AP Art

Medium: watercolor, cut paper In this piece it's revealed that the creature introduced in #5 is friendly, as it's shown cutting the chains of the main character. The tension from the previous piece has been resolved with the one and it shows our main character is now freed. This piece also has a more subtle meaning that I thought of as I was making it and will be developed in the future. It shows in a way how unconditionally animals can love and how theyre pure from the discrimination and hatred of others that humans (or human like celestial beings) have of each other. The dragon sensed that he was in trouble, and not regarding his appearance, helped him The part of this piece that stands out the most is the chain, and it's probably my favorite part of the image. Highlighted in the silver acrylic and bent off the paper it conveys a sense of movement and action in this otherwise static image. The backing is mat board with an watercolor and acrylic mix, while the dragon is...

Medium: Watercolor, cut paper, acrylic  This piece is one of my most ambitious and it's essentially a 3D cut paper comic page. It shows the dragon character introduced in the previous piece meeting the main character of our story. It's meant to create tension as our main character is chained and unable to move as this dangerous looking creature approaches. He is scared at first, but resigned to his fate as he realizes he has no way of escape and perhaps death is now more desireable than living this way. It's kept ambigious still, so you don't know what's about to happen next. The main effect I was going for with the cut paper here is uniqueness and emphasis. It creates a visually interesting comic to look at rather than a static painting that could look boring. I'm really happy with how its came out and while it took a while to sketch, pain, cut and glue it all together, I think the final result really represents my story, my mediums and style. There were a ...

Medium: Watercolor, cut paper, acrylic This piece was a bit of a departure from what I've done far, but it introduces the second most important character for my story. I created this dragon-like character to help aid our main character in his escape from the cruel society he was born into; but it's not known about it yet. This piece is merely an introduction to it and as such it takes a very neutral approach to portraying it, like my first piece of the main character. You're not sure exactly what it's going to do yet, it's just there to show this creature approaching. The backing of this piece is a matboard painted with acrylic to show the stars in the background. The dragon is on normal paper and painted with watercolor. My main goal with this mixed media was to experiment with how watercolor and acrylic can be mixed in a good way that doesnt look off. I think I achieved the effect very well, especially with the cut paper that helps emphasize the dragon. Cut p...

Medium: Watercolor This piece of my main character is meant to break the ambiguity presented by my previous pieces. He's no longer a mysterious and scary looking character, but he's now sympathetic and vulnerable. You can now tell he's unable to break his chains and the reason he is in them doesn't have to do with some sort of danger he poses to the other people of his race. He's unjustly hated and being restrained by those around him, which is part of my sustained investigation This piece was a rather simple one to make, I sketched out the image, colored it with watercolor and lined some of the defining features to help portray the cartoon style I'm going for. For the background  texture/ effect I painted on in watercolor and, while it was wet, put salt on it and let it dry. This helped  create the grainy/rough texture. I'm not entirely happy with how it is right now, though I like some aspects of it; so I might do some sort of less elaborate revision....

Medium: Acrylic The third piece for my concentration is the introduction of my main character. I used a combination of different things to show how he's different from the rest of the characters I have created so far, like the change in mediums and the different colors (darker background with bright warm colors in the foreground) and most importantly a most sinister setting and position. He's chained up and framed with a black hole in the background (to show his origin in the same way as the other characters). This piece is meant to be rather ambiguous because of the contrast in tone from the other two. You're not really sure if he's sympathetic or evil, but this will be revealed going forward in the story. The main idea of this piece is that he's different than the rest and very mysterious as of now. My next piece will show much more of who he actually is and how the others view him While I have done a little with acrylic before this was my first real attempt...

Medium: Colored pencil on toned paper This piece was also part of my “exposition” of my idea. It features a female figure and a comet, continuing my theme of basing my characters on space bodies. This piece was my first exploration of toned paper and white colored pencil, which made it a very interesting and different experience than my normal attempts at using colored pencil. I am happy with how it came out, but it is very underdeveloped in my opinion and I made a few noticeable errors like coloring around the face, not realizing the black marker wouldn't cover it up. I plan to revise this piece as well, giving it more of a focus and better detail/value. As is the case with my previous piece, it doesn't have much of a purpose in my overall theme besides expository elements like setting up what is considered normal and "beautiful" by the alien society                                       ...

Medium: Watercolor This piece was sort of a warm up to the full idea I am focusing on for this portfolio. All the characters that are seen in this portfolio are created by me for my portfolio and the story I want to tell. All the alien characters are each based on a celestial body, from planets to nebulas to stars and comets. Overall my concentration will focus on themes of isolation and rejection from our "normal" peers, especially in the face of physical differences between us- but this will be fully realized later on. This piece serves as the equivalent of exposition in a book, setting up my concept for these spacial beings. In this first piece we see a nebula and a form of Jupiter. Initially I planned not to include bodies from our solar system as it's "too close" for something that takes place light years away, but I loved the design for him so much I decided to keep him. I think it also more clearly conveys my concept of basing characters off of objects...