Write-Up

What is the central idea of your concentration?

My concentration is an exploration of the relationship between the characters of Grinch and Martha from the live-action adaptation of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). I’m very inspired by these characters and their story. I wanted to have cohesion beyond just concept, so I went a step further through the use of color. I chose the central colors of blue, pink, green, and yellow. I feel that Grinch and Martha are colorful and vibrant characters, so I wanted my concentration to reflect this.


How does the work in your concentration demonstrate the exploration of your idea? 

You may refer to specific images as examples. When referencing specific images, please indicate the image numbers.
When I first began working on my concentration, I used scenes from the movie as inspiration and then deviated from them by creating scenarios that I imagined could be a continuation of those scenes. I first implemented this idea with Image 1 and later continued with Images ___, ___, ___, ___, and ___. In Images ___ and ___, I decided to include atmospheric backgrounds. I also wanted to explore these characters through a design lens. This is displayed the best with Image ___. In this image, I chose to include Grinch and Martha in a way that was subtle and less obvious than in my other pieces. I did this by breaking them down into geometric shapes and incorporating them into the longest spikes of the central snowflake. Another design technique I used was the use of 3-D elements to create depth and interest. This technique was used on Image ___ with the two gears on the right side of the piece. To add an extra level of interest to this piece, I chose to also design the gears to rotate. In Image ___, I incorporated text by using a quote from Kurt Cobain to further the message of the piece. The most prominent elements of design used in my concentration are pattern, line, color, and texture.

Home Concentration 8

I wanted to take a break from incorporating characters into my pieces, so this piece is solely focused on the architecture in Whoville. I really like the style of the architecture, but it was a pain to draw due to all of the different shapes. To try and make the process a bit easier, I made a grid for myself to sketch in. I'm actually quite happy with how the piece turned out despite the fact that it was a bit of a struggle to draw and paint. 

I accidentally used a gloss white acrylic instead of my normal matte acrylic (which was used to mix every color in the piece), so the end product ended up being really shiny from some angles. At first when I realized I had used the wrong paint, I was discouraged. But I had already painted a rather large section with a color I liked, so I continued to use the gloss white with the rest of the piece. In the end, I liked that the gloss white was less opaque and it was a happy accident that I grabbed the wrong paint. 

Class Concentration 5

A small detail that is introduced in the movie is that Whoville is located on a snowflake, so I was inspired by that to design a unique snowflake. I also wanted to still incorporate Grinch and Martha somehow, so I broke them down into geometric shapes and incorporated them into the long spikes in the main snowflake. 

Home Concentration 7

I am typically not one to outline my figures with black ink before adding color. I'm usually more drawn to the more natural style of coloring right on top of the sketch instead of doing line work prior. So for this piece, I wanted to try doing line art again and try to get some more practice with my Micron pens since I haven't used them very much. 

I also just purchased a set of watercolor pencils, so I wanted to try those out and see how they compared to normal watercolors. I certainly think I need more practice with them because I did feel like I struggled a bit. I really like the splatter design I was able to create for the background. I was able to get a more pigmented splatter by rubbing the pencil on the tip of a wet brush before flicking the brush towards the paper. 

I was excited to do my take on this outfit as well because it doesn't actually appear in the movie. It was introduced about three years ago for Martha at Universal Studios in Hollywood. I think it's such a pretty outfit and it was great for me to practice how to create different textiles with the pens. 

Home Concentration 6

For this piece, I wanted to include a symbol that wasn't super obvious upon first glance. I chose to use the silhouette of the angel that Grinch makes for Martha when they are kids as the basis for the piece. During the flashback in the movie, the angel ends up being shattered to pieces, so I wanted to tie that in by fragmenting the silhouette. 

Because the broken angel serves as a symbol for Grinch's broken childhood, I wanted to counterbalance that with positive scenarios to show that Martha was the light in his life. 

I wanted to stick with the pastel color scheme of the sets, so that was my thought process behind the background colors. I really like the way the three colors I chose look together and I think they work with the toned background well. I also thought it would look interesting if I added a dark shadow under each of the fragments to further show that they are separated from each other. 

Concentration Critiques - Charlie and Josh

Charlie

Overall thoughts:

• I think your take on women is very interesting 
• I love that you're thinking about different generations of women and exploring different time periods throughout history
• I think a strong point in your concentration is your detail work - especially when it comes to your intricate flowers (I know those take a lot of time, but it's worth it!) 

Suggestions: 

• I'd like to see you continue with your unconventional frames and your flower cutouts
• It would be fun to see you use more unconventional materials  
• A possible piece about women's suffrage or women's rights
• Further exploration of the different generations 
• Further exploration of pattern and texture
• Continue to incorporate quotes  
• Try to use maybe one more different medium - I'd personally like to see you try colored pencils 
• I don't know if you are unhappy with the backgrounds of any of your pieces, but if you are, I'd suggest playing around with an editing app 

I think you have a great concentration with visually interesting pieces, so I look forward to seeing what you create moving forward!

Josh

Overall thoughts: 

• I like that you're taking a design stance
• I like that you're also incorporating photographs of your shoes
• I like that you incorporate fantasy into some pieces 
• Your love for shoes is evident in your pieces and I like that about them 

Suggestions: 

• I really like the message and the design of your first piece, so I think it would be interesting if you did something like that again 
• I like the way you are designing specific types of shoes with unique characteristics, so I'd like to see you continue that
• Along with that, I think you could benefit from adding actual pictures of fabric into the parts of your design to turn them into the physical design
• I'd like to see you incorporate more photographs of shoes you own or are drawn to into your digital work 
• I thought your boot illustration was really fun, so I'd like to see you try another traditional piece 
• Further exploration of the blueprint layout 
• Maybe design shoes to fit different physical needs 
• Continue to explore and incorporate texture

I think your concentration is very interesting, so I look forward to seeing more of it!

Home Concentration 5

For this piece, I thought it would be fun to have an interactive element. I came up with the idea to draw Grinch with a thoughtful expression in front of a background of gears because he is an inventor in the movie. It was also a play on the expression that you say when someone is thinking, "I can see the gears turning in your head." 

At first, I wanted to have the gears overlap each other without a set pattern, but changed that idea upon making my stencil. I thought it would look better if the gears appeared to be connected so you could envision them all spinning at the same time. I chose to add the two gears on top because I wanted gears that would actually spin. 

This piece also gave me the chance to use my metallic Prismacolors since those tend not to make their way into my pieces. I used silver and gold to outline the gears so that they would have a little shine to them. I also wanted to create texture by lightly going over some areas with the Prismacolors to bring out the tooth of the watercolor paper.