CT Designs: 2015

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Wild City: The Story Behind the Art

I first began this piece of work many years ago. I started doodling with gelpens, and like usual a pattern of sorts emerged. I spent many hours and days tending to the details and choosing the colors to make it pop. However, I never finished it. My original intention was to completely cover the page (a compulsive habit of mine at times), but I think I just got sick of looking at it...that, and I became fearful of touching it up or doing anything to it, really. The perfectionist in me kept me away. Last week I was skimming through some old work and decided something should be done about this abandoned piece. I wasn't about to finish the design--the gelpens I used years ago are long gone. But instead of closing it back up in a sketchbook, I decided to repurpose it and make something new. I put the finishing touches on a separate sketch of a giraffe, also a piece I made many years ago. I taped it to the "wild city" background, then taped that to a piece of black paper, and added some silver stars to emulate the night sky. I have to say I'm pretty satisfied with the end result, though next time I will use glue instead of tape, to avoid some small texture issues. Giraffes are some of my favorite animals!