Drawing has always been a hobby of mine and it wasn’t until recently that I started taking a tiny bit more seriously. Although I dislike that I need to take a drawing class for me to work on my art again, nonetheless I am really excited with what this class has challenged me to do.

Up until this project we had worked strictly with black and white mediums, charcoal being my medium of choice. I chose charcoal mainly because previous experiences with them had not been pleasant and I really wanted to give them another chance, the point of taking this course was to challenge myself and not do what I am accustomed to do (super heroes lol).

Well, this project was our first color project and our professor wanted substance over skill. Yes, he was interested in how well we can draw but he wanted us to add depth to our pretty drawings. The objective was to change the color of the subject to change the meaning of what was previously intended. And example he gave was that of a previous student who change the color of a Vietnam War airplane to pink. I thought for a couple of days and couldn’t conjure up an exciting idea. I wanted to do something with depth and that the message was beyond me, that it could resonate with others.

I thought of all the hungry children, well not all of them or I would go nuts but enough of them. “Every year 15 million children die of hunger” (link). That was figure so foreign to me and where are these children; definitely not around me. And suddenly I thought of Africa and how far it was, how foreign it seem. These children could live in another planet for all I know, but they don’t. They live in our planet, we share this planet with them and that’s when the idea dawned on me. I could make a kid like almost alien-like or at least extremely foreign from what we’re used to. And here is my process:

My supplies were van Gogh oil pastels, which I had previously worked with and fell in love with how much I can manipulate it with my fingers. The art of smearing, if you will. I also used an X-Acto and wood carving tools to create the highlights and remove the pigment. I used wood carving tools because… ummm I used a wood panel hahahaha. I used wood in my earlier project and I fell head over heals. I greatly enjoyed working with wood and plus it added an earthy tone to the piece.

What do you think? What can I improve?
I am a forever student.