Teacher Showcase Series - Neptuna
Welcome to the Process Board for my Teacher Showcase Series!
Please click on an image below to see the process board for that image.
Please scroll to the bottom of the page to read the artist statement for this series.
Please click on an image below to see the process board for that image.
Please scroll to the bottom of the page to read the artist statement for this series.
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Artist Statement
When it is time to create a series, it is hard to define where our thoughts may carry us. Like warm taffy, I was pulled in many different directions before settling on one particular idea. My final series is an underwater trilogy featuring a sea queen and her pet hermit crab. Originally designed to be a black and white piece, it transformed into a colour trilogy since the colours on the composite image were so vibrant and welcoming. With some warm accents, it has primarily purple and blue tones.
I find that the three images rely on several principles of design in order to create their composition; the full-colour portrait of Neptuna, for instance, manages to consider all the principles of design in one form or another. The image has rhythm and movement due to the tentacles and the repeating suckers throughout. The white area on her face serves as a contrast to the rest of the image, giving the area emphasis. The trilogy looks good together overall, with similar tones and colours as well as lines and elements that repeat. The strongest elements of art used are colour and value, which work together to create drama and help add to the surrealistic feel. I did run out of time to complete the sad close-up portrait of Neptuna, so I opted to still try to accomplish the composition I had planned but using digital pencil only.
This work was created in different ways. I started the largest picture by taking a photo of myself, taking it to Photoshop and modifying it, adding tentacles and an ocean background. I then did a sketch on my notebook so I could correct issues with the tentacles and just rethink how they would best serve the composition. I scanned this sketch and cleaned it out on Photoshop, again rethinking some of the tentacles, using a Wacom tablet and a rough grey nib. To emulate the feel of paper while drawing digitally, I placed a paper sheet on top of my drawing tablet as it helps me achieve a similar feel and similar results.
I decided to add colour instead of just shading it black and white since I had so much fun modifying the colours of all the tentacles to turn them into purple, and the resulting colour was very pleasing to me. This was the very first time I painted something on Photoshop; I had previously only used Corel Painter for digital painting.
I find that Photoshop doesn’t allow for as much detail as Corel Painter, but it is very responsive and easy to use. For the larger image of Neptuna, I liked how the end result turned out and the roughness around the edges. After adding colour on Photoshop, I added a layer of shadows as it seemed like the easiest way to shade the images consistently. The two other images were also created as digital composites first, but the one with the hermit crab started off as a small white sculpture because I was having a tough time figuring out how to get the tentacle hands looking realistic. The sketch for Herman was done directly in Photoshop, using the image as source, to save a little time. The third and final image is based on another photograph of me, and done as a close-up with similar filters and a different angle; I took this into Corel Painter for pencil sketching as Corel's pencil is much smarter.
The artwork started with an idea of creating a human and octopus hybrid that was unique and different. I thought it might be fun to create a self-portrait as an octopus queen with tentacles as hair. Originally the series was supposed to follow a different path, using other ideas and creating different self-portraits; in fact, the first composite I did was of nine self-portraits making funny faces, creating a three by three image. After I finished the composite, however, I thought it just didn’t demonstrate my tendencies towards whimsical art or where I usually go when I create.
In creating this artwork, I had an interesting epiphany: I always tell my students not to put limits on themselves and not tell themselves that they can’t draw this or that, because their mind will listen and they will get stuck at that stage. As it turns out, I had been telling myself that I could only create something new and unique from imagination if I made a model of it first, painted the model, photographed it and then sketched from it. That old process took me hours and hours of work just to get to a point where I was able to start sketching! This has been a big deterrent for me to even consider starting a project in the past. After growing during these past two months, pushing myself and my limits for the sake of delivering art on a timeline, I discovered that I am able to create things from my imagination with a much smaller amount of source material than before. There is currently an infinite number of photos on any subject on the internet, and all of them can be used as source material to create something unique and imaginative; I don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time. I can now create art with much more confidence and speed, and I can also relate to my students on a much deeper level -- we all get stuck sometimes, but we all can get unstuck… we will continue to grow as artists until the end. And it only took me twenty years to figure that out!
I find that the three images rely on several principles of design in order to create their composition; the full-colour portrait of Neptuna, for instance, manages to consider all the principles of design in one form or another. The image has rhythm and movement due to the tentacles and the repeating suckers throughout. The white area on her face serves as a contrast to the rest of the image, giving the area emphasis. The trilogy looks good together overall, with similar tones and colours as well as lines and elements that repeat. The strongest elements of art used are colour and value, which work together to create drama and help add to the surrealistic feel. I did run out of time to complete the sad close-up portrait of Neptuna, so I opted to still try to accomplish the composition I had planned but using digital pencil only.
This work was created in different ways. I started the largest picture by taking a photo of myself, taking it to Photoshop and modifying it, adding tentacles and an ocean background. I then did a sketch on my notebook so I could correct issues with the tentacles and just rethink how they would best serve the composition. I scanned this sketch and cleaned it out on Photoshop, again rethinking some of the tentacles, using a Wacom tablet and a rough grey nib. To emulate the feel of paper while drawing digitally, I placed a paper sheet on top of my drawing tablet as it helps me achieve a similar feel and similar results.
I decided to add colour instead of just shading it black and white since I had so much fun modifying the colours of all the tentacles to turn them into purple, and the resulting colour was very pleasing to me. This was the very first time I painted something on Photoshop; I had previously only used Corel Painter for digital painting.
I find that Photoshop doesn’t allow for as much detail as Corel Painter, but it is very responsive and easy to use. For the larger image of Neptuna, I liked how the end result turned out and the roughness around the edges. After adding colour on Photoshop, I added a layer of shadows as it seemed like the easiest way to shade the images consistently. The two other images were also created as digital composites first, but the one with the hermit crab started off as a small white sculpture because I was having a tough time figuring out how to get the tentacle hands looking realistic. The sketch for Herman was done directly in Photoshop, using the image as source, to save a little time. The third and final image is based on another photograph of me, and done as a close-up with similar filters and a different angle; I took this into Corel Painter for pencil sketching as Corel's pencil is much smarter.
The artwork started with an idea of creating a human and octopus hybrid that was unique and different. I thought it might be fun to create a self-portrait as an octopus queen with tentacles as hair. Originally the series was supposed to follow a different path, using other ideas and creating different self-portraits; in fact, the first composite I did was of nine self-portraits making funny faces, creating a three by three image. After I finished the composite, however, I thought it just didn’t demonstrate my tendencies towards whimsical art or where I usually go when I create.
In creating this artwork, I had an interesting epiphany: I always tell my students not to put limits on themselves and not tell themselves that they can’t draw this or that, because their mind will listen and they will get stuck at that stage. As it turns out, I had been telling myself that I could only create something new and unique from imagination if I made a model of it first, painted the model, photographed it and then sketched from it. That old process took me hours and hours of work just to get to a point where I was able to start sketching! This has been a big deterrent for me to even consider starting a project in the past. After growing during these past two months, pushing myself and my limits for the sake of delivering art on a timeline, I discovered that I am able to create things from my imagination with a much smaller amount of source material than before. There is currently an infinite number of photos on any subject on the internet, and all of them can be used as source material to create something unique and imaginative; I don’t need to reinvent the wheel every time. I can now create art with much more confidence and speed, and I can also relate to my students on a much deeper level -- we all get stuck sometimes, but we all can get unstuck… we will continue to grow as artists until the end. And it only took me twenty years to figure that out!
