Elephant Piece Final

Final Above

Subject:

This piece shows two elephants, in which a mother elephant is caressing her calf, the younger elephant. Both elephants are colored in various purples, blues, browns, and pinkish grays. There is love in both elephant’s eyes for each other because they are family. Each have two tusks, with the mother having longer because she is older and the baby having shorter. The background of this piece was created with light pinks, oranges, yellows to make the darker tones of the elephants stand out against the background.

Technique:

In this elephant painting, watercolor was used as the technique for creation. Various techniques such as wet on wet and wet on dry were used to get the correct shapes and folds of the elephant skin. Movement was incorporated into this piece with the shape of the trunks and the line technique used to move the eye up and across the baby elephant’s head. This was also utilized in the baby elephant’s trunk, as it moves the viewers eyes down the page. The technique of line is also shown throughout the piece, by the different line shapes to get the folds of the elephant’s skin. There is a strong emphasis on the connection of the mother’s trunk to the baby’s head, with the use of negative and positive space with the darker underside of the trunk and the lighter top. A wispy texture was also used to show the lines in the skin and how the trunks curve.

Historical:

For my master artist I used Albrecht Durer for inspiration in line work that needed to be done in the skin of the elephants. Durer was a German printmaker who was used watercolors for his pieces, even before the Renaissance, making him an influencer for watercolor use. For my master artist, Richard Wallich was an influence for color scheme and composition of the elephants.

Space and Light:

There is an above light source in this piece. This is shown by having the mother and baby’s heads lighter at the top and then darker at the bottom of their faces. This is also dramatically shown in the underside of the mother’s trunk as it meets with the baby’s head. This meeting place is much darker, as it would by shadowed in real life. The spacing of this piece takes up the whole page, as the mother comes from the left and the baby from the right. This composition is more interesting because their connection meets in the middle, while their faces are still off to the sides. This connection links together the elephants and pulls the viewer’s eyes across the page from the mother elephant to the baby.

Symbolism:

This composition is very symbolic of the connection between a mother and its baby. This piece comes from a place of nurturing and love that a mother gives to its offspring. I have decided that I am going to give this to my mom for Mother’s Day, as she has been someone in my life who has nurtured me and helped me to grow into who I am today. Moreover, its also symbolic in the aspect that I am about to graduate from high school, and so I can give this to my mom to remind her that even though I am growing up, I will always be her daughter.

Personal:

In my opinion, this piece is the strongest painting that I have created in this class. For awhile I was having a lot of trouble with how to translate my ideas into pieces that I am proud of. This piece for me, is very important because I was able to push past the limitations that I felt were holding me down, and I was able to create something that I am happy with. Something that I would do differently if I were to do this again is that I would put a boarder because I forgot to do that this time. I also would focus on making the eyes darker to deepen them. I would also see how I could improve in the line work with the skin folds and making the tusks look more realistic. All in all, I am happy with this piece and how it turned out.