New Beginnings

For the longest time, most of my art consisted of mostly academic work (still life's, figure drawing, design studies....). I wasn't quite sure where I wanted to take my art. I've had many different interests and ideas but I wasn't quite sure which direction to take. I feel like I started to discover this when I took a film photography class last winter.  This was probably the earliest time I really developed various concepts and themes. Flash forward to last semester. It was during this last semester that I took my first illustration class. During this semester I tried a lot of different techniques and methods which took me out of my comfort zone. The medium that started to "click" with me was ink. A lot of trial and error but I enjoyed it. By the time our final project rolled around, we were allowed to do whatever we wanted for the most part so long as it related to what we intended to pursue in our field. At that point, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to pursue and I'm still not sure for that matter. Without getting into too much detail, I developed some ideas I had for a graphic novel that I may or may not ever make. The idea had begun with my photography and culminated in this piece.

This particular piece is significant to me for a couple reasons. First, this is something that I truly made that says something about me as an artist. It continues the conceptual nature of my photography and pushes it even further. Secondly, there is a noticeable improvement in my abilities in ink. There are a few things that could be improved (the balloons) but for the most part I'm happy how the figure and telephone pole turned out. 

The more straightforward concept is the idea of opportunities and despite how close they appear, they always manage to slip away. There are other things going on that are signifigant to me but I try to keep things open to interpretation for the viewer.

This was the first of hopefully three that I have made so far and have the intention of creating one more to make a series of 4. All my previous illustration projects culminated in this. Hopefully this work will help culminate into something greater.

-steven shik