Sine Waves

Upper portion of a recent pencil drawing, creating a character named Mute for my Para project who is deaf and blind and can only communicate by plugging her mouthpiece into an amplifier and creating nonsensical music. I decided to partner her with the cannibal crows and show parallels between her life and that of the crows because they have similar damaged eyesight, and also because the crows are able to verbalise themselves in a way that is understood by a community (i.e. their species) whereas the Mute can't. I want to explore underlying themes of communication and community, and what can happen to people when they feel that no one understands them.

Lower portion of the pencil drawing. I wanted to break up the composition and also insinuate movement, hence the crow flying in front of her. 

 

Drawing enhanced with pen to deepen shadows and clarify details

A work-in-progress screencap of a digital version of the painting that I'm creating as a visual aid/source of inspiration for the final oil painting on hardboard.
 

Below is a series of photographs I took of some students practicing fire juggling and circus sports as a reference for how neon light looks, so I could incorporate neon into my character's mask. I was also looking for inspiration for my next project, and the look of blurred and repeated images is currently interesting to me, so I might incorporate this into a future piece.

Close-up of the sine-wave mask created using gradients, noise and threshold tools.

Experimentation during a wax workshop, using an open flame to melt and remodel wax, as well as carving with metal tools. Tried to incorporate the phenomenon known as 'trypophobia' into the wax experiment by creating clusters of irregular holes.

Two alginate casts of my cupped hands to be filled with hot, melted wax. I plan to peel away all the alginate and then manipulate the wax casts of the cupped hands so that it looks as if the fingers are dripping and melting. I then want to incorporate sculpture and painting by transforming my Sine Waves drawings into a larger painting on hardboard whereby the observer can see the arms reaching out towards them, foreshortened, but I will not have drawn or painted any hands. In place of the hands I want to fix the wax sculpture to the painting so that when the observer is standing directly in front of the piece the character within the painting is literally reaching out into the three-dimensional world. I want to incorporate more mixed media by creating something for the wax hands to hold - perhaps feathers or some kind of viscous liquid - but I am currently still refining this idea.

 A photograph taken whilst cutting away the alginate.

I began to use hot wax and layer individual droplets to create a stalactite effect.