My PSA depicts me wearing both Western clothing and Indian clothing. You can distinctly tell that both sides are very separate and not merged together. This was done to show the contrast between my “two worlds.” The stark difference between the two sides shows the confusion I felt in merging my cultures together. As a young girl I struggled to find ways to connect with my culture and fit in with my American classmates. This disconnect between how I felt with my peers versus my family, led to me disconnecting from my culture. I chose to illustrate this through the different attire worn from both cultures. Fashion has always been an outlet and a way for me to express myself. When I got to high school, I reconnected with my culture, mainly through the fashion and the intricate designs that each garment had. I realized that this was a way for me to incorporate my culture into my everyday life. On the left side you can see me wearing a traditional Indian outfit with the intricate detail in the skirt, along with Mehndi (henna), and Indian jewelry which represents my Indian roots. On the right side you see me wearing Western attire– jeans, a sweater, and sneakers which represents my American side. Having felt disconnected from my culture, I now embrace it with pride.
For this project, I had a photoshoot where I took pictures wearing a Western outfit and an Indian outfit. Then in Photoshop I was able to turn them into pngs (so I could get a transparent background) and imported them into Illustrator. In Illustrator, I cropped both images so I could get them side by side and then image traced them, which made them look more like a painting. Since part of the Indian outfit didn’t match my color scheme, I used a feature in Illustrator that allowed me to recolor part of the outfit. Additionally, I also drew the Mehndi using the brush tool and the Indian jewelry using the pen tool. I struggled to find the right colors with the Indian jewelry, finding a gold color took a lot of guess and check work. Overall, I am really proud of my work on this project and I’m intrigued to learn more about the different things you can create in Illustrator.
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