The Color Within
This piece was made using chalk pastels as unnatural color, with a reference photo to draw off of. The student teacher of my art class, Ms. Pope, took a photograph of each student using one lamp in a dark room for dramatic lighting, like Carravaggio. Then we did a grid on the printed out photograph and a bigger paper and I used a pencil to do the basic outlines of the portrait. We were instructed to use warm colors as the highlights and cool colors as the lowlights of the photograph. I wanted to be different and have a funky-looking border so i used masking tape to outline an "aura" coming off of my person, giving off color to the world. I wish that the chalk had stayed more, but the fixative used caused the chalk to come off a bit. This project was actually assigned to me in my art 3 proficient class, but I loved the medium so much I chose it as my AP Drawing theme. I really like the way that the chalk pastels layer, however, the fact that they are so easy to rub off is annoying. I get tired of redoing each section. I'll do one part of the picture, then move on to another and my hand and arm with rub on the chalk and smear it as well as remove some color from the portrait. Despite my complaints, this is actually my new favorite art medium and I cannot wait to have many more pieces of this style.