Title: Warrior
Medium: Illustration (graphite on paper) Size: 21cm x 28cm (Paper) The artist was interested in learning more about the Maori people, their culture, clothing and most of all, curious about their face tattoos that both female and male would mark their faces due to social status, power and prestige. She recreated an illustration of a female warrior, in order to represent a high prestigious fighter in the tribe, and also wanted to break the standards of society towards women. |
Planning
Inspiration I was inspired by the culture of the Maori history, culture, clothing and the reason behind their face tattoos. I wanted to recreate an illustration of a female warrior in order to break the boundaries of society in looking down on women, that we also have the potential to create, and do. I was mainly attracted by their face tattoos. They create body art known as Moko as a symbol of prestige, power and social status. This body art is brought to the Maori from Polynesia and is highly sacred. The Maori people consider the head to be the most sacred part of the body so they use face tattos which consists of curved shapes, lines and spiral like patterns. Meaning behind the piece What I wanted to portray towards the audience is to break the standards that society have on women. Women are also capable of doing, act and being someone. I wanted to illustrate of a Maori warrior female as a way to show her strength and how serious the problems are happening in society. Experimentation and planning I experimented different positions of how I wanted to portray my illustration towards the audience. I was thinking just a simple illustration with graphite technique that gives out the shadows and the technique in the clothing, or a series of illustration recreating the same illustration with different emotions. I also did tattoo designs which I was going to use for the chin area of the illustration, the main designs I drew were mainly spiral and curved shapes in order to recreate the same body art as the Maori people have it. |
|
First I sketched out my ideas I wanted to demonstrate towards the audience of a warrior. I was aiming for a female illustration for this art piece and I knew I wanted to set up the illustrations as a character 'illustration' type way. However, I didn't know how was I going to start out drawing the mood for the character (Joyful, serious, upset, or annoyed).
|
Then I started to sketch out the first figure which was really easy as I could just let my creativity flow. However I was having trouble drawing in the facial tattoo under the lower lip and the area of the chin. The tattoo I chose to do were spirals and two lines down the middle of the chin. Later on as I was drawing the other characters it became hard in drawing the exact same facial features as the first one. So what I did was to trace the first illustration with a piece of paper and then I would transfer it, putting grahite in the back of the paper of where I traced the illustration on one side, and then trace it again but with the final paper for the artwork.
|
Reflection
Overall, this piece was really easy and fun to make, I felt comfortable using this medium, because in my opinion I'm very strong in my technique when doing an illustration piece. I also had some challenges throughout this piece, when drawing the exact facial features for the three illustrations, but other than that the rest was very easy. The technique that I used for the feathers in the clothing for each of the illustrations I managed to make quick yet soft strokes to depict that same appearance of real life feathers. The little spirals that I created in the lower lip of the illustrations it was somewhat challenging, because as it was a very tiny space and making those clean spirals were very difficult to make.
ACT Questions
The relationship between my artwork and my inspiration, is that it is culturally influenced, and it's also a message that I wanted to convey towards the audience of women being warriors. The meaning behind the facial tattoos of the Maori people is that it symbolizes power, prestige and social status, and that is why I incorporated the facial tattoo towards my illustration (to demonstrate the power of the woman). The overall approach is to show the audience of women that they are capable of being who they want, and to break those standards of beauty and the role of the women in society. The culture that inspired my project was the Maori indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. I was really intrigued by their culture, clothing, language but most of all I was curious of their body art.
Overall, this piece was really easy and fun to make, I felt comfortable using this medium, because in my opinion I'm very strong in my technique when doing an illustration piece. I also had some challenges throughout this piece, when drawing the exact facial features for the three illustrations, but other than that the rest was very easy. The technique that I used for the feathers in the clothing for each of the illustrations I managed to make quick yet soft strokes to depict that same appearance of real life feathers. The little spirals that I created in the lower lip of the illustrations it was somewhat challenging, because as it was a very tiny space and making those clean spirals were very difficult to make.
ACT Questions
The relationship between my artwork and my inspiration, is that it is culturally influenced, and it's also a message that I wanted to convey towards the audience of women being warriors. The meaning behind the facial tattoos of the Maori people is that it symbolizes power, prestige and social status, and that is why I incorporated the facial tattoo towards my illustration (to demonstrate the power of the woman). The overall approach is to show the audience of women that they are capable of being who they want, and to break those standards of beauty and the role of the women in society. The culture that inspired my project was the Maori indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand. I was really intrigued by their culture, clothing, language but most of all I was curious of their body art.