Piece about Peace

The idea of peace and equality are so important to me. Butterflies really inspired this project for me because they represent freedom, by the way they can migrate to any place they want, without anything holding them back. I thought that the colors used, compliment the flowers I chose. They reminded me of a lovely sunset. I sprayed red transparent paint and gold glitter spray paint all over the bottle. I knew I was going to tie a peach colored ribbon to match the flowers as well. The bands in between the butterflies represent a rainbow, except they are similar tones to eachother. The peace sign  with the hands was made out of mixing different acrylic paints together. There is an emphasis on shadow and line on the hand. The black outline throughout many figures separates them with the background. There is plenty movement going on with the lines and butterflies. That was the most important part of this whole piece because it is universally known as a symbol of acceptance and tolerance. I decided to paint a small earth next to the peace sign to symbolize “world peace” and around everything, there are small flowers,  hearts, a star, and a female symbol. The whole thing evolved into something that is very dear to my heart and for that, I am proud of it. 

Taurus

I decided to free hand draw and paint this bull to celebrate the fact that I am a Taurus. I like to read about astrology, so my birthday is important to me. I painted different shapes with mostly watercolor, as well as acrylic earth colors because the Taurus is an Earth sign. I also thought that it represented a Bull's colors and habitat. Bulls are seen as stubborn creatures, so they seem to represent Taurus' symbol and animal. As a final touch, I outlined everything in black Micron pen and added a green, emerald gem at the top, seeing as that is the birth gem of May. I think this well represents who I am.

Fashion for a Passion

Mitch Grassi of A Capella band, Pentatonix, is inspiring to thousands of people for just being himself. He has helped many people to love and accept themselves. His pride and confidence to do what is outside the social norm is admired and opening minds of many. This collage filled with quotes between Grassi and OUT magazine provide a look into the fashion forward and progressive person he is. Included in this piece are lyrics to an original Pentatonix song named "See Through" which represents being your truest self and it has connected with the band members and fans around the world. This is a piece that speaks on LGBTQ+ acceptance and breaking out of gender norms when it comes to fashion. To make this collage more 3-D, two barbie and bratz doll accessories were placed to represent the juxtaposition from when those pieces of clothing were meant for girls to wear and play with, to now: the erasure of these problematic stereotypes. The rainbow glitter represents pride, along with the multiple stickers and peace signs.This shows that LGBTQ+ representation in media gives many people hope.

Christmas Tree Silhouette

I continued to delve into silhouettes and also get inspiration from my older pictures. Photography is something I am really into, as well as editing and filtering photos. The picture that inspired this painting was taken in Houston, when I was spending time with family during the holidays of early 2017. It still gives me good memories from that time. I used acrylic paints to create this piece. To create such circular "ornaments," I used the end of multiple brushes and dipped paint on them and pressed it onto the canvas, one by one. I also used a piece of sponge to create a glow effect surrounding the top of the star. I wanted a lot of the tree to have black, just like the picture to show the contrast between that and the shining ornaments. Finally, I put some thin, white, iridescent glitter over top of the tree, mainly on the top and sides. I wanted to keep the silhouette of me all black, just like the background.

PTX Silhouette Series

It was easy picking a topic to do my four paintings on. I looked back on a very special and happy moment in my life: my first concert. The band I saw was Pentatonix in 2016. It was amazing seeing these people that I connected to so much right in front of me. Silhouettes interested me right off the bat and I remembered I had a picture from the concert saved that has all 5 members. Their logo on the album had these five colors and i really wanted to spotlight that. I outlined the majority of the drawing with pencil, then I painted with acrylic. In the first painting with all of them present, I really wanted to get that smoke effect by dabbing the paint brush and a piece of sponge. I made different shades with just black and white mixed with water. For the boxes/platform, I did the same with the variation of shades. For the other three pieces in the series, I decided to focus on one member in each box. I chose those three PTX band members, because they are the three main soloists. I really wanted to take advantage of the square shape of the canvas. The last two pictures are my own photos that I took and used for reference photos. 

Youthful Mom

This is a portrait of my mom that is using positive and negative space. The main tools I used was a pencil and soft charcoal sticks. I had to learn how to use shadows to my advantage and to leave enough white space for the highlights. It will be a Christmas gift for her and I am excited for her to see it.

Home, Sweet Home

This is zentangle in the shape of Texas. It is using negative and positive space and the style is decorative. Texas has been my home for 16 years now and I think it will stay like that for many more years to come, so i wanted to incorporate the state in my drawing. I used different sizes of micron pens to doodle and decorate the space with various widths/lengths of lines and shapes.I also drew the shape of Texas without any tracing or stencil.