Under the Surface

I'd like to start something new with this blog, I'd like to incorperate some of my personal artwork, since I've been wanting to develop my art skill recently.

This piece was inspired by a comeption by the Youtuber Jazza from the Channel Draw with Jazza.

The rules were simple, complete an art work that shows you something that you wouldn't normally see "Under the surface."

I was originally going to do something different, in fact I completed a whole different piece much earlier. But then I became ambitious when I realized that what I had done wasn't really inspiring to me or anyone else, and it had definitely not pushed me artistically.

I wanted to show what was beneath my surface. I feel that is something that we could all relate to, people see us and assign labels and define us to be only black and white.
But I wanted to introduce more color into my work (I'm a sucker for color) so every color you see has meaning behind it.

I started by framing a double page spread in my sketch book. The book itself is symbolic to that fact that we think that people are very easy to read but there is much more to them.

I thought about which colors to place in the background. I picked the following because of their symbols:

Red fading to Pink: Romance, energy, passion, hope, dreams, compassion, and faithfulness.

Green: Envy, relaxation, eco-friendly, growth, and life.

Violet fading to Blue/ Turquoise: Spirituality, royalty, healing, peace, and stability.

Orange: Creativity, thinking, ideas, warmth, and enthusiasm.

Yellow: Laughter, cheerfulness, intellect, irresponsible, friendliness, and optimism.

 I saw some of these in myself and wanted to incorporate them into the work.

 I painted them down in a color coded, warm colors on one side, cool on the opposite.

I used a multicolored graded wash to get the effect that it was drawing you in while still guiding your eye around the page as a highlight.
Then I outlined the miniature scenes.

I was nervous, but I began creating the miniature scenes with color. The little self portraites were difficult. Drawing people has always been one of my weaknesses. But I laid down the skin tone and blocked in the hair.

(Other than the water color background and pencil lines, the rest of the piece is done in acrylic paint and oulined with a fine liner pen.)

While waiting for the paint to dry I took the fine liner and drew in some of the lines so the hand and the faces would be more pronounced.

Once I was finished with the colored portions, I covered them up with painters tape and started to fill it in with black. The tape was helpful so I could go over it in the white to keep proportions correct.

I began painting based on some personal reference photos that I took of myself, because I'm a narcissist, yay! XD

I chose black white for the other half of the image. They symbolize what the world labels others to be and often how we try to portray ourselves. Often coming off very flat, boring, or fake.

Black: Sophistication, power, evil, formality, and mystery. 

White: Goodness, light, purity, and coolness.

(*This is where I had technical difficulties. What was supposed to be a filmed dramatic reveal, turned back because the tape ripped up some small parts of the image in the purple/blue and green sections. The black also didn't fill in well enough so I laid down tape more cautiously this time to touch it up.*)

Red: I'm proud of how this one turned out, I wanted both halves of the image to intereact so I chose to have her tucking her hair behind her ear, and behind the hand hidden is the "prince charming," who is hidden because for me he doesn't exist yet. (I've just now realized I drew the wrong hand....)

(Ahem, moving on...)

Green is a depiction of a hike in the mountains, because sometimes I need to get away and relax when I get so much inside my head. Envying other people's success or seeing only bricks in front of my way. Nature really inspires me.

Purple into blue is a Mormon Temple in Salt Lake city, the symbol I chose to represent my faith, I can always come back and find peace and tranquility again. 

Orange is a symbol to the ambitions that I have, to be a creator. I enjoy both writing and drawing and many other things. I chose color splotches to emphasize my creative messy nuisance. 

Yellow was fun, it turned out more theatrical than originally planned, which is good, I've always been drawn to theater. I love to laugh and goof off and have fun so I added a feather boa as a prop. 

Here's the final image. I'm really proud of how it turned out considering I haven't drawn a person in a long time, and never painted one.

 Thanks Jazza and all!
Let me know what you think, have a great day!