Happy Days Are Here Again ☼

I found this project to be a bit therapeutic for me. In the past months since August I experienced a total social collapse involving some personal traumatic experiences that led to a lot of underlying mental problems in myself and struggles with confidence and my image. I felt myself spiraling out while feeling desperately isolated. Through this class and with the self-isolation in quarantine (talking to people much more) I've realized there's many people that have been very supportive and truly caring. This project helped me realize that and it turned into a sort of appreciation for these amazing people and I couldn't choose just one because they each helped me.

Recent final for another class expressing the trauma. Wanted to include because I think this might be a big change for my upcoming work.

Hand update as of yesterday (Monday)

 Starting out I had some obstructions going into this when I burnt my hand. It's been bandaged up so I am able to hold things and I take painkillers so it won't be in as much pain. I didn't use my left hand because it lacks the fine control needed.

 I made lists of each person in my sketchbook of their qualities and things I associate them with (plants, flowers, fruit, color). I'm not including photos of the lists because they are personal. I did some starting sketches using the color I associate with them and then I drew the mini color pencil portraits.

I chose to make them small because I feel my friends are all little cuties!!  The size also worked because I am low on paper and the amount of people I was drawing would become a very intense project if chosen to draw at a larger scale. The color pencil portraits were difficult because of all the pressure and grip from blending. Some of the portraits turned out a bit scratchy looking but they will make good gifts. I framed them using these small magnet frames I found in the closet. I'm very glad I didn't have to buy anything or spend a lot of energy trying to craft custom frames for each friend. I may change the frames after this project just so they have more of a "precious object" feeing to them.

I was going to attach them to dried grapefruit slices but they were hard to attach without ruining the paper, I only had two slices left, and I am unable to hold a knife. I also felt that this looked silly and made them look too crafty.

 Next, I created transparencies with tracing paper and colorful pens. To me, each person has a sort of color about them. For example, Ali is lavender and lilac purple- deep, calm, and gentle while Sydney has a sunshiny yellow and green- natural, cheerful, bold. I drew the plants I associate with each person and cut them out with which I had some difficulty. Over the next few days I kept trying to find a way that would work best in the arrangement. I liked having the friends split up to two groups to avoid too much cluttering. One group are the friends I met through school and the second are my friends I met through the Lithuanian community.

 Luckily I found some really nice frames to put these in (I am very happy I didn't have to go out to the store!!) Earlier I was trying the technique of pressing flowers between wax paper and ironing to seal. I loved the effect and I was going to use it as a background but again the look was too cluttered. Instead I am pressing the flowers and putting them into the glass frame at the top just for a nice little accent.

I put them up in the window to see how the light would affect the transparencies.

Here they are in the frames.

For the next section of the project I'm working on a large painting of my friends on a bedsheet applied to the wall. This was a challenge for me just because of the time constraints. I want to get across their personalities instead of it just being a realistic painting. I'd like to have more fun with color and incorporate a looser style which would be easier on my hand. I'm continuing on this after the due date and I'll edit this post as I make updates. Many of my friends across the different friend circles haven't even met each other but I put together a sort of group photo. Here are the references I pulled together:

I changed some of the poses and added my friend Heather after this reference was made.

Here's the initial sketch.

This is what I currently have. Some of my friends look very stiff and lifeless so as I go they will look much more lively and animated!

Updates will be posted below: