Expressive pieces

These two expressive pieces from my sketch book are inspired by the Holi festival, where powdered paint is thrown.

The first piece is many primary and secondary colours, red, yellow, orange, blue, green, pink and purple, flicked using a paint brush, onto a base of black paint. I did this to create an effect of paint hitting a wall, a sight I expect would be frequent during Holi.

I used black backgrounds for each piece as I thought that it would make the colours stand out much more due to the contrast between the dark black and the bright colour. 

With the second piece I used warm hues of yellow, orange and red and lightly sponged them onto some black paper. I decided to use these colours as they are colours that are of some spiritual importance in India and because they are the colours seen in flames-linking to the Diwali festival, 'the festival of light'. However the way I have applied the paint makes it look softer and almost powdery, like what would be thrown during Holi.

I used nail varnish and a very thin brush to illustrate this mannequin hand as it is less likely to chip off or smudge than acrylic paint or henna. This piece is similar to Johanna Basfords pieces for the inky body wonderland exhibit as it is also illustration on a fake body part, however my piece is done on a hand of a pale skin tone instead of just white, making it look slightly more realistic. This also links to my theme of Indian celebrations as the illustration is very similar to that of traditional Indian henna, worn at many different celebrations.