Over The Hills

Dexter Le

10/16/17

Art 1

Artist statement portrait

My picture is complicated because of the colors in the scenery and the grasses. The scenery is vibrant with many colors, using Crayola colored pencils. The grasses stand out with a usage of ebony Prismacolor pencils, contrasting the green hills. The dark tree is to the left of the canvas; almost black. The dark sun that seems to only be absorbing the energy at the top right. The house in the middle, colored brightly for the reader to visually understand the meaning of home.

During Hurricane Harvey, a similar experience took place when the harsh raining nearly made visibility in front of me, impossible. However, I was able to see the forming rivers on my street, filling up slowly as if it were growing; a monstrous but illustrious experience.The hills are colored green. They could be seen for miles as the green stands out. The skies are lightful and they seem to like it’s glowing. The viewer would instantly know that the hills are green, and the skies were blue. Yet in the back, rests humanoid figures. Standing on top of the hill, behind the colorful skies, a story begins to play. I’ve made this story through Crayola colored pencils, graphite pencils, ebony Prismacolor pencils, and an eraser. I trace the canvas precisely with my pencil, so the viewer would understand that every line I carved into the paper; have to mean. Colors had to mean in my portrait. The green is supposed to symbolize the life in the world, the dark grasses to symbolize the dark. I used this technique, of coloring in lightly then tampering it with darker colors so that the objects of the canvas stood out to the viewer.

After analyzing a lot of painters, I’ve found a way to make the artist’s message stand out more. This technique consisted of doing very light strokes and using heavy strokes every so often; this was not perfected. I’ve gradually learned through trial and error. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, such as directing the attention to the side with lighter colors or making the sky way too dark. I’ve gone through many improvisations along the way. I’ve decided to continue this drawing style, darkening the foreground and light backgrounds, because of my experiences that I’ve witnessed through Hurricane Harvey; fully dedicated to the event. I wasn’t able to see outside due to the heavy rain yet the flooded streets stood out entirely. Almost as if it were a flowing river. I’ve decided to maintain that drawing style because it gave me more freedom to manually express myself. The color changes in the portrait give it a special theme. It looks bright at first until you start staring even more. An almost eerie sensation reveals later on as you continue the stare. Many questions begin to form as you continue, however, this is one of the many benefits; I love the drawing technique that I created during the process of this portrait. It allowed me to precisely trace my lines on the canvas and ability to color in easily.

I started my portrait off with coloring the background and foreground lightly. After that, I used a slightly darker color to fill in the foreground. I proceeded with minor details using a dark pencil to make the grass, the flowers, and the tree stand out. It develops contrast when comparing it to the light backgrounds because the ebony Prismacolor pencils are extremely dark. Making the correct marks on the portrait, I begin merging the light colors with the dark. I did this by rubbing my fingers on the portrait, smudging the dark colors with the light colors. Finally, I went back into my portrait to highlight the background by using a yellow color pencil. The yellow colored pencil easily contrasted with the blue skies. The technique of an art piece is extremely crucial to the artist. It allows the observer, the viewer, to understand the artwork and interpret it in their own eyes. Their eyes will translate your picture, your message, into something that is understandable only to them. What inspired me to the paint this way was from Darko Tolapski’s painting, Forest by the Lake. I was browsing the internet during my time in Houston, Texas, and found a painting that stood out. It was a lake that seemed to be glowing in my eyes, the foreground was nearly nonexistent. I wanted to mimic that same experience in this portrait, completely voiding the foreground and background.

If I had one thing to change about this work, I would definitely include more usage of other materials. I was having thoughts and relapses of including charcoal to signify the darkness even more, however, I thought the ebony pencil was great enough. With the changes that I would’ve wanted, I was happy overall with this work. I was able to communicate my message and my experience through a major transition in my life. I want this artwork to communicate the struggles of life. Although there is an eerie feel to the portrait, I’ve had terrifying experiences recently. I wanted the white humanoid characters to feel “pure”. Although it may look eerie, white is the color of pureness. Throughout my time this year, I want to alleviate my mental illnesses and start to smile more. I personally believe it’s better to be happy than nothing and sad.

In conclusion, this work that I had produced over a couple weeks allowed me to critically reflect on my life and experiences. It allowed me to capture the recent horrors in my life and allowed me to set positive goals. Although the goals may not be accomplished in a while, noticing weaknesses is more important than noticing the strongest points.