Inclusive Community

The subject of my digital painting is a girl in a wheelchair. She is alone, symbolic of how we can exclude people, but the shadows on the wall portray what an ideal world might be like. The expression on her face is more of melancholy then happiness or sadness. The brick background could be a school or a coffee shop (or a number of other places) representing how it is an issue everywhere. I made this using the digital art program Krita and my drawing tablet. I started by drawing the girl and the wheelchair. Then, I added the background. I decided to use a 100% opacity standard circular brush to add lines, and a low opacity standard circular brush to do the majority of the shading. I used these to create shape and value which created form and texture. I wanted to use a different use of space than I normally do by having the character in the foreground in only a very small corner of the canvas. I wanted to create contrast in both color and value, so I switched on and off grayscale multiple times, and I adjusted the colors. I used a brick pattern for the background because it is simple, but I knew it would create an interesting background. I wanted to use blue for the shadows so that it would show up well on the wall and it added depth and contrast.

I decided to use informal balance, selective focus, sharp focus, and a low horizon line. My project began as a wheelchair. Then, I added the girl. From there, I added the background and shadows. After completing this, I went back and polished some of the previous layers. Particularly, I had to fix her arm and hand, as it was too long, and the hand was far to small. Additionally, I fixed up the shadows, although, I decided to still leave them pretty lose.

The meaning behind the drawing is that the girl in the wheelchair is alone, symbolic of how we can exclude people, but the shadows on the wall portray what an ideal world might be like. The expression on her face is more of melancholy then happiness or sadness. The brick background could be a school or a coffee shop (or a number of other places) representing how it is an issue everywhere. This project relates to my life because I think this is a very important issue. If I could fix this more, I would:

• Make the edges of the shadows softer
• Make the blending more consistent
• Make the shadows a lower opacity
• Make duplicates of the shadows as if there were multiple light sources
• Fix her arm and her hand
• Pick a more consistent color scheme