additive

These pieces are additive only. I cannot try to "correct" through erasing or removing material in any way. For this purpose, I am using a conti crayon, charcoal and pastels. No pencil. At first I found this a daunting task. It was frustrating. I wanted to fix my errors. At the end of the first day, I asked myself why I was doing it. The honest answer is that my professor recommended it. I think he knew it would challenge my sense of orderliness, and in the long run, be more satisfying.

Day one...

I have no idea what to draw. I am just putting color on paper. Though I finished unhappy with the product, I do like the colors.

Day two...

Yesterday's piece left me frustrated and disheartened. Today I decided to use the same color schema and shapes, but see if I can come up with something I like better. I began with bold strokes of the rust. Curving lines with no thickness until I had four of them. I looked at it and thought of flames. After thickening the flames,  I began adding in the other colors/shapes. I am not sure what I think of this piece.

Day three...

This frog has error after error, yet I find it very satisfying.

Day four...

I am part Cherokee and have been thinking about my heritage. Along with that, I have been wondering what my great-great granny looked like. She was full Cherokee and I have been told that she had long raven-black hair that went past her waist. That is all I know. There are not any pictures of her. She may not look anything like this, but this is how I imagine her... with grey added to her hair since I was told that she died in old age.

Day five...

I really like the way this turned out. Like the picture above, it changed remarkably with each new layer that I added. With both of these pieces, I was not seeing errors as errors, but leaping forward to add more and more. Both pieces were very exciting to work on. My favorite part of this series is the dark portion of the vase where you can see the slight heaviness of the flower's stem through the many, many colors of curving blue.