10.6.22 - 11.1.22

This month I am going to be focusing on a negative aspect of Individuality, and I will be creating the piece Gifted Child.

Family and other authoritative figures set goals and expectations of how you should act and how you should live your life within your childhood. These rules can set good morals and foundations for children, but sometimes these expectations can take away the individuality of a person. You can begin to do things just to please these people, instead of doing things for yourself. This can lead into a lifelong habit of trying to please others, fit into society, and to do what you think is acceptable in this world. This piece is going to share the message of a child who has been put under harsh expectations by their family, and that their sense of individuality is being repressed.

The composition of this piece will be a landscape view of a dining table, with the gifted child sitting as the focal point. There will be figures around the child to show that there is an outside pressure. The child will have a fork in hand and will be clutching the table with their other hand. On the dinner plates there will be medals, trophies, papers, and other signs of achievements. I am currently unsure of what angle the viewer will be positioned at, but I hope to use a unique perspective in this piece and really show the dimension and atmosphere of the whole piece. I plan on using a complementary color scheme with purple and yellows to display a dramatic scene, or some unique color scheme. I will try to use multiple different brushes to get sharp and soft angles within the piece, as well as keep an impressionist like style.

This piece is an example of a negative side of individuality and the events that could lead to you suppressing your sense of individuality. When parents or authorities pressure you to act a certain way and to be up to their standards, you begin to stop living life for yourself and you are trying to please others. This is something that I believe many of us can do unconsciously, and I think we should be more aware of how people pleasing is prominent in our society. I believe that accepting our individuality can help us act more for our own desires and to be happier with our own actions and lives.

I hope that you enjoy the progression of me making Gifted Child!

Here is the finished product of Gifted Child!

This piece was the most challenging and time consuming thing I have worked on all year, and I am really proud of how Gifted Child turned out. My favorite part of this piece is the tetradic color scheme that I used, as that really made the scene unique and engaging to the eye. I also really love how the main figure turned out and how I captured the lighting angle and the expression on their face. I also really love how the meaning of the piece is abstract but still clear to the viewer what is going on. I believe that this piece captured a mood very well and is very appealing to the eye.

There are some moments within creating this work that I struggled. The biggest challenge I had was drawing bodies at a side profile and making everything proportionate. I feel that I am currently lacking on some anatomy skills, so I am going to take some time to sketch and practice drawing bodies again to learn more about the human anatomy. I also struggled with creating dynamic poses in the wide array of angled figures, so I think I will work on drawing more poses that are in action and moving. The final thing I would like to improve on for my next piece, is to create more value and contrast with varying colors involved.

The meaning of this piece is shown through the interaction of the main figure and the figures at the dining table. Signs of accomplishments, like medals, a degree, ribbons, and trophies, are being passed on dining plates to the main figure. There are ribbons and medals already on the main plate of the child, and there is a medal on the fork that the figure is about to eat. From this context, we can assume that the figures at the dining table are passing these signs of achievement to the child to eat. In the background behind the light source, purple figures are crowded around the table and observing the scene. The purple color of society appears in the foreground too, as they are also passing dining plates to the child. Overall, this piece is capturing the stress of being expected to achieve lots of accomplishments and to be successful. As well as that, there is also the hidden meaning that society is also influencing these expectations onto the family and the figure. This pressure can be something that people relate to specifically during high school, college, and even in the work force. This issue is something that personally damaged my Individuality, as I felt that I could not fulfill my own desires and that I need to accomplish what others find valuable. I believe that the topic of work culture and valuing life on accomplishments is a massive issue that our society is being hurt by. I hope that this piece shares this grave issue clearly, and that it brings awareness and enlightenment to an experience that is shared through us.

This piece is one of my favorite works from this year, so I hope you enjoyed the progression of me making Gifted Child! I am excited to make two more pieces around the theme of Individuality, and I hope you look forward to those future works!