Ink Mag

Here is a cover design I made for a contest for an art/literary magazine at my school. The requirements were that the design be colorful, and that's about it. I was really frustrated with this piece while I was making it. Originally it had a lot of white triangular shapes made of card scattered all over it, but the white was very dominating and I thought it looked hideous and meaningless, so I peeled them all off. I was left with a fairly nice splotchy background with some paint strokes in various spots. I decided to shift towards making another of my circle maps, so I let the areas of higher density guide the placement of the circles, and I interpreted the connections between them. This was a process of sketching and reinforcing all at once, so the process actually felt pretty balanced to me (as opposed to the weird inch-by-inch technique that some people use, where you start at the head and draw down to the toes and that's it). This was a process of drawing and drawing over and drawing over some more, which is the approach I strive to use in all my artwork because I think it allows for a better understanding and perception of form, and more well-rounded development of the image.

But yeah, I was feeling pretty emotional at the time I made this - with the frustration and bitterness of feeling like I couldn't draw, plus some really intense sexual desires mixed in on the side, yet with no real unhappy overtone - so maybe that explains some of my markmaking and color choice. The more scratchy, filled areas, for example, were shaded with the back end of my brush, and some of the circles were drawn with my fingers. Overall, I am very satisfied with the product, even if the process was relatively painful.

Tempera and conte crayon.