2-in-1 Project

A Swan and a Goose Feb. 4, 2014

What is a 2-in-1?

       A 2-in-1 is a piece of art that incorporates two objects, animals or whatever you would like into one thing.  Now, it doesn't have to be two things that are related in any way, but it definitely could be.  It could possibly be a donkey and a horse that share similarities or an ostrich and a fish who share nothing at all.  The two objects that I chose are two types of birds that are pretty similar.  I chose a swan and a goose because they are pretty alike.  They have the same body shape, they eat the same food and pretty much have the same habitat. At first, I spent half an hour trying to figure out how to put the two together and I couldn't really find any way to do it without it looking like a swan with a grey body until I took a walk a couple days ago.  I was walking and I overheard a couple kids talking about how to morph different animals and their names (which is really ironic) and they told each other that a trout and a goldfish doesn't need a body to swim, they can just use their heads.  It's a pretty weird way to get my idea, but I least I got it!  I thought, "Why not put the two heads together and great an animal that looks nothing like an animal.  This is my sketch:

Now, this is just my sketch.  The real project is a 24x18 sheet of paper and I used charcoal because I thought it was the easiest way to express the different between the two birds.  A swan and a goose don't have many colors in them besides grey, black and white and I thought it would probably be easier to show the different shades in them by shading the charcoal and testing it out.  I could choose how dark I wanted the pencil to be and I could use the charcoal stick to fill in large areas of the birds like the majority of the gooses head.  I kind of had some trouble trying to make the thickets of grass look realistic, but I did the best I could and I honestly think it looks pretty good.  When I started the bridge for the swan's half of the paper, I choose the Gapstow bridge in Central Park of New York City.  I was born in New York so, I really thought I should draw one of the 36 bridges in the city. Other than those two issues, I had a really fun time drawing this out and spending time trying to make it perfect.

The Finished Product

By the time I was finished, I was pretty proud.  The shape of the goose and swan's head was in perfect shape and the background was pretty good.  I think the best part about my project is the birds itself.  I really like how the shape of it just kind of went exactly how I wanted it to be and how the beaks differ from the goose and the swan.  I'm not completely proud of the way the background of the birds were drawn, but I did my best and it's good enough for me.  Plus, my art teacher loved the way it turned out so, that's pretty amazing too! Anyway, I would probably change the way I drew the bridge behind the swan because I didn't really put that much detail into it and I really wish I had.  The final outcome:

Yet again, the swan's neck was merged with the goose's neck to create an abnormal look, but that's what my favorite part is.  I just like the way I drew the fur going into each other.  I put the grey goose fur on top because they are what you're prone to see when you go to a lake or pond.  I drew in a bridge and a tree (a New York look) because when you think of a swan, you think pretty, romantic things.  The first thing I thought of was Central Park of New York.  I put in a thicket of grass behind the goose because that's what they eat and that's where you're most likely going to be seeing him.  That's basically how my piece of art came to be!