Exercise: A subjective drawing

I wasn't really clear about the instructions for this exercise (should the new object be chosen from the previous list? Should the drawing be subjective?), but decided that since the exercise was subjective I should go with my gut feeling, so I chose scissors, made an objective line drawing and picked 'sharp' from my list of adjectives:

Line drawing:

I tried scanning some found objects (barbed wire, dental instruments, pins and a craft knife) which represented 'sharp' for the mood board, but unfortunately they didn't come out clearly when I printed the image

so I drew over the barbed wire image with silver pen and used other images cut from magazines.

I concentrated on sharp contrasts in tone and sharp angles to represent the adjective, also including finger nails, stiletto heals and spikes.

Line drawing with list of adjectives and sharp mood board:

At this point I decided that my drawing wasn't big enough so I blew it up using photoshop, printed it out and cut around it so that I could open the scissors, thus giving more of a 'sharp' impression.

I was going to use squared paper as a background because of the angles:

but once I'd collaged the magazine images onto the scissor cut out there wasn't enough contrast between the image and the background so I chose black paper instead.

The black paper had been rolled and I had a job to flatten it, but this threw up an interesting 3D effect when I released the paper having applied the first spot of glue:

Finally I collaged other elements to the scissors image to reinforce the sharp motif: the cut ribbon and the sharp nailed hand with a drop of blood from being cut by the handle:

On reflection, the addition of the extra collaged elements was probably 'cheating' since the 'filling' of the line drawing was supposed to effectively convey the feeling of the chosen adjective.

I think the accidental 3D image is more effective at conveying a sharp feeling and is also more interesting and attractive. This may also be because of the lighting, it was photographed and not scanned so I may be able to improve the final image by adjusting the contrast.

Final image following tone and saturation adjustment and 'tidying' of the angle of the base of the hand:

I still prefer the 3D image. This was a lesson in 'less is more' and the 'magic' of the accidental.