Process

The sculpture

The development of the sculpture made of cardboard and paper was first. I constructed my cardboard corner by gluing the planes together with hot glue; then I decided on my color palette by collecting various papers and evaluating how well the colors worked together. My final palette was inspired by sunset colors and modified by the challenge of including complementary colors and warm/cool variations of the same color. Purple and yellow were my complementary colors, and I used warm and cool variations of purple, yellow, and pink. For my composition, I cut out abstracted flowers, various windows, and simple samples from colored paper to create interesting forms and shadows. I used regular glue to put together the paper sculpture on the cardboard structure (1).

The painting

After creating the sculpture, I sketched potential compositions for the painting by changing the orientation and viewpoint of the sculpture, as well as the position of the light source (2). I decided on the composition that created the most interesting shadows, color interactions, and movement, and started on the painting. My painting process involves first outlining the major shapes of the composition with paint (3), then blocking out major shapes with solid color (4), and lastly, focusing on mark-making with creating texture with my brushstrokes and fine-tuning the shapes, values, and colors (5) to achieve the final painting (6). Throughout the painting process, we engaged in critiques. During the final critique, Sarah played with the orientation of my piece and the class evaluated how well the work looks horizontally (6) versus vertically (7).