Donate Life

One of our final projects of the year is our Donate Life project. We were tasked with creating a poster within certain parameters that would encourage Mainers to become organ donors. I went for a soft sentimental look, with a mother and her child embracing, and I used watercolors and fine point pen. I went for a warm color scheme to make the poster comforting. For my slogan (which we had to generate ourselves) I wrote, “Our children are our heart, consider organ and tissue donation). I put the letters in the foreground, the mother and child in the mid ground, and as not to distract from the subject, a simple yellow background.

The most important thing I utilized in this work is color. I used saturated yellowish skin tones with purple undertones, warm purple hair. The only color that isn’t warm is the blue of the child’s shirt, which only brings the eye to the subjects in the center even more. I would have left the background blank, but thanks to feedback from classmates and requirements within the competition, I added a yellow watercolor wash. To distract from the pencil lines that are visible through the watercolor I added outlines and shading with different color fine point pens.

This project was overall successful, and the end product looks good, however, I wish I had taken more time to plan out a couple of things. First, the pencil sketch being visible and un-erasable is irritating because it makes the art look unfinished. The slogan doesn’t have a nice ring to it, but then again I’m not a marketing expert so that isn’t unexpected. However, the smooth brushstrokes and the clean lines make up for the things I don’t like about the painting. I will also have to think about using a better paper for watercolors as this one needs to be put through the heat press because of wrinkling.