Earth
40" x 32"
Spray paints, white paint pen, black micron pen
Earth, Wind, and Fire: the first project assigned. I chose to develop a large scale Earth piece because of my fascination with breath-taking landscapes. Canyons and mountains were some of the first ideas I had, and the final piece focuses on the combination of the two.
The process for this work (as well as the others) includes concepting, refining, and scaling up to 18" x 24" until I am prepared to begin work on the large scale. Once I am ready, I sketch out the entire drawing, then begin the tedious task of taping different areas in order to spray a layer. Each color on this piece required taping to get one color, letting that dry, then taping over that first spray to get the color next to it. The river was created by combing 3 shades of blues and greens into a tin, then applying that to the board with a brush. This piece took an incredible amount of blue tape to layer it out.
Step 1
The process of this work began with concepting 8 drawings to start this idea. I used a variety of mediums such as pencils, charcoal, pens, and spray paint. The color swatches in spray paint solidified my choice in focusing on this medium, and I mentally stitched two of the drawings together.
Step 2
The second step of this process involved creating two larger concepts for our work. I chose to combine the canyon and mountain range from my original concepts, creating a juxtaposition between opposing landscapes with very different color schemes.
Step 3
Finally, I made a scaled down rendering of the piece to reference when beginning the large-scale work. I had my color choices and the design of the mountains down, but after completing this, I felt that the black pen for the mountains fell into the blue spray paint. This led me to experimenting with the Step 2 work and redrawing the mountains with the white pen, creating a contrast that really helped complete this piece. After completing this version, I began work on the large scale. Taping off the river took way too much time and tape, but I worked through the process and finished the piece.
