Hypnology

This is my submission for an exhibition at school. The theme is temptation.
For months I have been struggling to come up with a concept I liked enough to actually go through with etching. In the beginning I wanted to do a 3 panel triptych that would tell the story of someone succumbing to some sort of temptation. But I ended up scrapping that idea.

A few days ago, I was staring at my sketchbook in dismay, and the idea finally came. I've been succumbing to everything that has been distracting me from working on this piece!

I started to make a list of everything that tends to distract me from working on art. Friends, videogames, internet, etc. As I was coming up with a list, I got 2 phone calls, managed to go on reddit for a good hour or so, almost skyped a friend and facebooked for no apparent reason.

After a few concept sketches I locked onto this idea--different aspects of technology personified, tempting me to stop etch a sketching. Initially I wanted to make it look as though I was engrossed in the art piece before me, but I thought it would be better to appear as though I were considering succumbing to the distractions yet again. I mean come on, FacebookMan seems to be making a pretty good argument!

I imagine it's difficult to tell what FacebookMan is holding--regretfully it got a bit muddled there. And with etch a sketching, there is no erasing. That is the skype icon.
In the background is a game of tetris, and to the right is my cell phone.

Once I finally got the ball rolling, I had a blast making this. I've been meaning to do more personal/original work on an etch a sketch, and I loved dealing with how technology has saturated my life.

From the beginning concept sketches to the final product I'd say this piece took about 6 hours (no doubt because I got a bit distracted!) It took another half hour or so to make sure it was completely preserved. I hope you appreciate all the time and thought this took!

facebook fanpage: [link]