Creating a Dynamic Caterpillar Artwork: Visual Arts Project

This assignment details the creation of a visual artwork inspired by Eric Carle's 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. The student artist chose this book for its unique collage-like illustrations and the use of diverse textures and mediums. The rationale explains the book's impact on art and children's literature, highlighting its visual appeal and educational aspects. The medium proposal outlines the use of chalk pastels, sandpaper, textured materials (balloons, bowls, etc.), and various paints to recreate the book's dynamism. The artwork aims to capture the vibrant colors and textures of the original illustrations, employing techniques like gradient backgrounds, textured caterpillar bodies, and tattered edges to mimic the book's interactive elements. The artist reflects on the process, emphasizing the importance of understanding and enjoying the source material, considering the intended audience, and experimenting with different mediums to achieve the desired effect. The artwork's explanation describes the background creation using chalk pastels and sandpaper, the caterpillar's body using textured materials and paint, and the overall contrasting tones to attract children. The artist's role reflection emphasizes the importance of fluency with the source material, emotional connection, and considering the audience's perspective. The project successfully recreates the essence of the original artwork, demonstrating an understanding of visual art principles and the creative process.

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Visual and media arts
Rationale
The children’s book was chosen as a means of inspiration is the award-winning book,
“The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. It is the story of freshly hatched caterpillar
who is named as a very hungry caterpillar throughout the book. After hatching, he finds
himself to be very hungry and makes away to find food. He eats his way through various
fruits and leaves. On a Saturday, he gorges on many delicacies which are actually not
caterpillar food. As a result, he gets a stomach ache. He then eats a single leaf and is
cured of the ache. He is by then grown fat and large. It spins a cocoon around itself and
sleeps for two weeks, only to emerge as a butterfly with multicolored wings (Carle,
2000).
The book is famous for its graphic design and the way it includes various lessons like
the days of the week, the stages of life of a butterfly as well as lessons about what to
eat and what not to eat. The main attraction of the book is the distinctive way the
images have been prepared. It uses a collage of various textures and mediums to make
the pictures (Robertson & Reese, 2017). There is an interesting story regarding how
Eric got this idea for a child’ book. Eric was one day punching holes and the holes were
placed in such a way that it formed a colorful caterpillar. From there he got the idea of
overlapping the textures of various mediums to make illustrations for a children's book.
This book has been chosen for recreating the famous design in this project. The idea of
the illustrations is so simple yet so unique and fresh. The different textures and
mediums used to make the illustrations make the book very dynamic and vibrant. The
book allows the children to widen their minds through looking at various mediums than
is provided in any other book (The Atlantic, 2019).
The book is also underlined with several motifs and interpretations which is why the
book has always been a staple in the minds of art critics. The parable of the caterpillar
is sometimes compared with Christian parables (Independent, 2019). Some critics
consider the caterpillar to be a capitalist, who only eats one bite out of every fruit and
ruins the whole fruit. This act is compared to its greed and thirst for everything and it
cannot be controlled.
Medium proposal
The dynamics of the books and illustrations cannot be reflected in contemporary
mediums of paper, canvas or wood. I have therefore planned to make use of different
textures and imprinting them on a canvas to create the dynamism of the book. The aim
of the artwork is to be able to tell the story through the use of various mediums and
textures. The elements used include balloons, bowls, bark, bubble wrap, leather bag
and other textured material. The base will be created through chalk pastels. That would
be rubbed on the sheet to create a skyline for the characters. The colors would then be
rubbed with sandpaper to even them out and create a gradient. The texture of the
sandpaper would create a different impression of paper. Then the material of different
textures will be cut into a circular shape and dipped in yellow and green paint. The paint

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Visual and media arts
was then transferred to a sheet and circles were cut from the sheet and stuck in the
shape of a caterpillar. This created a similar collage like effect as was presented in the
book. Some elements in the background like grass and fruits can be created in the
same way. A sense of depth and a light and shadow effect can be created through
shading with chalk pencils. This would add another element to the artwork. More
definition was created through a black marker. The third addition of the book included
some holes in the pages that seemed to defer that the caterpillar had eaten through
them (Shulsky & Kirkwood, 2015). This technique as if brought the caterpillar to life and
convinced the children that caterpillar and his story was real (Olshansky, 1984).
Similarly, the sheet of paper would have tattered ends to create the same effect as
having been eaten by a caterpillar.
Title of artwork
A very dynamic caterpillar
Rational of artwork
The artwork was created to capture the inspiration and ideas generated from a
children’s book created by Eric Carle “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. The book has
generated a buzz among art critiques for its design and techniques used to illustrate
and convey the story. The collage effect used in the illustration reflect how the
caterpillar has eaten an array of fruits and how it reflects on his beautiful body. It can be
parable to make children focus on eating healthy foods to make their body healthy.
The artwork created also aims to be as dynamic and vibrant as the caterpillar. As a
result, various materials were used to create different textures. Also, different types of
coloring elements were used like acrylic pain, chalk crayons and markers to add more
definition.
Carle describes the story of how he was punching holes and the overlapping cut outs
gave him the idea of using different mediums and patterns for creating illusions. This
type of illustration was unique and the artwork tried to recreate it.
Explanation of artwork
The base or background of the caterpillar has been created through a gradient of chalk
pastels having rubbed or blended into each other through the use of a sand paper. This
adds a rough texture to the background which is green at the top and fades into yellow.
This reflects the foliage in which caterpillar lives. Through the marker more defined
leaves and branches have been drawn in some places to clearly present the idea. The
body of the caterpillar is bold and well defined. The colors are bright mixture of various
shades of yellow and green. The paint was first poured onto a flat surface one upon the
other to create the beautiful and pleasing swirls as they mixed into one other. The
textured material was dipped into the paint and then transferred on a paper which was
cut roughly in circles to create the body of the caterpillar. The flowing effect of paint was
similar to the color of leaves. The tone of the artwork was contrasting as it was meant to
draw the eye of children and make a memorable impression. The background created

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Visual and media arts
through chalk was smooth and has a dusty effect which heightened the dramatic colors
and coarse textures of the caterpillar. The artwork was filled with circles and other
curved shapes to create a softness that would be fit for a children’s book.
Reflection of role as an artist
It is essential for an artist, who has to create an artwork based on another work to be
fluent with the work first. It is also important to enjoy the original work as a viewer and
letting elicit emotions. These emotions, ideas and views would then be used to create
the inspired work. I had read the book first hand and then researched why the book was
awarded with many accolades and why it was considered unique and different. I also
tried to perceive the work through the eyes of the intended audience. For a child, the
different textures would be enchanting. They may or may not be able to identify those
textures in real life but when they do it will be a happy discovery for them and a
milestone in their learning process.

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Visual and media arts
References
Carle, E. (2000). The very hungry caterpillar. Early Years Educator, 2(3), 38-41.
Independent , (2019), The Very Hungry Caterpillar: 50 years of magical reading for
children, Retrived from
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/balance sheet/features/the-
very-hungry-caterpillar-author-eric-carle-anniversary-50-a8937571.html
Robertson, S. J. L., & Reese, E. (2017). The very hungry caterpillar turned into a
butterfly: Children's and parents' enjoyment of different book genres. Journal of
Early Childhood Literacy, 17(1), 3-25.
Shulsky, D., & Kirkwood, D. (2015). Beyond tempera paint: authentically exploring
visual art in early childhood. Childhood Education, 91(5), 363-369.
The Atlantic, (2019), The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Retrieved from
https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/03/very-hungry-caterpillar-50th-
anniversary/585271/