Hello! It's Sephora, finally bouncing back from a stressful end to my freshman year, I do apologize for my absence.
However, throughout the spring semester, I found myself inspired by my religion class where we discussed scripture and its relationship to the sacraments. This has led me to an interest in narratives in The Bible such as Noah's Ark and the story of Naaman, as well as the many interactions Jesus has had with people.
But I was especially inspired to draw my interpretation of the very beginning, Creation.
The Plan
I decided to split up the 6 days of the Earth's creation into 3 parts:
The first piece features God's hands making a ball of light, surrounded by clouds and curious angels. This piece represents the very first day when God said "Let there be light",
The second piece features God's hands reaching out and creating Earth, filling it with water, plants, clouds, fish, and birds. Floating around God's hand are the Moon, Sun, and stars. This piece represents days two to five, where oceans are formed, birds and fish populate the waters and air, and the separation of light (sun) and dark (moon) is formed. The position of the hand is inspired by the photo "The Pillars of Creation" from NASA, which has clouds of stardust that would eventually form into planets, stars, and any other objects found in space. I noticed that this formation looks a lot like a hand reaching out!
The third piece represents the last day of the creation of Earth, where animals of all kinds populate the earth and God makes man in God's image. I decided to illustrate God creating Adam from clay, I chose this because I vaguely remembered watching a video in my encountering faith class about how in Genesis God created man from dirt or clay. I found the imagery very beautiful and interesting so I referenced the way pottery artists mold their pots. It's a very hands on practice that requires concentration, care and love!
For all three pieces, I decided to add flat clouds that will have various verses from Genesis, in Latin. I was able to find a wonderful site that translated the verses side by side.
The Materials
I wanted to step outside my comfort zone and try acrylic paint and canvas. I had gotten three medium sized canvases and I wanted to make use of them. I had begun painting on all three canvases and made pretty good progress with all three pieces, however, I ended up sacrificing some of the details just to be able to fit them onto the canvases. For example, the third piece was supposed to have the lamb, the fish and the snake in the background. But, the canvas wasn't large enough to show the level of detail I wanted in the piece.
Something that I have learned while making somewhat complicated artworks that sometimes you have to "kill your babies [The original idea for an artwork]". So you can make something that is better in quality and that you're proud of. I would like to finish the paintings on the smaller canvases, but I would like to consider either buying larger canvases that can hold the amount of detail I wish to paint; or illustrate the pieces digitally, a medium I am more comfortable with.
The goal of this project was to become more comfortable with traditional means of art, so I do not want to abandon this goal! Even if it means starting over, I really want to be proud of this piece and be able to say that I stepped outside my comfort zone!
Traditional media is tricky and requires a lot of preparation, let's hope I can figure this problem out before the Fall semester starts or else I'll have to wait till winter break to work on this!
Anyway, I hope you all are enjoying your summer and taking a much deserved rest!
I'll be back and probably with another project that gives me more problems than solutions 😛
Have a good week and I'll see you next time!
Sephora, Out! ❤
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