Chapter 2: Electric Boogaloo

Back again babey, hope you guys have been doing well!

Third post, woot. Currently, my progress on my pieces has been pretty steady! I've mapped out all compositions, shading, and colors for all 8 of my pieces, so that's awesome! There were a few pieces where I was unsure of what animals to pick to represent each family structure, but I've sorted that all out. The animals I decided on in the end were:

-Homosexual Relationships - Does (wlw) and Lions (mlm)

-Families who Adopt - Foxes and a Bear Cub

-Polyamorous Relations- Hyenas

-"Found Family", or a family comprised of friends - River Animals

-Families with a Large Amount of People/Children - Snakes

-Single Parent Families - Elephants

-Nuclear Families - Penguins

And here's a visual :D

*note: the letters on top of the elephant piece represents a color alteration I'm making to balance the colors among all of the pieces out

For each image, I've created a system for how I colored it. Each image is comprised of only primary colors. Each piece has a primary color for the animal, a secondary animal color, and a background color. Then, the pattern in the background is the same as the secondary animal color. I did this in order to create cohesion among the 8 pieces, as well as create a balance of color within each piece.

---

At this point, I need to go back over what I have and refine each piece. Currently, I'm tossing around several aesthetics I would like to utilize; the main issue I'm having is deciding between having hard, defined line work or not. Maybe I could even just leave a bold outline. Whatever I choose, I would like to retain that concept of it all looking childlike. I also have to recolor those elephants haha.

During the 1/3rd progress check, some feedback that I got that I will consider are changes in the background patterns to make them more cohesive, figure out which elements of my piece I want to be stylized vs realistic, and figure out how I want to position them to be shown in a gallery.

When it comes to the patterns in the background, making all of them uniform in a grid style would probably be the best approach to bring them all together.

What do you guys think? Should I leave the line work in the pieces, or would it look better lineless? Also, what pattern do you think would be a good replacement for the foxes, as they currently don't have a pattern in a grid fashion, so I want to change it to such without repeating shapes.

---

! Artist Highlight !

KianaMai - Kiana Khansmith

Instagram

Tumblr

Twitter

A 21 year old Japanese/Jamaican storyboard artists at Disney TVA. Her style consists of colorful, bright, and energetic works that I've been a fan of ever since she was 16 years old!

I've been consistently inspired by her art and her journey thus far.

In her portfolio she also has a comic called Puppitty that expresses the experience of being biracial. It's among one of my favorite works of hers, and being biracial myself and relating to many of the cultural and social experiences laid out in it.

If you're interested in a body of cute and expressive work, then her stuff is definitely worth checking out!

Chapter 1: Getting the Ball Rolling

[Insert some quirky greeting here because I'm sarcastic and funny]

Hay, hope you're having a good day! I'm back again to talk about my thesis progress so far!

I didn't have much of an issue deciding what the theme of my piece was going to be, but refining my meaning was a little bit of an issue. I ended up refining it, or I suppose I broadened it, to showcase 8 different types of families to convey the idea that family has a fluid definition and diverge people's idea of a family from the traditional two parent and a kid (or some kids) that live happily with a white picket fence and a cute little dog or whatever.

My reasoning for choosing this topic and relaying this message is because of personal demons I've fought since my parents got divorced and the lack of any kind of connection with biological family members. These things have caused me to feel as though I am without any family at all, and I grew hardened and hated the idea of family. But eventually I realized that my real family is made up of friends and the people who have lifted me and my mother and brother through hardships. These people may not be related to me through blood, but they are my family, and they deserve that recognition.

The types of families I'd like to display are:

-Homosexual Relationships (women and men)

-Families who Adopt

-Polyamorous Families

-"Found Family", or a family comprised of friends

-Families with a Large Amount of People/Children

-Single Parent Families

-And of course, a Nuclear (2 parent + kid(s)) Family

---

Alright, back to art and not words-

Since my piece will actually be a series of digital paintings, I've had to plan out 8 individual compositions. As I've previously explained in my post prior to this one, I will be using animals to symbolize each family structure I've listed. Below I have thumbnails for four of my paintings displayed (including sporadic studies and some notes):

---

Now, beyond the thumbnails, I've laid out some of the colors for my pieces. I've decided to use a color palette of primary colors for all of the pieces in order to represent the idea of family being something people are closely related to as a child. It's not necessarily a piece about kids, but I think that it's a very simple concept that everyone is aware of at a young age that shapes our lives.

Base color palettes I've decided on using Color Supplyyy (click on the image to check it out!)

I've settled on these pieces being printed out at 10 x 10 inches and ideally I would find frames for them. Even if I don't any border I choose would either be uniformly white or frames in primary colors (it wouldn't be even since there's only 8 pieces and not 9... but sometimes we just have to deal with that kind of stuff). I have yet to decide on a composition that I like more than the others; I'm still stuck on the sketches for the arrangements from my previous post haha, but that's okay, I may decide to change it once I display it in a gallery anyways.

I have also decided to go with a more complicated style for these pieces in order to push myself more, and provide myself more opportunities to include interesting elements to the pieces.

---

So far, I feel like I'm well on my way to creating a successful series and I'm excited to get it done! I still need to decide what textures and brushes I'll be using for these paintings, as well as finish actually planning the compositions and colors of the rest of the pieces (lol). I'm not at all discouraged, though!!

I honestly don't have too much additional thoughts on my pieces at the moment, I hope this was insightful enough! If there's any questions or suggestions though, feel free to inquire here! :^)

Have a pleasant day!!

Prologue: What's good

Hello! Welcome to the blog of self-critically acclaimed artist Eryn Simmons. Go ahead and make yourself at home, take a seat on whatever surface you see fits. I don't have any food or drink to offer though so I hope you brought something with you-

---

This semester, I'll be working on a series of pieces exploring different family structures and the impacts they make on people, and how acceptable they are (or should be!) in today's society. Coming from a family of divorce, my family structure has been obscured from the traditional mom and dad with kids structure (to be specific it's now a mom and brother at home and a dad, step mom, and two half sister in a different state). With the rise of divorce, LGBT families, and an influx of people who want to completely abandon the life that Baby Boomers used to experience. Therefore, as a member of both the LGBT and divorced family communities, the topic of the effects of alternative family structures hits very close to home and I would like to delve deeper into the subject.

In my research I'll be exploring the worlds of an assortment of family structures from adopted families (consisting of both heterosexual and homosexual couples) to families of different cultural backgrounds to polyamorous families, and even families made up of extremely close-knit families (what I personally consider to be my family due to my extended family not being too close).

This subject is something that is meant for any person to connect to, seeing as family is a part of our social nature as human beings. Even if your family isn't made up of biological relatives, or if you don't feel like you have one (I hope you find one!), there's a place for you in this work.

---

So what's been happening so far? Where's the art??

Well, here's a few pages of sketches that I've worked on so far for this project (don't mind the little doodle on the side there):

These sketches were made with an 8 piece series in mind. As of right now, I'm unsure of if I will make these with acrylic paint or on a digital medium. All I know is that it will be tangible at some point and 10 x 10. I've explored a good number of symbols to represent family, compositions, as well as figuring out just what about family I want to express.

The idea that I'm the most attached to is using animals to symbolize different family structures. I would like to utilize the fact that certain animals have habits that correlate to the structures that I'm exploring, as well as the fact that they have physical attributes that I can use to represent same sex couples that will be easily read by a general audience (lions, deer, etc). In addition to this, animals are often used in children's media, as well as simplistic styles that I would like to convey in this particular work. A series that's visually appealing to children is significant because family is something you grow up with, people live with their families as they grow up, or they're reminded of what they don't have. No matter your experience, family is a significant part of every person's childhood.

More animal sketches

Overall, the point of the piece is to highlight different family structures in a generally positive and lighthearted way, with the exception of those lacking one, in order to appeal to people's memories and their relationships with the concept of family.

As of now I still have a lot of decisions to make before I can even begin to attack this piece; however, I have high hopes and I'm very excited to work on it!

---

If you look closely enough, you'll see that I have a couple artists written down within my sketches. One of these lovely artists is Carlotta Notaro.

I discovered her while searching for a style to use in my piece, as well as other artists who have had the topic of family within their art. I found her through the family portraits she creates for people, and she is the one who inspired me to utilize a more charming and simplistic style for my works.

I found her work on Behance where you should totally go check her out!!

---

As for my thoughts on what I'm working on currently, I think I've got a pretty good grasp on what I need to do in order to progress! I'm looking forward to seeing my peer's pieces, as well as seeing what the outcome of my own will be! I'm going to try my hardest to keep myself in a positive mood about the work that I'm doing here in order to not mentally wear myself out.

Good luck everyone and have a good day!