Shift Shape: Toni Malone Print

Meant as a concept piece for a larger body of work, Shift Shape: Toni Malone tells a character's origin story for a comic book I was able to publish in 2018. Her story is as follows: "Hailing from New Jersey, Toni suffered a dog attack when she was about 12 years old. It healed enough for her to go on a family vacation to the shore, however, once there, she accidentally reopened her dog bite while she was digging in wave pools. She was infected with amino acids, the building blocks of life, and took on some of their 'building' traits—she’s able to adapt and evolve at a rapid rate." If you look closely, the amino acids that affected Toni are present as organic chemistry notations in the top panel--as they flow into her bitten arm as she reaches for clams at the bottom of the wave pool. That 'adaptation' ability gained from this event is referenced through my appropriation of Charles le Brun's evolutionary sketches in the background of the bottom panel. For the audience, I wanted to create a singular image that tells a story--and tells it in a way that unless they are searching for it, it just comes across as interesting imagery. I wanted there to be something new and fresh in the image everytime someone looks at this piece, while still making significant reference to it's place in art history. Inspired by a desire to fully form a human being from scratch and make an imagined person as real as possible, the reference for this piece started with a rough photoshop collage. The figure herself is made up of nearly 22 different layers scavenged from multiple different images of women, both found and personally referenced. I chose the multimedia method and the semi-realistic style because I felt the truest way to make this imagined character feel real was by putting considerable time and effort into it. If I wanted to build this story, I had to literally build the imagery around it, both conceptually and physically. There are 7 layers in total in this piece: A colored pencil line sketch, light acrylic wash, mid tone watercolor wash, protective spray fix and matte media, deconstructed oil wash, and a final colored pencil layer. Each layer was both additive and subtractive, which granted it it's physicality.

Print:Giclee on Fine Art Paper

Size:9 W x 12 H x 0.1 D in

Size with Frame:14.25 W x 17.25 H x 1.2 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.