Project #3
Matriarch Size: 30x45cm Medium: colored pencil and permanent marker on paper Date: October, 2017 I created this piece in response to a prompt in my TOK class: Draw your image of God. Upon realizing that many people thought God was male, I wondered what life would be like if the ultimate ruler was believed to be feminine. This illustration is inspired by the work of Milwaukee area artist Melissa Lee Johnson. |
Artistic and Cultural Inspiration
I gathered inspiration from both Christianity and a local artist named Melissa Lee Johnson. God in Christianity is often portrayed as a man, and I wanted to critique the idea that the being with the most power is male. In TOK we have been recently talking about religion, and during one of these classes, our teacher had asked us to each draw our own image of what we thought God looked like. I then realized how often God is portrayed as a man in media, homes, and religious knowledge that is passed down. My Extended essay also taught me a lot about how misogynistic the early Christian Church was. I feel that many gender stereotypes have come from the earliest forms of knowledge such as religion. Women were taught that they were the evil of the two genders, because Eve had sinned by taking a fruit from the tree of knowledge. Woman was taught that she was a flawed creature, meant to serve man, and reproduce in order to keep humans populous.
I took artistic inspiration from Milwaukee-area local artist, Melissa Lee Johnson. She does very edgy, cartoon-like illustrations that have lots of color, and make use of lots of titles, descriptions, and exclamations which draw attention to her work, and create a dramatic tone to many of her pieces. Themes in her work include feminism, social media, drama, friendship, self-image, youth, etc. I wanted to create an image which looked sketchy and hip, and also brought in aspects of religion as one of the earliest forms of knowledge. |
Planning
I planned to create an image of a female God. Instead of drawing a typical "goddess" image, I wanted to take a well-known image of God in Christianity and draw it as a woman. I did this to critique the idea that man has the highest power. I drew three different planning sketches. One of them encompasses the whole image, and the other two are close-ups. I wanted to use a common image of God, so I took inspiration from the top images that popped up on google images.
Taking inspiration from Melissa Lee Johnson, I wanted to create the heart of God that looked more like a love heart. I did this so that it would look more like a cartoon and fit in more with my inspirations style. I wanted to enlarge features on the woman's face such as the eyes and lips. I also planned to use peachy or light, summery colors, to contrast with the darker, more dramatic colors often present in pictures of God, or high religious figures. I wanted to contrast the dramatic tone of Christianity that often takes over many parts of religious believers lives, and make it more light and fluffy. I planned to create this image on a sheet of card stock, and with pencil and colored pencil. |
Process
I started my work by outlining what I was going to draw in pencil on a sheet of paper. After I had the whole design drawn out, I traced over it in black permanent marker. I tried to create a design that was similar to the work of Melissa Lee Johnson's. This influenced how I drew the design stylistically by adding lots of dark line work. I decided to add piercings and a choker to the woman in the design to further emphasize the idea of God as anyone. The design that I created showed a girl in a pose similar to how Jesus Christ is posed in many artworks. I added line around the eyes to make the girls expression look tired and worn out, but still at peace. The brightly colored hair and piercings are there to give confidence to the woman.
I then started to color the design with colored pencils. I tried to use as many different shades as I could in order to create depth and dimension. I also used marker to add in some extra sketchy permanent marker marks, specifically around the face and neck. I started to color the face by outlining the edges with a darker peachy color. I then slowly worked my my out by transitioning to a lighter color to give depth and highlights to the face. I decided to make areas with black marks darker by coloring over them with the darkest peach. I used lots of bright colors in order to make the image pop. Otherwise, I tried to use colors that were in images of Jesus that I had remembered seeing previously. The idea that God is a white man stems mostly from images in pop culture, and so I wanted to use images that stood out to me in my piece. I used a grey color on her chest because I wanted to balance the image out against the bright colors. I thought that if it were all bright colors, it would be too busy. The last step to my progress was adding a background. I felt that I needed a background in order to put my character in a specific, or recognizable place. However, I thought that the image would be too busy if I had drawn a whole scene behind her. Thus, I decided on a simple pattern that I repeated over and over. I decided to use the female symbol because it ultimately encompasses the center of the image I was trying to express. |
Experimentation
While creating this piece, I experimented with using different shades of the same hue in order to create shadow and depth. I used the paper to the left to see what different colors would look like on paper. For example, once I put all of the green and brown hues next to each other, I could decide how to use each color. As shown, I practiced shading by placing a pretend light source on one corner of the page. Laying out the colors shown on the bottom of the page helped me to organize the order of the colors for the flames on the heart. |
Reflection
Overall, I was able to connect the style and meaning of my piece to that of my original artistic inspiration. Influenced by the work of Melissa Lee Johnson, I used lots of colors, line, and a cartoon style in my piece. I feel that my message was communicated well, however, next time I would have thought about connecting the background to the foreground of the work. I think that I could have done a better job bringing unity to the piece. I think that I did well with using colors to bring emphasis to certain elements, such as the hair and heart with flames. I think that I could have done a better job adding other more connected elements into the piece such as other characters, or the use of words to give meaning (such as how Melissa Lee Johnson uses words in her pieces).
Connecting to the ACT
1) How are you able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork?
My artistic inspiration affected not only my style (use of line and color), but also the meaning behind my piece.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I feel that overall, Melissa Lee Johnson is quite confident about the issues that she represents. This can be seen in her nude and unconventional female characters, and outwardly rebellious written text messages.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have made the generalization that although Johnson's work is wild and rebellious, is is normal in some urban cultures.
4) What was the central idea for theme around your inspirational research?
Probably critiquing the idea that men are in control.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
My artistic inspiration affected not only my style (use of line and color), but also the meaning behind my piece.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
I feel that overall, Melissa Lee Johnson is quite confident about the issues that she represents. This can be seen in her nude and unconventional female characters, and outwardly rebellious written text messages.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have made the generalization that although Johnson's work is wild and rebellious, is is normal in some urban cultures.
4) What was the central idea for theme around your inspirational research?
Probably critiquing the idea that men are in control.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Citations
Drawing. (n.d.). Retrieved November 03, 2017, from http://melissaleejohnsonart.com/drawing/jkfa22vkfpvkzrnjjl2fruj6zgx9r2