Silenced Ignorance: A Junior Self-Portrait Illustration by Joseph Pressman (2012)

The premise for my illustration is that quails are extremely dumb birds that seem to not seem to know danger. They will lead their family across the road when they see a car coming. This is why I thought it would be appropriate that they would represent unknowing. Quails are also known to be quiet birds, which is why I chose it to represent making mistakes in music. Not playing is often what I do when I make a mistake in my music. I'm also afraid of being falsely accused of being insane, which is why I chose to have the quail wear a mask like Hannibal Lecter wears in Silence of the Lambs. The mask also acts as a muffler, making it hard to speak, or in my metaphor, play music.

I used Adobe Illustrator to colour in the bird appropriately. It was pretty easy to outline the sections I wanted to colour once I got used to the pen tool and the Wacom tablet. I also used the blob brush tool so I could clean up my lines and make it look presentable. Direct selection became really useful when I wanted to change the shape of my forms to fit what I needed or wanted. I actually really enjoy using the wacom tablet. I thought that it would be stressful to use and I would struggle in design class but I really find design palatable now.