Juliek part 1

     Hey, guys! Im planning on doing a series of posts here in my blog for a personal art project I'm working on. Im calling it Juliek based off a scene in Elie Wiesel's book Night, which describes his experience as a Jew in the Holocaust. I know it is a bit of a grim topic, but I am planning on exploring a little bit more into the Holocaust itself as I go, so I wont bore you completely with just pictures and me critiquing my own art.

      I came up with the idea for this last night and made a (very) rough sketch of a broken violin with light exploding out of its exposed insides. I'd show you the sketch but it kinds sucks so I will show you the other progress I made: the canvas. I happened to have bought a few canvasses a few months back because they were on sale, and the atypical shape of this canvas appealed to me then. It now seems like the perfect shape: wide enough to provide lots of space for a broken violin and some cool light effects (I'll get into my plan for that another day), but short enough to eliminate any awkward negative space. 

     In light of the darker nature of this piece, I felt a pure black background would set the mood nicely and create perfect contrast for the light, among other things. One problem: the canvas is white. Easily fixed, however, so here is the progress for day 1. 

     Yes, I know, the edges aren't painted, but I plan on finishing that up and adding touch up tomorrow. Then I'm gonna get around to the irritating part: sketching, sketching, and more sketching until I am thoroughly sick of violins and get so bored I start painting. I think I might try borrowing my mom's old violin from my grandma to get a physical model. Google images is great, but real is always better. 

     How is it possible that what should probably be my shortest blog post ever manages to become this long?