Stars and Stripes

For this project we had to use the American flag as inspiration for our one piece of art, by using the colors and patterns that are present. For this I wanted to add something other than just the stars and stripes but also have it mean something and have the other aspects of the image fit with the theme. I decided to do feet walking away from the viewer with the stripes as the background and stars on the legs. I wanted to do this because it shows that with out the people the United states which is represented by the flag isn't complete. This is why I put the stars on the feet and the legs to help show that the idea of America doesn't work with out the people; that everyone is tied into what the American flag stands for.

I started working on this project by using colored pencil (bottom image) for this I began by sketching out the feet with a white colored pencil on toned paper. I used a white colored pencil because it showed up enough to were I could see it on the toned paper but not so much that it took a lot to get off. Once I had the feet outlines I began to draw the stripes in the background, then used red and white alternating colored pencils to get the stripes. I wanted a clean smooth color so I took extra time to really burnish the lines in the background. Once I finished burnishing the lines in the background I wanted to add more detail to the feet. By using a pen I went in and added some shadows. Finally I used a blue colored pencil to add the stars moving down the legs. This was my first image I created using the criteria, but I didn't really like the way that the white colored pencil blended with some small specks of the red so I wanted to expand my art comfort zone and use article paint. I started my second one by outlining the feet and then starting on the stripes on the background. Once I had those laid out I wanted to spend some more time on the feet, I wanted them to be more gray-blue toned than the first. By mixing blue white and black together I used the lighter colors to highlight parts of the feet and other to shade. Once I had the overall look of the feet done I went in and added the stars. My final touch was adding some small smudges of red to bring another aspect of the flag into the feet.

Over the course of this project I began to develop an idea of how I would do this differently, I liked the colored pencil and pen look way better than the acrylic paint but didn't like how my lines were smudgy. So if I were to do this project over I would be more careful about mixing the lines and make sure they are clean. I also would change the shape of the feet because I struggled getting the angles right so they don't look as realistic as I would like. Over all I struggled with time on this project, I could have spent more time on one and perfected it into one piece that I really liked, this is something that I will take into account moving forward.