I have successfully finished my first project of art 2! Our assignment was to pick an element of art, like color, shape, or line, and emphasize it through a piece of art. I liked the idea of line and possibly color, so I wanted a project that would showcase those ideas. I switched into this class in the middle of the first week, so for the first couple days it felt like I was drowning in a project that I didn't really understand. However after planning for forever, I finally came up with an idea that I liked and emphasized line work.
I had watched a couple of episodes of ink masters, and saw a beautiful octopus tattoo that I wanted to try and interpret. Also one of my favorite animals is an octopus, so it just made sense to try and make one. After picking my image I began to wonder what out of the box thing I could do with it. I really wanted to capture the texture of the tentacles and the octopus itself. I decided that hot glue had that kind of sticky texture that I wanted for the tentacle, so I took that idea and ran with it. After putting a layer of glue down over the suction cups, I went back and messed with the glue while it was drying. This gave it sort of a 3-D effect and really made it seem like the suction cups on the tentacles. After the first layer of glue had dried I decided that the octopus needed some color.
Since I already had put the glue down I needed to figure out what would give me the best color. After some failed experiments I figured out that oil pastel went on nicely and gave me the color that I wanted. So I began to go back over the glue with my pastel, blending two different shades of blue as I went. After the pastel was down I went back with a second layer of glue and blended the pastel with the glue. Then I repeated the process of messing with the glue during the drying process to give it the sticky texture that I wanted. This whole process took about three or four days just for the tentacles. With just the tentacles done the body looked a little bare, and I hadn't done nearly enough line work, so I had the idea of lining the whole octopus in hot glue. Since the tentacles were a vibrant blue color, I figured that the body should be a tad darker, so the tentacles would stand out. Then I repeated the process of gluing, adding the pastel, this time it was blue, black, and sometimes red pastel, and gluing again. In the process of coloring some of the pastel went into the body of the octopus. That's how I got my idea of lightly coring the inside of the octopus. I blended white pastel with the leftover red pastel from my fingers and got a beautiful pink color. Since my fingers could only reach the middle of each tentacle, I think it really highlights the hot glue lining.
Finally after about a week and half's worth of work I was done and happy with my project. I was a little afraid to come into art 2 because I had a rough time in art 1. I never felt like my art measured up to other people's because I had never had an art class before. Fortunately towards the end I got a little more confident in my abilities. After this first project I feel really good. I've never done anything as out of the box as lining with hot glue, so the fact that this turned out makes me really happy. This project was ultimately about line work and I think that picking an octopus to create and using hot glue really showcased that element of art. Overall I am extremely happy with the way this first project turned out and I cannot wait to see what else I will create this year.