The Dragon’s Wrath

Julia Kalny

Acrylic on Canvas

For my abstract painting, I was inspired by some of my favourite things and colours- that is, dragons and warm hues- to create a fiery and intense piece that resembles the fierce and powerful figure of a dragon. Dragons are something I have enjoyed drawing over the past five years, so I was really excited to be able to incorporate them into this project through my use of colour, shape, form, texture, and different mediums. On my square canvas I used long, flowy forms along with sharp, spiky elements to resemble the long body and spikes on a dragon, along with scale-like textures shown throughout the piece as another representational element of a dragon. The colours I chose are some of my favourite colours in general, but also ones I haven’t used much in my art, so I really enjoyed experimenting with them in my pieces. I think the contrast between the dark reds and bright yellows really adds to the intensity of the piece and helps to draw the viewers’ eye towards certain parts of the piece, from the spiral-like form in the centre of the piece to the dark corners and forms around it. I used a lot of different media approaches for this project, including acrylic paint, GAC, and drywall compound, along with techniques of dry- brushing and glazing to achieve the final result of my paintings. I really enjoyed trying out these different approaches, and I think during this project I was able to grow in my creative and technical skills a lot by trying out a completely different style of painting than what I’m used to. During this project I found a lot of inspiration from Becky McNabb, our guest artist, through looking at her own art and also through her tutorials on different techniques and advice on how to come up with a theme for my piece. Abstract painting was something completely new to me when I started this project, but I think over the planning and painting processes, along with inspiration from Becky, I was able to come up with a theme that really stood out to me and was something I could really enjoy creating.