Fear - Blog Post #3

1. In my piece, I am trying to show the viewers a take on fear from a different point of view. I wanted to show it throw a symbol of growth, a tree. The future is an abyss of unknown, and for most it is a terrifying place. There is so much pressure to succeed and accomplish everything you want in such a short time, and I wanted the viewer to feel that. Not knowing where you're going or where you're life is headed is truly alarming, and I think I wanted to convey that confusing haze since the beginning.

2. I think my message comes through successfully as long as the viewer takes the time to think about it. One of the main goals for this project was to make it not literal and easy to see, and that really allowed me to go deeper into the topic. The focal point of my peace is a smaller tree, trapped in a dark hole with no sense of direction. It is stuck there while the others are full grown, and a part of it never wanted to grow up and join them. This comes through when you processes the deeper truths behind it.

3. The medium I chose was charcoal because I thought it would best convey the darkness I envisioned. My piece calls for a very dark and brooding mood, and I thought a very pigmented and textured material would add to the effect. The fact that the color was so strong was also its downfall, and when I wanted a lighter shade it was very difficult to achieve. I overcame this by experimenting more with the blending tools and the different effects they all leave. I started using the blending stub and paintbrush to smooth out the pigment, and if it was too dark I would lightly dab it with my eraser to pick up small amounts. From my table mates, I also learned how to use powdered charcoal to create the darkness around my focal point. The effect it gave lead it to becoming one of my favorite parts of the piece.
The dark mood of the piece was enhanced by the equally as ark color scheme. The black and white colors create a sense of darkness that would have not been achieved another way. Darkness was mostly expressed around the main tree. This greatly aided the effect of it being lost in some sort of haze, caused from all of its fear of not having a life path, plan, or any stability.
I incorporated perspective through the line of trees all on a specific course, fading into the distance. This aided in the feeling of the small tree feeling out of the loop and left behind to struggle alone. I also incorporated some foreshortening in the detail of the close up tree.

4. I used a couple of principles of design to enhance my design. I mostly used proportion and scale to create perspective and spotlight on the focus of my piece. To show that the young sapling was up closer than the rest, I enlarged it and put it in the main field of view. This showed the larger scale in relation to the large trees in the background. This also relates to the principle emphasis, when I added the most detail to the up close sapling. There is a very clear movement and detail to my piece because of the principles.

5. Overall, I am pleased more by how much I learned about my materials and my owns fears themselves. I still really enjoy my piece, but I think it was most rewarding to dive deeper into the fear of growing up and not fulfilling your potential. There is an extreme pressure put on today's generation to be punctual and move on to a stable career on your own. If you don't know what you want to do or scared of facing it alone, you're left in the dust. I think it came out how I expected, but along the way I changed and added bits to my design. An example of a change were the roots and darker shading on that lower half of the grown tree trunks. I wanted to fill in the space and the roots were a interesting addition. I also felt like adding more darkness to the bottom added more to the overall tone, and added another layer of meaning. In my eyes, I see the shading to be as if it was growing from the darkness surrounding the sapling. I think the darkness around the older trees could be interpreted in 2 ways, either the small tree's fear is pushing them up, or they learned how to cope with the fear and rise. If I had to do this project again, I think I would use the knowledge I gained by still using the tree idea but in a different way or point of view. I am very happy with my piece, but seeing my growth would be extremely rewarding.

6. I have never drawn roots before, and trees have always been a challenge. In the end, I am not thrilled with how they turned out, but I am proud I took a risk. The reference I chose may have not been as fitting as I hoped. The complexity of how they twist and turn is complicated. After this project, I feel a lot more confident in my ability to draw them in more detail. I feel like they would look better with my new knowledge, especially with my better understanding of my materials. Charcoal is still a difficult medium, but I am very interested to continue learning to create new and better effects. This project was very fitting for the monochromatic color scheme, but if I did do a complete other piece I would like to try and use color. I think color in a different context for this fear would be extremely interesting.