Bella Rubal Period 7: Colorful Dog
A piece from my master artist, Andy Warhol. I love his use of bright colors, which I tried to show in my piece
A piece from my current artist, Dean Russo, a well known painter in Brooklyn NY who typically paints dogs with abstract designs.
My original sketches
These are the 4 colors I used, but in my piece I used different shades of them.
The main reference photo I used of my dog
My final piece
My final piece in black and white
My piece shows an up-close picture of my dog Gemma. Her body is covered in abstract doodle-like designs, including lines, swirls, and triangles. The dog is done in all cool colors such as purple, and blues. The background is a bright peachy orange color, which adds contrast to the cool toned dog. People are supposed to perceive this piece as a picture showing the complexity of animals, and all that goes on in their minds. To create this piece I drew an image of my dog laying down on top of the stairs. I then drew in a bunch of intricate designs in an attempt to show personality, as well as to display shading. I then traced everything with a thing black marker, and then colored in all the designs. I tried to show shading by darkening the colors, which can kind of be seen in the black and white image, however some of the shading seemed to get somewhat lost.
I used the image of my dog a lot as reference, as that was the image that I was drawing. I used the same deep, saturated tones as my master artist, Andy Warhol. He is famous for using his super bright colors and shading. I added the designs to piece because I saw the work of he artist Dean Russo and I really liked how the designs looked. They seem to add a lot of personality to the dog that shows the beauty of each animal. The principles of design seen in this piece are movement and balance. Movement is seen in the designs of the dog. Each curve and change in line moves your eye along the piece, as each one sort of leads into the next. Balance can be seen in color choice. I used cool colors for the dig itself, such as blues and purples, but then I used a very saturated and deep peachy orange color. This balanced out the intensity of the piece. The organization of my piece is pretty simple, but I feel like the dog should have been moved over a little bit to compliment the rule of thirds.
This piece seems like a simple picture of a dog, but it actually has deeper meaning. The intricate and complex designs show the complexity of dogs and animals in general. A lot of people think of a dog as a simple pet, but I believe they are so much more than that. My dog seems to always be thinking and running things through her head. I also know a lot of people think animals cant feel emotions, but I know they can. I really believe my dog loves my family and I don't understand why people think differently. The designs represent the inner thoughts of animals, showing how they have their own thoughts and feelings just like humans do.
I think this piece turned out pretty nice. I think I did a really good job choosing my colors and I think the compliment each other really well. I played it safe and used colored pencils which was definitely a good idea. I took a lot of time sketching out the figure of the dog, which took away from my time to color it which I think kind of shows. In a few places the colors are patchy, and some places didn't have as much detail as I would have liked. I feel like the one thing I didn't do very well was shading. I tried to show shading by using darker colors, which can be seen in the black and white image, but I think the got kind of lose on the color one. The ears also did not receive as much detail as I would have liked. I rushed through them and didn't properly show the separation and shading like I should have. Another thing I don't like is the eyes. I got a little too carried away with the black marker and the eyes are too filled in with black which kind of makes her look scary. Despite a few mistakes I made, I think my piece turned out pretty nice.
