Finally.

Art depicting normal, everyday events are uninspiring because there is nothing to invoke a note- worthy emotion. When I create a picture, the scenes I make either come directly from dreams or are an attempt at imitating the atmosphere in them. Most of my dreams are similar and have a nearly identical emotion, but I don’t have a name for that emotion. I have two goals when making art. The first is for the feeling from my dreams to echo when I look at the picture. Since dreams are often forgotten and the emotions in them become distant, I need something to look at that gives off the same emotion. This way I can ‘study’ whatever it is I’m feeling. The second is for others to get a similar, if not identical, emotion so that they can describe it and possibly give me a name for it. I like to bring things that can only exist in the human mind into these unassuming scenes. For example, in Looking Down you are seeing through the eyes of someone exiting a room on the upper level, looking down over the catwalk, and gazing at a dark living area. At first glance it looks to be a scene of a house at night. The only thing out of place are the four figures around the coffee table. A green hue changes the entire scene that adds to the uncanny scene. These pictures are usually dark and desaturated, and while I try to stay true to the image in my head, I also make sure the image is balanced and has emphasis on the source of the emotion. The piece Desolate is not from a dream, but an attempt to mimic them. In this case the scene is set in a vague setting outside. Like the previous piece, it’s monochromatic and the figures are mostly silhouettes. However, the focus of the image is much more obvious. The giant crow on the electric pole is more in your face than what I’ve typically made. I’ve been trying to figure out how to improve my style and found an artist named Bobby Chiu. I like his particular style conceptually and visually. I wanted to learn the skill of being able to turn something that is obviously imaginary into a believable creature. Recognizable traits are necessary for our brain to see as real. It’s not really the fact that he draws monsters that catches my eye, but rather how he makes them convincing. Using the program Photoshop really helped me loosen up and stop restricting myself with outlines. I’ve grown more comfortable with only having a sketch and jumping right into the colors and shading. This also allowed me to be more liberal with colors which only taught me more about them. For example, I’m more likely to use blue when painting a tree because I take the environment into consideration. Because things are easier to move, I can play around with balance and even see how different the value of something is when I change the colors to grayscale.https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art499/1031/thumbnail.jp