Color and Comp work

The above piece and the one following both hail from Color and Composition class from my very first semester at Finlandia. Above is Everything You Can Imagine Is Real - mixed media: collage, tempera paint, fabric, and sharpie on cardboard. The quote is from Picasso (we had to choose one for a starting point), and inspiration for the piece comes from both Picasso and Romare Bearden. We were studying Bearden at the time and I tried to capture the way he creates visual rhythm through the placement of different elements in his collages (as well as creepy large hands).

This piece is titled Scream, also mixed media: collage and colored pencil on paper. Scream was from an assignment where the point was to evoke strong emotion from a dream, memory, or song. We also had to try several different color palettes before we decided on the most successful for the final piece. I tried both analogous and monotone palettes before deciding to go with a visually loud primary one. Scream speaks of a childhood fear of spiders, one existing more in my imagination than real life.