my line is emo has finally ended. it was an extremely tedious process both mentally and physically and i have learnt many things about myself and the art of mark making. i’ll highlight a few pieces that i found interesting and that particularly resonated with me.

relieved.

inspired by this scene from the film clouds of sils maria, i used dark strokes to mimic the silhouette of the mountains, and lighter strokes for the fog. relief is the feeling of relaxation following anxiety and stress; that’s what this image looks like to me. the strong silhouette of the mountains represent tension. the light mist juxtaposes that strong image. it moves slowly away from the mountains, as if the mountains were sighing in relief.

longing.

developed from an experiment with a circular mark-making tool, i created the image of a moon being shielded by the clouds. in this piece i allude to the moon being a signifier of longing.

loneliness.

i was inspired by this image by @lauramakabresku on instagram. the image  is of a woman lying so stiff and fragile on a table top with a crow pecking at her stomach. she is all alone with the animal that signifies death right on top of her. it screams loneliness to me. i tried to emulate the composition of this image in my strip, using a gradation of dark to light tones.

enthusiasm.

while thinking of this emotion i was actually facing a major block, so i scrolled through social media and discovered artist jessica kaplan. all her art pieces are very abstract and exude a lot of movement and energy even though it is just black and white. i drew on her style and used black and white paint to create a very textured and energetic piece, representing enthusiasm.

satisfaction.

to me, a satisfactory image is well balanced and composed. in my final image, i even out the bold stroke with a semi-circle and a dot. the weight of both shapes balance each other out, depicting satisfaction.

thoughts.

this project was especially tough as the whole concept of depicting emotions using lines is extremely abstract. i am also not particularly attached to any specific mark-making method or artist’s style, and was honestly very clueless in the beginning.

however, i begun to realise that the images i was creating had one thing in common – composition. i am a very visual person and i draw emotions from images. that is why the majority of my strips focuses on shape  and the placement of those shapes, instead of using pattern and repetition.

i view see my end result as a collation of frames – each frame portrays an emotion, telling a story through it’s composition.