Who Am I? Final Project Artist Statement

Final project

Halfway photo

The picture I used for inspiration-it's an illustration

Six project sketches

My artist statement 

I am mixed with a lot of things. My mother is African American and my father is Guyanases Indian. On my moms side of the family, we also have Cherokee Indian heritage. On my dads side of the family, we do a lot of cultural things like Indian weddings and parties. One reason I made this project is because I wanted to celebrate my heritage. I also wanted to draw something having to do with the fashion from my heritage. Finally I wanted to share my love for who I am and how I am proud to be a part of the family that I am in.The process I used to create this piece of art ,was first sketching and then painting and pastels. One element of art that I used was texture. For texture I used a found object such as a bindi.  A bindi is a piece of jewelry that Indian women wear on their foreheads. The second element of art that I used was value. Value is show between the red and the black colors on the dress.  I used a shade of red and some black to express value and to contrast their darkness. The third elements that I used was shape. I used organic and natural shapes in the jewelry and in the face. I also used geometric shapes in the sketches that I drew. The fourth element that I used is line. Line is shown in the dress and it leads the viewier around the dress and up to the woman's face. The fifth element I used was color. The colors that I used for this project were mainly red, yellow, black, green and a very light shade of blue. I used color to bring out the Sari and to make the background have a nice calm feeling. The sixth element of art that I used was space. The negative space in my artwork was the blue background around the Indian woman. The positive space in my art is the space being used by the woman in the picture. The final element of art that I used was form.  I feel as if I used form in a way that made the picture have a lot of movement. When you're looking at the picture, your eyes are always moving from one thing to the next because there are so many colors and details to see. The blue background adds a little bit of depth, that makes the woman look as if she fairly close to the viewier.  In addition the woman's proportions are fairly large, giving you the impression that she is in the foreground of the picture. In addition to theses elements, I used a two dimensional style of drawing to create my artwork. The color pallet that I used was mainly primary colors. The rest of the colors that are used were either secondary, monochromatic, or black. I chose to use these colors because I wanted to convey the colors of the Guyanese flag on the sari that the woman is wearing. I think the the overall out come of the picture turned out ok. I'm happy that I was able to convey my heritage in a way that makes me happy to share it with the people around me. I hope that other people will love and embrace their cultures and heritages as much as I do.