1/2 Project

             

Describe

This piece is monochrome (red), depicting a scene from Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera". The medium of the piece is watercolor, and it is shaded using layering of the paint, creating the monochrome look while still retaining the depth of a shaded piece. In the forground is Erik (The Phantom), crying and looking really upset, yet crazed. In the background you can see the broken chain, and the chandelier falling, along with silhouettes of Raoul and Christine.

Analyze

This piece takes place during the song "All I Ask of You" in the aforementioned musical. During this song, Christine rejects the Phantom, for her other suitor, Raoul. After this, he infamously cuts down the chandelier, which is one of the most thrilling parts of the stage show. I tried to capture all of this in my piece, from the intense emotion the Phantom is feeling to the literal events occurring during this scene. To do this, I included a chain of the chandelier breaking in the mid ground. This symbolizes both his break in sanity and the literal image of the chandelier falling. Another detail I included was the platform Raoul and Christine were standing on. As you can see, it is crumbling, almost as if the world is falling to pieces are the Phantom finally realizes his only love has rejected him in favor of someone powerful, and traditionally thought of as attractive.

Interpret
The main intention of this piece was to capture the raw emotion in this scene, as I believe that, besides the finale, it is the most effective and moving in the show. It shows the Phantom's change, from..rather morally questionable, to completely insane. I tried to convey this, mainly with the chain I mentioned earlier and his expression. The expression on his face is important, as it shows him grinning wildly, but as he does, he is crying with tears streaming down his cheeks. This was supposed to convey a very pained soul, which is what I was meant to get across with the piece as a whole.

Judge
I am very proud of this piece. I think it displays the emotions I intended well, and I am very happy with how it looks considering how I am not very experienced with watercolor. If I had to do it again, I would probably do it on watercolor paper and try to avoid some of the mistakes I made with this version (such as Raoul and Christine's shadows..I messed up a few things about them). Overall I like it a lot, but I could have tweaked a few things about it to make it better.

Airport Project (2018)

DESCRIBE
This piece is a colored pencil image of a leopard gecko, more specifically my pet Julius. It uses very soft colors from the gecko's light yellow/orange to the light purple background. As a result, the thing standing out the most is the dark spots on him. The picture is a profile shot of the lizard, allowing the viewer to see all of his facial features. 

ANALYZE 
I based this piece on a picture I took of Julius, that I particularly like. In the picture, you can see his eyes and their details rather well, which I liked. Not only that, but it was a nice profile shot of him, which allows you to nice and easily see what the picture is about and what it is. For the composition, I decided to go with this set up because it was how the reference image appeared.

INTERPRET 
The emotion I intended to create with this piece is a very happy one, using warm colors and a cute animal was how I did this. I also did this with the background, the light purple creating a soft and friendly appearance. With this piece, I meant to make viewers thing of their own pets, which I think I accomplished based on the reactions from others to it. Most people see it and have told me about their pets, whether they have a gecko or not, which is what I was hoping to accomplish.

JUDGE
I am very happy with this piece. The realism is very impressive to me, and I am very proud of my ability to capture the happy energy that I feel whenever I see Julius or any leopard gecko. They're such precious creatures and I believe that this picture demonstrates that well. If I was to do this picture again, I think I would give it a different composition to make it more interesting, maybe showing more of the gecko's body.