Dada Figure

"Bug Farmer"

8.5"x14"

Posca Pen and Ink on paper

If you have never made a data figure, the process is simple. Grab some friends and pass a folded paper around the group, each drawing of a new part of a creature without seeing the last. One draws the hat, then the head, then the torso and so forth. Once you unfold the paper, you are left with an ugly and lopsided looking creature. As art majors in a 2000 level drawing course, we did this game and made and art project out of it. The twist was that we got to choose which pieces we wanted to create own monster.

With the Pieces that I picked, I went into my sketchbook, laid out all the requirements for the piece and started sketching my mantis farmer. I tried incorporating as many elements as I could from the pieces of paper that I grabbed. This included the cartoony bees and flowers.

Slideshow:

The process of creating the monster was not too difficult. I knew that I wanted to create a stark contrast between the mantis creature which was bug-like and gross and the cute background and clothes I put him in. I created this contrast by making his skin and body very realistic and used pen while I made his clothes and background colorful with the posca pen. This contrast made the image unsettling, but I think that it is a good unsettling as it is a combination of many of my classmates imaginations and drawing styles.

I think I accomplished what I set out to do, which was to create a piece with an unsettling contrast between semi-realism and cartoonish fun.