Title: Programmed to Think

Where I got my inspiration:

The inspiration for my idea of “Programmed to Think” came from firsthand experience. Oftentimes, when I use my phone, I feel like a robot myself. I feel programmed to consume media as much as possible to the point where I can’t stop. It got me thinking about how technology, our experiences, and our friends impact the way we think. Sometimes we become almost robotic. We continuously scroll on our phones (which can be seen in the reflection of the right eye and the slight pinkness shaded around it), we tend to let AI captivate and damage our critical thinking skills, we tend to let others opinions dictate what we say, and we let the fast convenience of the world push us past the speed we can productively function at. These cause our brains to short-circuit or burn out, leaving us feeling drained or maybe even anxious (reflected in the purple backdrop). However, in my experience, the more I tend to stay away from AI, social media, and my insecure thoughts, the brighter the world tends to be.

Tools/software/app/websites I used:

To create my art piece, I used Microsoft Paint. The specific tools I used were the shape tools, the Red, Green, and Blue hue creator, the polygon tool, the eraser, the line and curve tool, the opacity slider, the selection tool, and the layering function on Microsoft Paint.

Creative Process:

My process for creating the piece is as follows…

Note: Each facial feature, embellishment, written phrase, contouring section, facial structure, and neck structure has its own layer. This way, I could easily delete something I didn’t like or reorder the layers to make certain aspects overlap better. (With a few exceptions due to grouping. (For example, I might put two technological embellishments on the same layer)

• Make guidelines

  • Center guideline

  • Horizontal guidelines (for facial proportions)

  • Make the figure (the head and shoulders) out of circles, triangles, trapezoids, and squares.

  • Make the backdrop- a separate layer

  • pick the color gradient, 

  • Select the correct colors to do so 

  • Insert them as circles in the gradient order

  • Create a new layer and make squares on top

• Adjustments

  • Make half the face grey

  • Adjust the left side to make it sharper/masculine

  • Make the skin more golden (based on the yellow lighting)

  • Make defining features- (Eyes, hair, eyelids, ears, mouth, nose, and eyebrows. I used the polygon tool for most of this)

• Embellishments

  • Add digital details to the left side (dial, AI logo, outlet, USB input, the play button eye)

  • Add two opaque squares to the eye to make it look like the eye is mirroring somebody doom scrolling.

  • Do contouring/shaping (using different shades of my skin tones) on both sides

• Final Adjustments

  • Revising the left eyebrow to be thicker

  • Moving the dial to the right shoulder (instead of the cheek)

  • Add text to the portions that needed it (the USB 3.0, CPU SPEED, and the numbers on the dial)

Total Artwork Time: 14 hours, 30 minutes

Use of existing content:

N/A