have a plan or that I tried to take on too much. I might either try smoother wood, gesso the wood, or try working on canvas again if I can't find the quality of wood I need to be able to draw and paint on it.

 
Both my classmates and I really liked these pieces, much better than the first set of 10. I feel like I did a much better job with the linework and being expressive with the paint, while still managing to meet the deadline. My personal favorite of these 
 
I am going to be completely honest. The deadline for this hit me a lot faster than I would like to admit. I worked so hard on the first two of these works, that this project quickly and unfortunately turned in to "8 Works|1 Night". 

Overall, I can say that I really liked a lot of these works. However, I learned more from this project than I think I've learned from any previous art assignment. Time management works much differently when faced with multiple works rather than one. I've been so used to taking my time and perfecting one piece, that this project took an unfortunate turn for the frantic. I wasn't trying to procrastinate; I was working. But I didn't work at an appropriate pace for this kind of assignment.

I really like my summer pieces a lot better than these pieces, and I plan to either pursue that or go in a Russ Mills-inspired direction and try to get more expressive with my work while still keeping some parts rendered and clean. I have definitely learned my lesson for the next ten works, and I will try to work on my time management.
 
INTELLIGENCE
Most of my work is primarily technique driven, but over the summer I wanted to try to explore and interpret some of my emotions through art. However, at first glance, I could not find the meaning in my work and was disappointed with the glaring lack of emotion in any of the works, particularly the paintings. As I sat through the critiques of my classmates, I began thinking about my own work on a deeper level. I realized that the figures in the painting show no outer emotion, but when stripped down to the core, the colors become more abstract and the “emotion” shows. When I realized how the paintings actually related to me, I was finally happy with my work’s conceptuality. 

INVESTMENT
The two paintings were originally asked for by my aunt, who took me to Carytown and bought all the paints and canvas for me, so I was certainly obligated to put forth my best effort. I also used acrylic on canvas, a medium and surface I was inexperienced in using. I think that these are the best works I’ve made yet for DRHS art, and are the first works that I am truly happy with. I think I may have found a direction that I want to go in with my work and I am very excited. I spent several weeks on the paintings and pretty much spent most of my summer coated in paint. I spent most of my time in the spare room either painting or playing the saxophone and I am proud of the consistent effort I put into the work, for I know I can get impatient if things are not going my way.

DIFFICULTY
I have worked with acrylic before in the past, but this was my first time working on canvas. These were the largest pieces I have ever painted, so I had some difficulty with the composition and trying to scale everything to make the most effective use of the space. I am used to smaller drawing in sketchbooks and drawing on photoshop where I can utilize the zoom tool, so it was definitely something new for me, especially being left handed and using paints. This was also the first time I’ve used the glossy, shiny paint and I am glad that it turned out as well as it did. I tried various techniques with the paints and brushes to blend and create various kinds of brushstrokes, such as the dry brush technique I used when painting the hair on the blue painting. The digital work was actually the first time I had ever worked in Adobe Illustrator or with vector drawings. Though it definitely simpler and less interesting than the paintings, I invested almost as much time into that as I did into the paintings. Aligning each and every eye, creating vector shapes to color the different parts of each eye, and drawing then using live trace on the skull was more time consuming than most would think just looking at it.

SELF ASSESSMENT
If I had to grade myself I would probably give myself an A or A-. This is the happiest I have ever been with my work, but I am somewhat of a perfectionist and I know that there is still work to be done and that I could have spent some more time refining certain details. I think that when I tried to just make work and not put meaning behind it, it turned out to be more conceptual and meaningful than my past work. I definitely think that I should continue to just make art and then interpret it afterward. I feel as if it is more honest, sincere, and meaningful when the meaning is not intentional but subconscious. I put a lot more effort into this work than I have in the past, and I think it shows.
 

Summer 2012

Fall 2012