Teacher Name: Michael Criston Winfield
Grade: 12
Materials: Water soluble oil paint
Dimensions: 18 x 24 inches
Description: This is a combination of different photos of snakes I had taken over the years and mashed them up together to create one giant snake. (Made my Junior year)
Artist Statement: Throughout my work, I am interested in drawing what I see or experience in my life. I would consider myself to be a multimedia visual artist and I enjoy experimenting with different media, such as charcoal, graphite, and colored pencil for drawings, as well as water-color, ink, acrylic paint, and water-based oil paint for paintings. I challenge myself to make use of the material or prompt I am given, though in my free time I primarily focus on still lifes or animals. I am open to trying different techniques and supplies and seeing how and where the work takes me. For example, I recently combined two media, by using watercolor as the base with colored pencil layered over it. In my current Visual Arts concentration, I am spending time analyzing my nightmares and trying to portray the feeling they give me. I desaturate the colors to a degree, and also emphasize areas to make each piece look more ominous.
Lately, I have found myself using a certain process for my painting. After I set up my canvas, I use a light-colored pencil shade to gesture in the figures and shapes for the piece. First, I do an underpainting or light block-in with watered-down oil paint. (I use water-soluble oil paint.) Then I follow with my undiluted oil paint to add more layers and details, starting with the background and moving to the foreground. This eliminates halo lines. I use a similar process for drawing, but fine-tip work leads me to very detailed drawings, whereas paints and brushes lead me to a more gestural style.
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