NEW MOON PROJECT!

So, a few years ago, my mom and I did this amazing art project together, called the moon project. We took the Native American full moons and paired them with famous artists. We studied one artist per month, and used their process and styles to create a piece of art about that month’s full moon!

If you’re unfamiliar with the Moons, here’s a list.

January- Wolf Moon

February- Snow Moon

March- Worm Moon

April- Pink Moon

May- Flower Moon

June- Strawberry Moon

July- Buck Moon

August- Sturgeon Moon

September- Harvest moon

October- Hunter’s Moon

November- Beaver Moon

December- Cold Moon

We ended up doing this project twice, over two years. Once in 2020, and once in 2022. We like to start in August, during the sturgeon moon, because that’s when my school year starts.

As an eleven year old and then a thirteen year old, my art, respectfully, sucked trash socks. Good lord. I’ve really improved. And so, I decided to do this project again!

As it’s only September as I write this, I’ve only done one piece so far, for the Sturgeon moon. (I’ve noticed marked improvement since 2022 so far, though!)

A sturgeon, for anyone who could care less about fish, is a crazy ancient bony fish (which means it has a skeleton made mostly of cartilage, like a shark) from dinosaur times, that still lives today. They are huge, migratory fish mostly known for their caviar, which is why they are now critically endangered. They don’t have scales, but rather bony plates on their skin, like armor. They live for an insanely long time, with some living up to 150 years. They have big old whisker-lookin’ things on their snout called barbels, which they use too feel around for food on the muddy riverbed. They are found in the Northern Hemisphere, North America, Asia, Europe, and the Caspian, Black, and Mediterranean ocean. They everywhere. They can live in subtropical to subarctic waters, and like to migrate between freshwater and saltwater.

Oh also sometimes they’ll throw their whole selves out of the water and smack people off of boats.

Here’s what they look like:

And for scale:

(not my photo, here’s the link if you want)

So that’s a sturgeon! They’re pretty cool, in my opinion.

The artist I chose for this moon was Ben Shahn, who was an American artist from the 30s to about the 60s. I picked him because I absolutely love his line work. He has an extremely distinctive style, and it took me and my mom FOREVER to figure out how to recreate it. Here’s my favorite drawing of his.

I mean, just look at that line quality!!!! I love it!!! Shahn also illustrated a book called “Ounce Dice Trice” written by Alastair Reid.

I tried my hardest to replicate this line quality, but I don’t think I ever fully nailed it. His wikipedia page said he used grease pencils, but obviously that was a bald faced lie. The method we eventually settled on was quickly sketching scratchy lines with a dip pen, and then going back over it with a hard, dry brush to break up the line. It worked pretty well, but I don’t think we ever fully nailed it. However, I did draw this brontosaurus skeleton while experimenting with the grease pencils, so that’s okay.

But on to the actual piece! I used the pen + dry brush technique, which I think worked out pretty well!

As you can see, I ended up pretty much drawing the same fish four times. I think I managed to improve upon it each time, though! I started with the one in the middle, then went on to the one in the right, then the lower left, and finally the upper left.

The first one was fine, but had a weird texture on the forehead, where I tried to shade. It also was not circular enough. The second one was good, and I actually like this one a lot, but it got a little too brushy towards the tail, and it too wasn’t circular enough. The third one was going to be my final, but then we decided that I went a little too much with the brush, and it seemed a little blurry. So, after a day, I made the fourth and final one, in the upper left.

I’m really happy with how this one turned out. I think it really sticks to Shahn’s style (she sells sea shells) and has nice form and line quality. I’m especially excited to see it paired with the other moon pieces to come!

I hope you like how the final turned out! It took a lot of troubleshooting, but we got there!

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for future moon installations!