Day of the Dead
Acrylic on Canvas. 2 ft by 1 ft
Exploring culture was not something I typically did in my work, but for Day of The Dead, I wanted to demonstrate that I can create a work that can have cultural value as well as a connection to me. As a half Mexican, I hardly explore or embrace that side of my family so I wanted to communicate this here. I did focus on the use of light shades on a dark background which aesthetically pleases my eyes, and the hope is to stimulate the same in the viewer. The viewer should be able to question this piece, and wonder why I would create this; I do not look hispanic, however, I am half and being able to use my culture makes me proud as to who I am.
I initially wanted to try a profile portrait for this project, so I looked up side face muscles, but I was going to focus on the upper part of my face. I was going to try my upper face being ripped off just to stay on the zombie style of painting. This sketch was easy for me because of my past sketches of the neck and face and also my past project, "Zombification". Clearly the sketch is not my face, I wanted to just get an idea of where everything is on the profile of a face. I also touched up on basic blending skills again to just to get the hang of it for the painting part of the project. I have no influence yet for this project either.
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Instead of the upper face, teeth really started to gain my attention. I don't know why they gained my attention, but I think it is because of all the Walking Dead zombies I see and different comic book zombies where the teeth are a part of emphasis for the face of the zombie. That is not my inspiration however, I have not figured out what it will be for sure. So this sketch I just took a picture of my teeth from the side the best I could with a finger in my mouth pulling my cheek back, then printed it off for this sketch. This was not too difficult, but I worried about proportioning my teeth which ended up turning out well on the sketchbook.
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After thinking and thinking, I finally pulled the thread enough to reveal a clear connection, Day of the Dead. Since I'm not very good at sketching skulls nor the design of Day of the Dead skulls, I figured I should try to practice that before I put it on canvas with paint. I hit some basic designs, which can lead to complexity, and made my sketch look like I can apply it finally. Like I said before, a struggle I had doing this was my skull sketching. I'm much into the theme of death so that is why those skills aren't that great. So I think it is safe to say that my inspiration for this work can be the Mexican culture and Day of the Dead. I am half Mexican, so it does make me happy that I found something I can connect to personally, so this drive can then make my work more desirable to work with.
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