Illustration: Pastels, Acrylic & Ink
Smile. You're on Camera.
15 x 16.5 in
October 2020 Traditional Illustration Smile. You're on Camera. is a large board illustration on how the negative effects of "forced positivity" have on your mental state. Both Joseph Lee's and Dain Yoon's pieces contributed to the style and imagery in this work. Their deformed presentation of portraits and facial expressions bends the perspective of how we perceive ourselves physically.
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Inspiration
All people, at times, fill up with grief, spill over with joy, or tremble with anger. Most of us are taught early on to manage these emotions by sharing and reveling in the positive ones, while repressing or apologizing for the negative ones. Either way, we learn not to probe our feelings too deeply.
Yoon often uses her artwork as a way of displaying her own emotions. She use to work on other people as canvases until her curiousity wanted to experiment with her own body. Many of her pieces tend to have duplicates of herself. Sometimes even mutiple sets of eyes and lips. She states, "We can be embarrassed, or confident. People have mutiple personalities, but carry a single face." Most of Joseph Lee’s inspiration, comes from people and their expressions. While most of his inspiration comes from his observations, some of it is brought from his other artistic passion, acting. This form of art has given him an inside look into the study of the human expression and has helped him create piece after piece of interesting artwork. |
Planning Sketches
The first one is inspired from Yoon's leather mask. Having the figure pull of the duplicate of their face to reveal their true facial expression. I thought that the removal of a layer of skin would be too graphic and would distract from the intention of the piece.
In the second sketch I thought of using both of the figure's hands, both with a smiling mask. But once I had the drawing down, I couldn't figure out a way for the expression of the masks to be seen. I ended up scraping it. I knew for a fact I wanted some sort of mask imagery in my final piece. I just needed to make it work from a different angle. For the final sketch, that I ended up following through with was having the figure holding the mask away from their face, (as if they just took it off) and making their other hand rest on their cheek. In way that it looks like it's questioning the fact as to why they're even wearing it in the first place. |
Process
1. One the first things I had to do was transfer a reference photo of myself to a larger scale. While also bending the proportions of the eyes and mask. Since those are the key factors into showing the emotion I want to present.
2. Next after sketching the pencil drawing onto the paper I then transferred it to an illustration board. I wanted to create a larger drawing than usual since I usual make 8 by 11 inch pieces. 3. For the coloring process I used pastels, I wasn't very familiar with pastels nor am I now. It was definitely hard to get the hang of it. Because of how sturdy and hard the illustration board was it took multiple layers to even get a slight tint on the board. 4. Since I got somewhat frustrated with the pastels I ended up using acrylics for the mask and solid black background since I knew it would have taken forever to cover the back with pastel. |
Reflection
This project definitely put me out of my comfort zone, since I have never really used pastels. What really messed me up was the fact that I didn't notice that the pastels didn't work on the illustration board. I had lost so much product from trying to make it stick.
Compare & Contrast
Similarities
Differences
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ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork.
Both Joseph Lee's and Dain Yoon's pieces contributed to the style and imagery in this work. From how they present the human face.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Most of us are taught early on to manage these emotions by sharing and reveling in the positive ones, while repressing or apologizing for the negative ones. We often have difficulty expressing ourselves when the situation isn't considered, "good."
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
That we need to face the tough times head on, if we keep minimizing our struggles sooner or later we won't know how to deal with all of them once they're all piled up. You'll end up with too much on your plate.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
How long-term "forced positivity" has negative and scarring effects on your mental state.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
It is critical that our goals are aligned with our values in order for us to make real change in our lives.
Both Joseph Lee's and Dain Yoon's pieces contributed to the style and imagery in this work. From how they present the human face.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Most of us are taught early on to manage these emotions by sharing and reveling in the positive ones, while repressing or apologizing for the negative ones. We often have difficulty expressing ourselves when the situation isn't considered, "good."
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
That we need to face the tough times head on, if we keep minimizing our struggles sooner or later we won't know how to deal with all of them once they're all piled up. You'll end up with too much on your plate.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
How long-term "forced positivity" has negative and scarring effects on your mental state.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
It is critical that our goals are aligned with our values in order for us to make real change in our lives.
Bibliography
“Artist Dain Yoon's Illusions Challenge Notions of Self.” BBC News, BBC, 16 Sept. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-45488816.
Kotok, Natalie. “Joseph Lee: A Modern Look at the Human Expression.” MINUS37.Com, 27 Jan. 2019, www.minus37.com/2019/01/28/joseph-lee-artist-abstract-portraits/.
Lee, Joseph. “Paintings.” J O S E P H L E E A R T, 2018, www.josephleeart.com/paintings.
Semnani, Neda. A Harvard Psychologist Explains Why Forcing Positive Thinking Won't Make You Happy. 31 Mar. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/09/23/forcing-positive-thinking-wont-make-you-happy-says-this-harvard-psychologist/.
Yoon, Dain. “자동등록방지를 위해 보안절차를 거치고 있습니다.” Dainyoon.com, 2019, dainyoon.com/portfolio/i-felt-like-i-became-a-russian-doll/.
Kotok, Natalie. “Joseph Lee: A Modern Look at the Human Expression.” MINUS37.Com, 27 Jan. 2019, www.minus37.com/2019/01/28/joseph-lee-artist-abstract-portraits/.
Lee, Joseph. “Paintings.” J O S E P H L E E A R T, 2018, www.josephleeart.com/paintings.
Semnani, Neda. A Harvard Psychologist Explains Why Forcing Positive Thinking Won't Make You Happy. 31 Mar. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2016/09/23/forcing-positive-thinking-wont-make-you-happy-says-this-harvard-psychologist/.
Yoon, Dain. “자동등록방지를 위해 보안절차를 거치고 있습니다.” Dainyoon.com, 2019, dainyoon.com/portfolio/i-felt-like-i-became-a-russian-doll/.