Sunday, August 14, 2011

A Closer Look @ Art Battle Design

I wanted to share a bit of my process for this year's Art Battle design. The theme was "Stockton is Magnificent". So right from the start, I felt the need to include certain landmarks that are characteristic of Stockton.
This initial study is the first thing that came to mind. It is King Kong sitting on top of the downtown movie theatre with the mayor of Stockton in his hand. I drew this without any references, and to my surprise, it is a somewhat accurate view of the area. Though I liked this idea, I wanted to explore other possibilities for imagery.



















Not being very motivated for the next couple of weeks, I didn't do any drawing for the Art Battle. Then I went to the Haggin Museum (in Stockton) to see the Salvador Dali exhibit, featuring his watercolor drawings of Dante's Inferno. Totally inspired by his work (he was quite the draughtsman), I decided to work out this drawing at a table right there in the gallary. King Kong is centered hanging off the Bob Hope theatre, mayor in hand. To the left is sketchy imagery of an agricultural landscape (the Stockton area is a major contributor to the nation's ag products, as well as many parts of the world). To the right is the image of the Port of Stockton which is one of the few deep channel ports that leads directly to the ocean. This contorted perspective was inspired from one of Dali's drawings.















This next sketch is one of my favorites. Here, Kong is coming out of a ship's cargo holding area, like in the movie. In the background is the Port of Stockton.



















Though I liked the coming out of the ship idea, I wasn't quite sure how to make it work within the context of the theme and in a unified composition. So I went with yet another idea of Kong climbing Burn's Tower located at the University of the Pacific. You know how he likes to climb things! I really liked the composition of this study, but I really wanted an accurate ariel view of the area, and Google maps just wasn't working for me. Plus, I don't think the mayor would like being manhandled by a giant gorilla (or would that be gorilla-handled?) So on to another idea.



















This is my final idea. I decided that it would be the one to use for the Battle because it is humorous (especially depending on the viewer's opinion regarding the mayor. Ah, politics!) Also, it is a fairly straightforward composition that wouldn't be too challenging to complete within the 2 hour time limit. BTW, this was the final page of my sketchbook. Somehow it seemed like I was finishing a chapter of my artistic experiences.



















Before starting the Art Battle challenge, I used a 4H pencil to lightly block out the main elements on my paper so that I wouldn't get lost in the heat of the competition. The final drawing was created with watercolors first, then pen/ink and brush/ink were used to render the finer details and values.

2 comments:

nanke's stuff said...

Very cool! I loved seeing all the drawings with your thoughts about why you did them. The poor mayor! lol nancy

kazumiwannabe said...

These are fun, and they all look really cool! Great job on the final, finished one!