Madi, I was so pleased to see that you did NOT fall back into representation here, as you had feared. This is a bold piece, since you're relying on relatively little to say a lot! Overall, I think it's effective in suggesting something mechanical "growing," and the forms have a certain strangeness that really draws the viewer in. That said, I wonder if it would be more interesting to look at -- and more faithful to your narrative -- if you went in with some fine pen work (in black) to work in a layer of more strictly geometric patterns. For example, underneath the element evoking a grid, you could draw a subtle additional, more tightly rendered grid. I could see you even going over the whole thing like this -- or maybe just in certain areas, or maybe the grid changes in size as it moves upward?? In any case, I think it's something worth exploring in Photoshop at least. Shifts in scale tend to make things more intriguing to look at (all your lines seem to have more or less the same weight), and we would get an even better sense of something forming/growing/emerging. I do appreciate the restraint here, though -- it would have been easy to just keep going in with more and more ink!
Madi, I was so pleased to see that you did NOT fall back into representation here, as you had feared. This is a bold piece, since you're relying on relatively little to say a lot! Overall, I think it's effective in suggesting something mechanical "growing," and the forms have a certain strangeness that really draws the viewer in. That said, I wonder if it would be more interesting to look at -- and more faithful to your narrative -- if you went in with some fine pen work (in black) to work in a layer of more strictly geometric patterns. For example, underneath the element evoking a grid, you could draw a subtle additional, more tightly rendered grid. I could see you even going over the whole thing like this -- or maybe just in certain areas, or maybe the grid changes in size as it moves upward?? In any case, I think it's something worth exploring in Photoshop at least. Shifts in scale tend to make things more intriguing to look at (all your lines seem to have more or less the same weight), and we would get an even better sense of something forming/growing/emerging. I do appreciate the restraint here, though -- it would have been easy to just keep going in with more and more ink!
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