Teacher Name: Deidra Grimm
Grade: 10
Materials: Prismacolor on Mix Media paper
Dimensions: 9” x 12”
Description: I chose to integrate Melanie Martinez’s new album (PORTALS), specifically her song, “TUNNEL VISION”, with Vito’s unique complimentary color pencil layering technique. I wanted to recreate the new Crybaby character she made in her new album by changing her color scheme. I think Vito’s technique is perfect for Melanie Martinez because it emphasizes her unusual and highly creative aesthetic, by blending colors that seem weird at first, yet look very interesting and attractive at the end (like how some people might react to her music videos). While using this technique, I learned that you don’t have to use black, white, and grey for lighting and shading. You don’t even have to use different shades of the same color. You could make the lighter areas pastel pink and the darker areas forest green if you wanted to. I also learned that it’s important to step out of my comfort zone to become a decent artist and that I have to do things that don’t follow the norms- like coloring with clashing colors until I can finally accept the result. I used Vito’s radical color pencil layering technique to create multidimensional fields. I wanted it to look like there was a portal in the background, and I wanted to make my artwork look somewhat pleasing and make sense for the album, so I chose to make a portal with cooler colors, which contrasted the outer warmer colors. I also used text within composition: writing her lyrics for “TUNNEL VISION” on the mushrooms, “follow the tunnel into the portal, lay all your burdens to rest”.
Artist Statement: The most successful part of my project was transforming this piece from something I despised to something I was proud of myself for making. At first, I didn’t like the idea of mixing opposite colors, I thought the idea was just ugly and I wanted to make my artwork look “nice”. But art isn’t supposed to look nice, it’s supposed to make you feel something. My feeling was discomfort followed by a sense of accomplishment. As for my struggles- I returned to school (in person) very late in the year, I didn’t meet the artist in person that everybody in my class did. I always unintentionally showed up late to my classes which meant I had less time to work on this project in art class, and I ended up turning this in a week after the due date. To make up for this, I took my sketchbook home with me so that I could work on it outside of art class, during my lunch period, free time, and sometimes staying up late to add more. I’m going to continue attempting to layer complementary colors in more colored pencil drawings until I feel confident I can find complementary colors that match my aesthetic and fit the artwork I’m trying to make.
Melanie Martinez was my biggest inspiration for this piece, as the artwork is about her character, Crybaby, and her newer album/song.
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