Independent Project #4

For this project the material and subject was open-ended. We had a chance to create whatever we wanted. I knew I wanted to create a piece to go under my concentration which is gender issues. Last project I did a portrait of a woman and I wanted to continue with portraits. I found an interesting side-view of a woman with flowers in her hair and down her neck. To me the image seemed very delicate but very regal. I chose to use toned paper because I haven't worked with it much. I chose to use charcoal for the same reason.

I first sketched out the woman. I had trouble getting the mouth right. I went back in with charcoal and white charcoal to show the highlights and shadows. While I payed attention to proportion it wasn't a big focus of mine. I chose to leave her without a mouth because it symbolizes the lack of voice women have/feel they have in society. I thought it'd be interesting to include text in this piece so I began to leaf through magazines. In magazines I found powerful words that can be associated with the term "woman". I came across, I believe a perfume ad, that had the phrase "Woman Above All" which really resonated with me and this project. I pasted the words around her as if they are surrounding her and she can't seem to forget them. I like the pops of color this brought into the piece and the eye-catching graphics.

Overall, I really like this project. I feel very strongly about the message behind it and impact of words. My portrait work is not the strongest and is an area I would like to improve in.