Shape & Colour
Task 1
For this exploration I wanted to base my theme off of women in Iran. I took two different pictures of myself, one showing anger and fear, the second image showing joy. As explained below, it was very quick for me to pick one of the line drawings to continue forward with it. I chose the first line drawing I had drawn that expresses anger and fear, since women in Iran have been struggling for about 50 years with their freedom. With the color and texture I will be adding in task 3, my exploration will show an angered woman towards the rules and forces for Iranian women to wear cover themselves up and obey others while their opinions are never heard.
This is the first picture I took of myself for task 1, line drawing and instantly liked how it turned out. With the first line drawing I traced over my image to get the exact outline. However, for the second line drawing, I did a contour drawing and was also impressed by how I got it to turn out. The contour one is able to show the emotions the image is showing, but the simple line drawing would be better to use for coloring and shadow work.
This is the second picture I took of myself with the exact same pose but different emotion. However, looking back at the first drawing I liked how the emotion was expressed. I want my drawing to have a bit of a scary meaning to it and the first drawing will work out great.
Task 2
I decided to choose the first line drawing to proceed with. I chose the color red to do my tonal map. Since my expression shows anger and being scared, red was the best color which also expressed this emotion. I began working with my dark shadows first and filled those in, then proceeded to continue with the medium dark color for mid-tone and then the light color for highlights. My shadows and highlights are all based on the real image. All of these colors are fill colors from the pen tool which was very easy and convenient to work with.
These are the colors I used for my shadow, mid-tone and highlight.
Shadow HEX #: 841208
Mid-tone HEX #: BF1E10
Highlight HEX #: FC2C15
Task 3a
The 8 images below are a symbol called Boteh-Jegheh. It is an asymmetrical geometric floral pattern which means royal sovereignty, and nobility. This symbol is seen a lot on Persian rugs, clothes, walls, rooftops, etc. Boteh is a very popular symbol along Iranians and is created in various colors, textures and designs.
I took a picture of some of my old paintings I had done before. These paintings were all done with a palette knife, which gives the painting texture. I took a picture of the parts that had the most mixture of colors and texture.
I used acrylic to do task 3a along with the images above.
1. I used to paintbrush to move around the pain and leave bumps to give it texture.
2. I did the same thing as the first painting, but with a different texture.
3. I put little paints around the canvas and used the brush to press it down.
4. I mixed white with red and used the brush to paint it around.
1. I used tissue to give it texture.
2. Mixed, white with blue and used brush to move it around and mix it together.
3. Dropped light blue on the dark blue.
4. Same thing as number 2 different brushed used.
1. Mixed, white along with the orange and used brush to move it around.
2. Mixed a bit of red and used a different brush which gave it more bumps (texture).
3. Like blue, I used tissue to give it texture.
4. I used glitter and mixed it with yellow, then dropped bits of glitter onto it.
1. The green is the same as blue and orange, I added tissue again to give it texture.
2. I mixed blue and red to turn it into purple and played around with a brush.
3. Same color like number 2, used a smaller brush to dab it on the canvas.
All these swatches are green, white, and red to represent Iran's flag.
1. I played around with the brush to mix the colors and give it texture.
2. I did the same thing as number 1, but used a different brush.
3. Same thing again, but mixed it more which turned into a light pink.
4. I used the lid of the paint to print small circles of what the color of the flag looks like.
Task 3b
All of these textures used for tonal map have a meaning to it.
I used the two images of the Boteh-Jegheh and the blue paint I had created. The Boteh represents Iran and the color blue represents fear and sorrow here.
I used the yellow and orange paint along with the image of another boteh. I wanted to work with the same tactics as the blue tonal map, but different color.
Red here is used to represent anger and for the mid-tone I used the image of the red scarf. Along with the painting that its colors represent Iran's flag. This design shows a more clear way of expressing the anger which comes from covering up and not having any voice as a woman.
I focused on the color purple here and the reason I chose this color for my tonal map was to show the city of Tehran the Capital of Iran.
The last one is very obvious for why I have chosen this type of design for my tonal map. The mid-tone is replaced by Iran's flag, The darker tone by red and lighter tone green. All the colors here show the main colors of the flag. Which concludes by showing the anger and fear towards Iran by a woman.
Task 3c
For my final exploration I chose the first design I had worked with in task 3b.
I spend some time editing this piece to make it better. for the shadow, I brought the opacity down by 15% to make it a bit lighter. The first design with 100% opacity was too dark and made it hard to see the details on the face. I then changed the image I had used for the mid-tone. The image here shows the Boteh more clear and has a mixture of the colors pink, white, dark and light blue. The mixture of colors made the design look more interesting since it is not just blue to look at. For the highlights, to make it look lighter than the rest and to be able to tell the difference between the mid-tone and highlight I changed the image to superstition eyes which is a very famous symbol used in Iran. I mostly wanted to use the superstition eyes, since my theme is about anger and fear towards the laws placed for women in Iran. Using the superstition eyes provides a meaningful piece as I want it to present pride and protection for the women.
These are my final steps to finishing the exploration. For the background, I added Persian words that related to my theme. for example, Iran, freedom, law, fear, silence, hijab, women, etc. I then duplicated the words and spread them out throughout the background. I made the words on top green and the bottom red like Iran's flag.
This is my final composition. I added a wound like shape with Iran's flag as the fill color. The fill color is from the paint I had created in task 3a. I also added stroke with brush stroke to it. The brush stroke I used was spatter. It gave it a blurry look which I saw it as somewhat like blood in the background.
