The first piece of artwork I chose to talk about is my current issues piece, "One in Three". The media that I used in this piece was graphite and colored pencil. I used graphite on all of the women, because I didn't want any of them to stand out more than the others because of bright colors. I then used a gradient colored pencil background to create more contrast between the different women. In this piece, I intended to communicate the issue that is violence and sexual assault against women. I researched and learned that one and three women in the United States are a victim of sexual assault, stalking, and/or domestic abuse. I think that my piece was successful in conveying that issue because it shows three women who all look similar, however, you can tell that one has cuts and bruises, which I think portrays the message well.
My second piece of art is the one that we had total creative freedom on. For this piece, I made a large scale colored pencil portrait. I chose to use colored pencil to help show the different colors that make drag queens who they are, and I also wanted to improve my colored pencil skills, especially in realistic drawings. In this piece I intended to reflect the personalities of drag queens, and how they're often as colorful on the inside as they are on the outside. The media that I chose really reflected this theme well, because I used so many bright colors that contrasted with each other well. I think this piece is successful because it is the most realistic colored pencil drawing I've ever done, and it shows the life of a drag queen.
I really enjoyed the units where we had more creative freedom, especially the most recent unit. I also liked the current events unit, because I have lots of strong opinions about things going on in the world that I like to express. I also liked the teens inspired unit because it gave me an idea to work off of. If I could add something to this class to improve it, I would want to do more warm ups with drawings and paint and other media, so that I could improve some of my skills to prepare myself for more challenging projects.