Squishy

I created this work because I wanted to make something that was kind of disturbing but also cute in a strange way. I think octopi are disgusting, but really rad so this was the focus for the majority of the piece and the human in there took a backseat to the overall image. I’ve been told my work is generally creepy but I also received comments like “that’s cool/cute”, so I hope it’s portraying as I want to be because it definitely seems so. This was mainly inspired by this piece (nudity), so if I were to say how it fits with contemporary art I’d say it was inspired by art of today.

The way I made this is not particularly different than the way i’ve made other pieces, I quickly drew a profile a female and then pulled up references of an octopus, and drew from those to get what I wanted for the piece. I used stippling and crosshatching all along the octopus to create the rough surface they have on their skin, and kept refining my linework until i got to the product I have now. The most important technique used here was stippling which took the majority of the time to do but i’m satisfied with the overall effect of it.

My art doesn’t reflect anything in my life or my experience or anything deep like that. I don’t think any of my pieces ever do.