Is He the One?

Fauvism, contrast, and value are three words that I never would have thought to create a an art piece about, but after being assigned these three words in my latest AP art project, I realize how well that they actually worked for me. In this assignment, we had to pick two techniques and one art style to put into a piece of art with the concept of our choice. After picking these, I was instantly familiar with the words contrast and value, however, fauvism was a concept that was new to me. After researching a bit, I was able to come up with an idea for this piece that I was actually pretty proud of. I wanted to base my piece off of a situation I was currently going through where I have a crush on someone that I do not know if I should really be with. This idea got me to thinking about how people often are unsure about the person they like or want to be with. It can be a confusing situation. Therefore, in my piece, the focal point I created was a girl that is in a boy’s arms and while it looks like it would be a comfortable place, she has a look of distress across her face due to the fact that she is unsure if this is the right person for her or not. In the background, I decoupaged various conversations that she would have had with this guy and then painted over them so that they appeared to be memories. Then, I used the bright colors of the fauvism style for the girl since she is the main point of the piece and the one with all of those memories in her head. Then, the boy is in black in white to provide contrast and to show how he is fading away in her life due to her confusion.

Overall, I felt that this piece was very successful, especially compared to the ten pieces I had to create earlier in this year. I was able to spend more time on it and develop stronger ideas in it. I really admire how the colors of the piece turned out and the text bubbles look, it all really makes the entire piece just come together. I am also proud of how the people turned out, especially considering how I am typically not the best when it comes to drawing and painting people. However, even though I am very proud of this piece as a whole, there are still some slight things that could be improved about it. For example, the craftsmanship could use some work, especially in the green and blue parts of the background. The brushstrokes just look a bit sloppy and I was having troubles smoothing them out. If I were to recreate this image, I would cover the entire background in mod podge, rather than just the parts with text boxes so that it would look smoother overall. Also, while I felt that I captured contrast and fauvism very well in this piece, I felt that I could have done more with value since while it is present, it could have been exaggerated even more, especially in the guy. But even though there are aspects that I need to continue to work on, I felt that this painting was overall a huge success and I am glad this was the project that was chosen to follow up the ten projects in one week assignment.