MY CREATIVE PROCESS
Inspiration
I came up with the initial idea of portraits featuring women from fairy tales before we even started working on our capstones, and with Heather's guidance, I shaped my initial rough concept into the project shown on this site. Much of my inspiration was also drawn from the works of Alphonse Mucha, including the framework and outlining present in my work.
Attention Management
While I was interested in the concept and loved my reference images, the sheer amount of time and effort caused me to procrastinate frequently. I've found, both with my capstone and other classwork, that I work best when I feel like I have nothing else to do, or I'm in the right mindset to work on a certain project. For example, I can sit and work on notes for physiology over 2 or so hours when I feel bored or I've been listening to music and my mind is in the right place. I'm also highly deadline motivated, so I experienced some difficulty with motivation when the deadline was so far out and I had other, more pressing assignments I needed to dedicate my time to, especially in this online environment, with so much busy work and time dedicated to managing myself outside a classroom environment.
TECHNIQUES
GRAPHITE
I used pencil to shade and outline the majority of my portraiture, using fine-point mechanical pencils to create much of the detailing present, in addition to the linework reminiscent of Mucha's style. Those same mechanical pencils also served while I created the base sketch and the underlying gridwork.
PEN WORK
I relied on Micron pens for my ink work, using them to emphasize areas of true black as well as for the detailing of the framework. For areas of true white within shading, I used white gel pens, which also creates some texture on the flat surface of the paper.
RHINESTONES
One especially unique feature of this portrait is the use of rhinestones, as it is not something I've used in artwork before. This provide a dimensionality to the pieces that is striking to the viewer. Though I would have preferred to be able to show this in person, some elements are still visible through photos of my work. Due to a desire to work further and refine my work, I have refrained from adding more than the teardrop to the piece so as to allow myself the ability to smooth shading and add further detail.
GRID TECHNIQUE
Because I have a tendency to distort reference images when drawing from them without guidance, I used the grid technique for this project to ensure the portraits would be as realistic as possible. This is done by overlaying the reference and paper with a grid to match proportions and features. As I worked I either erased or shaded over the gridwork, as the linear forms would detract from the rather organic forms of the portrait.
Facing Challenges
As with many large projects in the past, I found myself putting off and minimizing the importance of this project until the deadline was looming quite ominously over my shoulder. While the project was my own idea, my own creation, I saw the immense amount of time required and found I had no where to put it in my semester, or even before that. During the semester my time was occupied with busy work from one class or another, and I made progress here and there, but not nearly the amount of progress needed to fully shade and outline and conceptualize one, let alone three or my initial lofty goal of six portraits, on a 14x17 inch sheet and in full graphite.
My fear of failure or insufficiency stopped me from progressing past the face with the smooth, realistic shading I was so proud of, and knowing the amount of shading left put me off even more. But over the weeks I learned that others were facing the same difficulties, and that I wouldn't fail unless I didn't try. So I sunk even more time into the shading and outlining of The Girl, knowing I could finish her and her sisters later, but without that fear of failing to meet a deadline, and that the work I put in was enough, even if my past self naively expected and feared a far larger project.
MY CREATION PROCESS
LITERATURE REVIEW
I began my process by analyzing and choosing which fairy tales to illustrate, and deciding on what styles or techniques used by other artists to use in my own work. Due to time constraints, the extra fairy tales that I decided on and created reference drafts for remain unused, at least until I create them on my own time.