The Truth Is Written All Over our Faces

An illustration is an image yet it cannot be a photograph. It is something that has to be created, not duplicated. In Design, we had to create a illustration that, in a way, represented our personal statement.

Artist Statement:

In my illustration, I created an eye with a rainbow iris and a fox track for a pupil. Around it all, the eye is trapped within a boring, grey room. The eye and fox track are meant to represent the theme of observation in my personal essay. The rainbow gradient within the pupil of my illustration is meant to express the variation of emotions that we experience because colors are often used as representations of different emotions. For example, red applies to anger, blue to sadness, and green to jealousy. And the grey room that surrounds the eye is there to show that when people enclose their colorful emotions, we are left with a grey nothingness. With all the aspects of the illustration combined, they convey observation of emotion and how we try to mask them. My personal essay mentions my connection to taking the emotions of others into account but leaves out why people try to hide what they feel. I added this into my illustration because I think that’s a major reason in why some people have trouble connecting with others. They are too afraid to show their own colors. But if you know what to look for, it can make understanding others a lot easier.

I only experienced a few difficulties when making my illustration, and most of them were minor. My first problem was finding an idea that could connect observation and my symbol of a fox track. This consumed a lot of my work time. My other major problem was using the brush tool. Finding the perfect brush settings was a trial, and even after finding them, getting the desired effect was difficult. I had to play around with the brush stroke to find something visually appealing. And when drawing the outline of the eye, using the wacom tablet became another challenge. I had to constantly adjust my hand and angle to get it right. This is why my drawing came out with a sketch-like effect rather than a nice and clean outline. It’s not as simple as drawing on paper.