Fear Concentration

My first project is nyctophobia. It is the fear of the dark. Since it was my first piece in the concentration and I wasn't exactly sure where I was going with all of the pieces as a whole, it is not the best one, in my opinion. I started out by drawing the candle, it took me multiple tries to get it the way I wanted to. The color was hard because the shading doesn't really show through on it, but I think that red was the right color for the candle, though I would have preferred doing the candle in pencil and leaving everything else now that I look back on it. I hate the hand. it turned out very different than I wanted it and its dumb and i need a lot of work on it. 
The piece itself is supposed to be concentrated on the candle, its getting small, the flame is dulling, like time is running out. The heavy ink background is the darkness, and the fear, how it consumes you completely and quickly, filling the page. The faces in the background are supposed to bring in the fear of the unknown that lies beneath the dark and it also gives it a little more depth. The darkness of the whole piece and the fact that nothing is very bright is supposed to be the fear factor of it besides what the actual piece represents itself. 

reference

finished piece

background close up

candle close up

My second piece is iatrophobia. It is the fear the fear of doctors. I like this one a lot because it took a long time and there are a lot more details in it than there usually are in my pieces. I went at it in a much different way than I usually do, where I did piece by piece and brought them together rather than planing it all out and then finishing it all as a whole without focusing on one individual think. I think it turned out much better that way. But all the random little details might not always pull it together but give you something new to look at each time you scan the page.

The piece itself is generally concentrated on the skull on top of the book. Mostly because it is in the middle. The real tie in is all the little things around the desk, like the jars of the things and the needle, the ink and candle and little notepad. The name plate is probably the only thing that makes it very "doctors office-y" besides the needle and scalpel. But its supposed to be an older kind of creepy feel rather than a newer one. The darkness of it makes it look better and keeps it consistent with the darkness of the previous one just in a different and lighter tone of darkness. The over all creepy fear feel is present in both.

finished piece

My third piece is coulrophobia. It is the fear of clowns. This is probably my favourite piece, I love the way it ended up turning out and I like that is doesn't look as flat as it did before. when i started adding color I couldn't find the right balance or the right colours to make the shading help it be more 3d and not flat. It took me a long time which most of it was spent sketching it and then also a lot coloring it. The lines and wrinkles turned out a little different than expected, but it does look better than I was hoping. I couldn't figure out what exactly I was doing with this piece and it originally wasn't even a portrait but changing I realize I made the right choice to switch, the other piece was way too happy and not as dark. I couldn't make the happy a creepy happy like I envisioned and once i saw it wasn't working out I abandoned it to start this. 

The piece it definitely concentrated on the clown since it is so bright and the background is dark. The background was brought in from the first piece but a little more splotchy than solid to make it more like darkness instead of just black. The clown itself was supposed to be scary on its own as a regular clown, but making it look terrifying did it much better justice. I like the colours because they all complement one another. The bottom colour of the drips was supposed to represent the color draining from him, the colour of happiness, the lost background, the sweatiness of being a clown, all of it is represent in those drips though thats not how it shows. I think the fear really shows by not only being something that people are commonly uneasy with, as these all are supposed to be, but because of the darkness factor and how it feels like its coming right out of it at you, and the general details and draw ins of the whole piece.

drafting and starting

finished

My fourth piece is Phronemophobia. It is the fear of thinking, or the fear of one's own thoughts. I like this one because the little guy stands out a lot because he's brighter than everything else but the colours are still dull. It didn't take too long to complete, and it looks very messy to me and I kind of wish it didn't look so messy, but I think the messiness of the walls and floor give it the feel that i wanted it to have. I think that I could have added more details or something else because the piece feels kind of plain even though it also looks like there is a lot going on. All the writing gives it a sense of movement because there are words all across the page, and at first you notice the big bold black ones and then you see the red ones and how some of the black words morph the red ones. The only thing I really wish I would have changed about this piece is the writing on the floor, it should definitely be facing him and not me. And the darkening of the wall should have been dark all around him and giving him more of a spotlight, so it's more like the focus is all on him. I like that I made the person coming out of his ear and going right to the other to show that its everything he's saying it to himself, but also it looks like the shadowy figure is trying to whisper it so it's like everything is a secret but none of it is.
I think it ties into the darkness of all of my pieces even though this piece isn't necessarily dark in color or light but more of in meaning. All of my concentrations are about fears, so they all tie together, like clowns and darkness go together because they are more childhood fears, and doctors and thinking are more adult, or at leat more mature, sort of fears. I want to continue on this concentration and do more pieces over the break, because I really do enjoy it and I find it interesting and something I like to portray.

Port.

Fishful thinking
I like this one because I like the fishman in the reflection. I also like the overall concept and idea and I want to do a series of these with different creatures. The idea of this was to do a fractured self portrait except it's more of like an ideal self portrait since I'm not really featured. I did the fish three different times and I like my original sketch better but I do like this one a lot. It has a different feel than the other ones and had better structure. For the half of my face I had much better versions of it but when I changed the angles it made it look different and not very realistic or accurate.
I wish I would have done a better job shading both faces and making the shades I did use range more to give more depth and texture. I wish I could have translated the mirror better because sometimes when I look at the piece it looks more like a window and that isn't what I wanted. Which is why I tried to make the hat and shirt look as close as the same as I could so that it would be better comprehended.

Port.

I really like this piece. I did it over a period of four days where I started sketching the skull the first day, outlining and doing the background the second, and working on the skull the third and four days. I originally had a skull that I was going off of for the main sketch but I kinda just did whatever I wanted after a while. The flower was there to add to it and make the mouth smaller because I couldn't get the teeth or jaw right. But I think that everything is too centered and a bit dark. It was supposed to be dark to give the overall feel of the piece a sadder tone but with the background you can't see any detail or shading.
The added drips where to bring movement to the piece and variety. The monotone colour helps keep the piece together and keeps all the tones close. I really like it but I wish that it was blended better and the mouth looked better. I also wish I would have spent more time on the flower and made it look better.