A father took his son out to fish in the sea. They had caught many fish when suddenly a whirlpool appeared in front of their boat. “What is that?” The son cried. They were both very frightened when the animal surfaced, “OMG, a dolphin!” And everything was ok.
In this comic strip, it starts off showing a traffic jam on the highway. People are breaking and screaming because they are frustrated. One of the men in frustrated because he has to get to work and the other is frustrated because his wife is about to have a baby. The man causing this traffic jam has a flat tire. In the end, the wife has a baby boy in the traffic jam and the other man gets fired from his job.
The dog continually chews the lady’s shoes and ruins them. She can’t take it anymore and confronts the boyfriend about this. He considers his choices, and then self-assuredly chooses the dog. After all, the dog is his best friend, and best friends are irreplaceable, while girlfriends come and go.
There was once a famous vocalist who liked to wear snakes around her neck and dress like a school girl, her name was Britney. She rose to the top of the charts, but fell victim to the pressure fame. Now, her future can be summed up by the eternal flame.
Rose missed the buzzer shot much to the dismay of his team. They left him behind with his embarrassment when Yokhim appeared and invited Rose to drown his sorrows. Rose couldn’t contain himself, and was over zealous with his indulgence. When asked, “Rough night?” Yohkim answered how he could relate.
Jeff and Alice were newly-weds on their way to the airport for their honeymoon. Minutes after leaving the church, Alice has to go to the bathroom. After trying two bathroom bottle options, Alice screams that she is high maintenance and he should pull over immediately. Good luck, Jeff.
Wilbur exited his apartment and turned around to see a crazy masked man breaking into his car. “Stop!” He yelled, thinking all hope lost when…WHAM! Out of nowhere came Batman!
“Stop!” Batman said.
“…Damn it’s Batman,” said the Thief knowing what came next.
POW! Batman sent the thief flying. Day saved!
There is something that Aaron doesn’t know. His girlfriend wrote it on a note for him that didn’t get delivered to him. Did the note get lost? Did his roommate throw it out? What was actually written on the note? The note from his girlfriend said “we’re done!” They’re done.
Boy meets girl. Girl falls in love with boy; boy reciprocates and asks for her hand in marriage. Boy marries girl. Girl loses wedding ring. Boy is hurt and self-conscious. Girl reassures and makes a large suggestion; although the girl was first to lose, boy will be the biggest loser.
Bobby Fong was an adventurous and smart little fellow. A raccoon was lost and couldn’t find a home. Bobby decided to teach the animal to live in a tree. His friend was confused. Forty years later his ingenious idea led him to become the President of Butler University.
It was the Sadie Hawkins dance, when the girls ask the boys. I have been crushing on Ben and wanted to ask him. I finally asked him and he said "if he got done working out in time." Instead I asked my back up crush, just to make him jealous.
Husband comes home. He cheated. Uh oh! Wife questions him but he's guilty. 
This silhouette was a very difficult project, but a good way to express who I am as a person. I used 3 different colors, or atleast attempted to. The white kind of say that inside I am a calm person, I don't like to show when I get frustrated or upset, I just stay calm at all times. The blue and gold (kind of) back round shows my high school colors, which is where I had some of the best days of my life. Also, another main reason was the combination of blue and white, which is the colors of Greece, where I lived for a few years and holds a special place in my heart because of my friends and family and the memories I have from living there.
My silhouette collage was created using nearly all geometric shapes except where creating my silhouette require the use of half amorphous shapes. Using mainly geometric shapes was a way for me to illustrate my need for control and order in my life. I like things to be a certain way which is why my silhouette is well ordered mosaic tiles. The different colors of the tiles represent different aspects of my personality. Cool, pale blues are a calming color to me, they represent my efforts to keep my life well ordered and laid back when possible. The darker blues are more mysterious and indicate a more brooding aspect to my personality. The shades of silver are bright, they show that when I am good at something I can really shine. The pops of grapefruit color are to show that I am not always serious and do have a fun and spontaneous side. In the ground around my silhouette I used dark colors, a lot of contrasting colors, and some brighter colors to represent different elements of the world as I see it. Its a lot to look at, sort of chaotic and a little distracting, which is how the world often seems to me. I also used some of the same mosaic tiles from my silhouette in the background to show how I try to influence and control some of the world around me. I noticed when I finished my collage that my silhouette almost seems to be lost among the many elements I included. It surprised me, but seemed fitting to my personality. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by the world, I don’t like being the center of attention and prefer to find a way to blend in to the background. Although if people care to look, I am easy enough to find.
My art work has two figures facing each other. The first, on the left, starts dark blue at the tip and becomes lighter throughout, the other is purple that starts dark towards the center of the piece and becomes lighter as it move towards the edges. I tried to contrast the dark blue and purple with the ground. It starts out as light nude colors and towards the edges becomes darker pinks. The reason I did dark and lights against each is that I wanted them to stand out. I wanted the darkest darks contrasting with the lightest lights. I tried to make the area on my figure that is the eye area to have the most contrast between dark and light. I made the nude, more organic colors, very geometric by cutting them all into rigid squares and piecing them on the page as such, with very few significantly overlapping. With the purple and blue, I tried to make the pieces I cut out more organic and less structured, overlapping significantly and not paying attention to structure.
I chose the nude/pink colors for the background because I knew it would create the most contrast between my profile and the background, or rest of the world, I did this because I, just like everyone else, am different. My personality, the way I look and dress, isn’t the exact same as anyone else. I also was trying to do something ironic with the colors in that the ground is skin colored where as the figures are not; they are colorful with multiple shades of the same color. I chose purple and blue because both can be very sorrowful, deep, and sincere colors, but also can be very joyous and rich colors. I chose these because of the depth of both color, and then I made each figure fade into a lighter version of that color because I believe that for me, and a lot of other people, that there is always more than just face value, that there are different layers of color and personality for each person.
I chose two different colors for the figures, not because I have dual personalities, but it is natural for me to feel different emotions or be in different moods periodically. Another reason for the color gradient is because I am not stoic, and I feel that even if the figures were the same shade of blue or purple but with different patterns of the color, from far away it would still blend together into the same color. I was originally going to chose pink and orange or orange and red as the colors for the figures because they are my favorite colors and they are bright and happy, and usually associated with warmth, but thinking about the project and knowing it was to be a self portrait, I know that I am not bubbly and happy all the time and that I feel, as I said above, a wide range of emotions daily. Color and shape influence my life daily by what I chose to wear, the world around me, and how I perceive people and how they perceive me.
Silhouette Project
There were many factors that came into play when I was making my silhouette. First of all, my great grandmother has a lot of silhouettes around the house of all the kids in the family. I have always thought that the simplicity of silhouettes is beautiful. The black and the white contrast each other and create a piece of art. Since I thought the originality of silhouettes are so beautiful, I wanted to keep that in my own silhouette.
I knew that I wanted to make the figure more internal and have it reflect my personality. I also wanted to make the ground reflect external things that I like to surround myself with. The figure is covered in black, which symbolizes power, which is reflected in my leadership skills. If there is an overwhelming amount of black, it can result in overwhelming emotions. This represents me because I am always overwhelmed and stressed out. I have a lot of commitments, which result in an overwhelming lifestyle. I am wearing a pair of sunglasses in my silhouette, which are gold. Gold represents optimism and happiness. The reason why there is such little gold is because I am not a very optimistic person, but I am to an extent. I always seem to prepare myself for the worst in situations. I do not think that being pessimistic is a good thing, which is why the sunglasses hide it. In fashion, red is used for making statements, or to set you apart from the crowd. The red lips that I used in my silhouette are meant to represent my bold side. I like to show the unique qualities that I have and what sets me apart from others.
The ground of the silhouette is made of comic strips from the newspaper. There are many reasons why I chose the comic section of the newspaper to represent what I like to surround myself with. Since comic strips contain many different colors I wanted that to represent the diverse people that I like to surround myself with. There are many different types of people that I am friend’s with, which is displayed in the diverse colors. In addition, I wanted the comic section to show that I like to surround myself with happiness and humor. I love to be around people that can make me laugh, it helps me keep my stress under control.
When I first thought about doing my self-portrait, I thought I would do my favorite colors: purple and red, but I didn’t know how these colors would signify me besides the fact that I love these colors. I started thinking about something that has been very important in my life. First I started off by thinking about college and then about who I am as a person. I realized my life is filled with love from my family to my friends and now my boyfriend. I decided to make the outside of the silhouette red hearts and the inside a golden color in different torn shapes. Every shape in this collage is amorphous and when I thought about the significance of this I realized love does not have any boundaries. When I think of geometric shapes, it reminds me of boundaries and they are clear and cut shapes, but amorphous shapes have more “free space” and are not clear and cut just like love. I wanted to make my shadow different; therefore I made my shadow as blowing a kiss to show an expression of love. I realized I possess a lot of objects with hearts including three necklaces, two bracelets, earrings, many shirts, heart pillows, a jewelry box and scarves. As I was doing the silhouette I thought about all the people I love and that love me. I realized love in my life grows more and more everyday, especially romantic love. I used a golden yellow on the inside because that is how love makes me feel. It makes me feel warm just like that color. It brightens my life and gives me a feeling of coziness. Also as I was doing the project I realized the hearts around my shadow stand for love and just like my shadow is surrounded by love, so am I. I am truly grateful for that everyday.
This project was not the most enjoyable project so far, yet it was still entertaining. We had to fill our paper with meaningful colors that were related our lives. This was hard for me as I do not know much about colors or what they mean. So as I made my project I decided to choose colors based on how they made me feel before I looked up actually color meanings. I feel like this made the project a bit of surprise and a little fun and mysterious until the end. Also, I believe art should first and foremost mean something to the artist before anyone else in most cases. So with this approach I decided to get started with my project.
Kaylin Beckwith
PCA 261
Rao, Skinner
24 March 2011
Silhouette Project
Preparation for my silhouette project began before I even picked up scissors and cut from the first magazine. I woke up the morning before we were to be traced thinking about how I wanted the final project to appear. I decided to wear a large, flowing scarf so that it would leave a noticeable mark in my outline; likewise, I wore my hair natural and curly so that I could incorporate even more squiggly lines into my outline. These two components transform a sleek, mannequin style silhouette into a silhouette that better represents me. It is a little haphazard, just like my life seems to be most of the time. Furthermore, the only curved lines in the piece are found in the body. This is because the world is rough, full of sharp edges, and dangerous- as portrayed in my background. Moreover, I am rounded. I am organic, persevering, and ever-changing.
Beyond the outline of my silhouette, color is also a key player. The background is portrayed in dark colors. This is to metaphorically say that the world is a cold and deceiving place. Fortunately, that means that we each get to bring our own light, color, and style to whatever environment we choose. The light, color, and style you project are often related to your perspective, outlook, or attitude. I chose bright colors within myself not only because I like colors in my wardrobe, but also because I believe these lively colors reflect my personality. I chose the skin tones and hair pieces because I also see myself as a realist. Although I am constantly changing, as the different tones and hair suggest, I also remain always the same, as the overall color conveys.
Past these two basic components, the background and the body, I also added a brain. The brain is the most important of this whole piece because it could easily be filled with light or dark pieces. Everyone has a combination of negatives and positives, sorrows and laughs, triumphs and defeats in their lives, and it is up to the individual which of these two sides are on his/her mind. Admittedly, both streams of thought entertain my mind from time to time; however, positivity wins for the majority. Positivity and strength. The colors I have chosen are not only bright, but also lively and strong. The words are meant to show these streams of thought, and they leak from the brain to the mouth. This is to prove the point that anything on your mind can slip out at any time, without warning. That is why it is best to keep your mind uplifting. As shown in my silhouette, what leads to the mouth is soon leaked into the world. I believe what you say CAN change the mind of another person, and thus the life of another person, and thus the world. This image is empowering, you impact the background, the world. My silhouette conveys my dreams; I want to leave an impact.
My silhouette seems simple at first, but after looking closely it appears to be complex. This was done purposely. Picking out the colors and patterns I used for this project happened by accident. My first ideas were to pick out interesting looking colors or patterns in a magazine. I found all the normal shapes in various colors. None of these patterns or colors satisfied me. Then I noticed that there was one reoccurring pattern that appeared almost everywhere in magazines: text. By itself, text can be the most boring thing to look at. I placed the text from various magazines on an angle as the background of my silhouette. I was afraid that the text would be too noticeable from up close, but luckily enough just looks any ordinary pattern. From far away, the background looks gray because of the small black characters against the white background. I was really happy with the way this idea turned out.
I always like aquatic colors and textures when it came to pictures. To contrast the black on the white of the background, I wanted the actual silhouette to be full of rich colors. I made the bottom of the silhouette a deep, oceanic blue and made the colors gradually turn into green as the got closer to the top. It was very difficult to find the proper colors from the magazines I was using, but I feel like it turned out to be a more irregular pattern. This pattern happens to contrast the more uniform and normal pattern of the text.
Overall I tried to keep a theme of lighter colors since I usually always use a contrast of dark and light colors for art projects. I found out that I was still able to make an interesting contrast with the light colors I chose. My silhouette does not mean much to me personally; it was an interesting combination of colors that happened to turn out really interesting looking.
I used reds and oranges for the center of my portrait to show bright distracting colors. This symbolizes disorder and confusion going on in my life. I used amorphous shapes to add more confusion in the mix. The blue border is thin representing the barrier that I use to hide what I really am dealing with. The blue color is the calm façade that I display when I am stressed and don’t want to let anyone know. However the barrier is thin showing that it can be disrupted at any minute, symbolizing my explosions of stress and disorder. The border is amorphous showing its fluidity depending on my mood at the day. The portrait appears geometric at first glance which is part of my disguise. The background is made of black and white stripes that are geometric and made of smaller geometric shapes. Of course black and white combination is intimidating and the stripes are similar to prison bars. I believe the society today has certain expectations that are hard to meet or are just silly to try to be. It is hard to break free from this societal prison that has pressure on me to act, be, and look a certain way. The smaller parts that make up the bars are symbolic of the smaller aspects and people that form and modify these societal rules. For example, actresses are (generally) all skinny, tanned, and wear a lot of eye make-up. Society expects us to be that way when we “dress up” to prom or formal occasions. However shows like Jersey Shore depict the casual views of society: too tight short shorts, tan, the “bump” hairstyle and muscular guys with gelled hair and who go through girls like alcohol. What happened to being yourself? Society has transformed all of us into something we may have never been. We are all imprisoned to some degree by society.
