The initial ideas I had were random and obscure, as I found it difficult to find a concept that really demonstrated a "Y". None were very artsy, but rather simple designs that just demonstrated the letter "Y".
As I moved on to my next eight sketches on the next page, I tried to think of concepts that related to me. Many of the ideas shown demonstrate qualities of me. The Nike one is a simple drawing of the way I dress. The handstand and pull-up demonstrate how I like to exercise. The item in the top right is a "flux capacitor", a device in
Back to the Future, meant to show my love of film. The suspenders show how I like to dress nice and formally. And finally, the diverging road is a representation of Robert Frost's poem, "The Road Not Taken".
These final four drawings are also qualities of me, besides the pliers. I really take friendship to heart, and it really has a profound effect on my life, which is why I decided to incorporate the fists coming together. The bat is a representation of Batman, my favorite superhero, and the Spider-Man on the far right is also meant to demonstrate another one of my favorite superheros.
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| My decision ultimately came down between two ideas: "The Road Not Taken" and friendship. I felt both were ideas that I could really express strongly through my art. Ultimately, I decided on the idea of friendship, it being a stronger concept that had an impact on my life. My decision was solidified though through both Ms. Lee's approval and my friend, Glorimar, who reviewed my initial thumbnail sketches and liked the friendship one the most. Her opinion as well as Ms. Lee's made me think I should pursue this concept the most. I tried experimenting with what I should use in order to color the arms, which I thought were the most important aspect of the drawing. Water color and color pastel didn't suit the arms well, and so I decided to go with color pencil. |
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| This drawing is a revision of my initial "The Road Not Taken" idea, as some people found my initial drawing confusing and not realistic. |
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| For the final draft, in order to highlight my idea of friendship, I decided to continue with the fists coming together. Often, this image tends to exemplify teamwork and comradery, so it was perfect for "friendship". As well, I decided to color each arm a different shade of brown (brown was the most natural looking color for skin). This was meant to demonstrate how in my own life, I'm not restricted to a certain race or group. I enjoy having diversity in my life, and having such a wide variety of friends from different backgrounds, races, and cultures. To further highlight friendship, I decided to color the background a warm yellow to set a warm and kind tone. I decided to use chalk pastel to have the background be smooth and light, and thus giving the image an overall nice feeling. |
The most challenging aspect of this project to me were the details of my drawing. Trying to color in the arms was difficult, especially the shading portion to highlight shadows. Blending was a hard portion as well, as between the lines of color pencil in between were portions of white from the actual paper. Trying to make the arms look realistic was a problem of its own. As such, I just found it difficult trying to accurately demonstrate my idea through details.
I am semi-happy with my project in the end. I feel that people will be able to see that my letter was "Y", but I don't know if my image is expressed well through my details. I think that my idea of friendship is accurately portrayed through the fists coming together, as well as the idea of diversity. So in the end, I am mostly happy with my project, the only thing weighing me down being the details. If I could change anything about my design, I would definitely try to experiment with some other type of medium to try to create an accurate portrayal of details.
