And Roids

Assignment: We had to pull three "concrete words" out of a jar and then one "abstract word" out of another jar. We then had to combine the three concrete words in a painting that described the abstract word. lol. Complicated. The concrete words I got were "Robot, Syringe, Chain" and my abstract word was "Powerful."

Category: Painting, Pop Art

Tools: Non-photo blue pencil, water color canvas, water color pencils, water brushes, and glaze.

Technique: Finally something more simple. lol. I just laid down the basic figure in a non-photo blue pencil and then colored the whole thing in water color pencils. After I was done, I ran the water brush over the pencil to make it turn into paint. After it dried, I ran over the whole thing with a glaze.

End Result: I was really excited to do a piece in water color, since it's one of my favorite paints to use. However, I'd never used water color pencils before. As a plus, I discovered they provide GREAT control (as you can see in the sharp lines). As a negative, they don't provide very even color once you run over them with a water brush, and can tend to look blotchy.

Overall, I like the IDEA of the piece. I immediately connected the word "syringe" to the word "power" by thinking of steroids or roids. Then I thought "OH! ANDROIDS!....And Roids. 8B" and hence the idea was born. I guess it's an android ON roids and showing off his power by biting a chain. lol.

I originally designed it as a t-shirt design, so I tried to make it look pop-artsy, but I didn't really consider the overall layout when displayed on it's own, which makes it looked a little cramped. I also DESPISE the afterthought text in the middle. I really debated whether or not to put that there and after I did the water color pencil ran terribly anyway, making the text look even more kindergarten. Blah.

Also, I didn't foresee that running glaze over a water color piece, even dry, causes really horrible running (as you can kinda see in the pic). Were I do do it over, I would revise the layout to stand on it's own and I would be more aware of the runny-ness of water color pencils and just avoid the glaze and text all-together. XD

But all in all, not a bad learning experience.