"Free Us"
Size: 30.5cm x 40.6cm Medium: Illustration Date: December 1, 2017 Exhibition text: My negative illustration tends to represent how circus animals just want a taste of the wildlife again. I was inspired by Théodore Gericault's piece, "The Raft of Medusa". Free Us is simply a drawing that is against animals being in circuses. |
Artist Inspiration
To start off, The Raft of Medusa by Théodore Géricault was a major art piece in the French 19th century. The piece itself was known to be an icon of Romanticism. Géricault had based the piece off an event in Senegal of 1816. The event had to do with a French Royal Navy frigate being sailed by someone who had not sailed over twenty years. Eventually, the person who was sailing had ran the ship aground on a sandbank. Since that had happened, there wasn't enough lifeboats for everyone, so the people who were left behind had to build a raft, for at least 150 people. After the raft was built, it had drifted away on a 13 bloody day odyssey (Louvre, N.D). Géricault wanted to show the hope the sailors had because there was a rescue boat in the horizon but, it sails away without seeing them. Overall, The Raft of Medusa is known as a synthetic view of human life abandoned to its fate (Louvre, N.D).
Other than that, when it comes to circuses, there's elephants, tigers and other animals that are used for entertainment. Most of these animals tend to perform tricks and other difficult positions because they're afraid what will happen to them if they don't do it. For trainers to use whips and train them to do things they weren't naturally born to do is abuse (PETA, N.D). Which is why I decided to make this part of my project. I wanted to portray the fact that these animals will do anything to get a taste of the wildlife, where they should be in the first place. Taking them away from their homes is causing huge issue because once they're let go into the wild again when they're older or weaker, they wont easily adapt and will die soon.
Which leads me to why I'm doing my piece the way it is, I want to create that vain of hope that was shown in The Raft of Medusa, I want show that pyramid structure that was going on in my inspiration, but with animals, I want to challenge myself to create animals in different positions. I want to show a piece that establishes the fact that animals aren't happy training in circuses, they're doing whatever just to get out of there, whether it's throwing a tantrum or pretending they don't know what's going on. Animals belong in the wild doing their own thing.
Other than that, when it comes to circuses, there's elephants, tigers and other animals that are used for entertainment. Most of these animals tend to perform tricks and other difficult positions because they're afraid what will happen to them if they don't do it. For trainers to use whips and train them to do things they weren't naturally born to do is abuse (PETA, N.D). Which is why I decided to make this part of my project. I wanted to portray the fact that these animals will do anything to get a taste of the wildlife, where they should be in the first place. Taking them away from their homes is causing huge issue because once they're let go into the wild again when they're older or weaker, they wont easily adapt and will die soon.
Which leads me to why I'm doing my piece the way it is, I want to create that vain of hope that was shown in The Raft of Medusa, I want show that pyramid structure that was going on in my inspiration, but with animals, I want to challenge myself to create animals in different positions. I want to show a piece that establishes the fact that animals aren't happy training in circuses, they're doing whatever just to get out of there, whether it's throwing a tantrum or pretending they don't know what's going on. Animals belong in the wild doing their own thing.
Sketch
My sketch had to do with my love for animals. I'm really against animals being in the circus so I thought it would be great to recreate The Raft of Medusa but with animals. I wanted draw the animals on top of each other trying to get a glance of the wildlife, where they should be. The whole purpose of this drawing is to portray how some animals are being held against their will for entertainment when they should be living in the wild. This was my second sketch, I was inspired by Roy Lichtenstein's I Can See the Whole Room...and There's Nobody in It! I was also inspired by my love for animals. I decided to do a monkey because they're the most experimented on and most being held from the wild. I wanted to portray the whole as their only whole of light, I wanted to portray their feels about being captive. My third sketch was for a non-smoking campaign, I wanted to portray what the heart would look like if one was smoking so much. I wanted to show people why they should be careful and such. I didn't end up doing this idea because I didn't have an inspiration to base it off. |
Process
DRAWING PHASE
To begin with, I had to start off with a base, so I started with a circle with an elephant and dog tired out. It relates back to The Raft of Medusa because if one looks closely at the painting, one could see how there's many people at the bottom of the raft who are just plain dead, who didn't make it through. When it comes to my piece, I wanted to portray that holding animals for entertainment can tire them out, to the point where they're just completely drained. There's a possibility that those animals after a while are let free into the wild, but most of the time they don't know how to adapt quickly to their surrounding or are too weak to do anything, so eventually they'll die, missing years of the wildlife they were suppose to have. |
After that, I had added a seal, a tiger and a small bear. I really tried putting them in a position so it looks like they’re helping each other one way or another. I say that because, in The Raft of Medusa, all the people tend to be on top of each other, climbing each other, to get one’s attention, I want to be able to structure that pyramid form the painting has but with animals, it’s really hard to position an animal the way I want too. I also put those three on top of the elephant and dog because within the painting that I was inspired by, although there’s dead men at bottom of the raft, people still climb over them like nothing. After that, I had added another bear, a lion, another dog and a monkey. Overall, it does look a bit scattered but one can tell how they’re trying to help each other out to get to the window. Which is similar to my inspiration because all the men were climbing each other to catch a rescue boat’s attention.
After that, I had added a seal, a tiger and a small bear. I really tried putting them in a position so it looks like they’re helping each other one way or another. I say that because, in The Raft of Medusa, all the people tend to be on top of each other, climbing each other, to get one’s attention, I want to be able to structure that pyramid form the painting has but with animals, it’s really hard to position an animal the way I want too. I also put those three on top of the elephant and dog because within the painting that I was inspired by, although there’s dead men at bottom of the raft, people still climb over them like nothing. After that, I had added another bear, a lion, another dog and a monkey. Overall, it does look a bit scattered but one can tell how they’re trying to help each other out to get to the window. Which is similar to my inspiration because all the men were climbing each other to catch a rescue boat’s attention.
COLORING PHASE
After that, I had colored the background with a soft brown and a darker brown color pencil. When I had finished that, I had realize that most of my animals tend to be that kind of color or tone, so I couldn’t have all my animals somewhat blending into the wall. Instead of fixing it right there and then, I waited to the end. I had pick those colors because I wanted a dark color scheme to present that the circus isn’t all fun and games for animals, it’s bad for them. Plus, Raft of Medusa had a great dark color scheme which is also mainly why I wanted one too. At first, I wanted to make it red and white but then I had thought about it and how it would make my picture more look like fun than sad. |
Then, it was time to color the animals in. I really tried using realistic colors that the animals already have. Overall, most of my animals did have a brown tone to their fur or skin, so most of the animals tend to blend it with each other. I really tried to draw each animals with detail and figure just because I really wanted it to be alike to The Raft of Medusa. In my inspiration, one could tell the massive detail that was put into that piece, there’s a lot of it. The detail is what makes my inspiration so amazing, so I really tried incorporating detail in whatever I can within my piece. After that, I went back to my background again and changed the color a bit by adding a tint of blue to the brown. After I would add a little of blue, I would try smoothing it out with a cotton ball so it blends with each other better. The blue is what made my illustration look gloomy.
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Creative Idea / Experimentation
STAGE 1 To begin with, this is my piece before I add any water color to it. I wanted to add water color to my illustration because I thought it would give it a better sad feeling I was trying to portray. I also wanted to try something new and see how it would loook overall. The watercolor was meant to give off a better meaning of the piece and to grab attention. STAGE 2
I had started with a basic blue color, because that’s what I had orginally on my piece with color pencil, I wanted to keep the same color scheme. At first, it looked a little rough but after looking at it more, I started to like how it made my anjmals pop out more. After I added a dark blue, I had added some short brush strokes of light brown to give it detail. I was really satisfied with the combination of the two colors. |
STAGE 3 After I had done the blue on the circus pattern, I wanted to also add water color to the light brown area. I literally just added thin short brush strokes because I thought it would look nice for detail and It gave off that sad feeling I was going towards to portraying. I also thought it would be a good idea to do that just because most of my animals had a brown color scheme so adding the dark water color onto the background made a huge difference. As I’ve said before, it made my animals pop more. |
Critique
There tends to be a couple of similarities and differences within my piece and The Raft of Medusa. For instance, when it comes to the way it was positioned and such. My inspiration was well organized and well structured on how the people on the raft tend to be climbing all over each other. Whereas, in my artwork, the animals tends to scattered and all over each other to just to help an animal out to take a glance of the wildlife. The color scheme tends to be different as well, because in The Raft of Medusa, there’s a lot of dark colors being used like dark blue, black, dark brown, everything tends to have some kind of shade. Meanwhile in my piece, I tend to only have a couple of dark areas and it’s mainly the background to make my piece seem gloomy. |
Evaluation
Overall, the idea concepts between my piece and my inspiration are quite different yet almost the same. I say that that because in The Raft of Medusa, it was meant to show a vain of hope that was within the sailors. The piece tends to be about how they saw a rescue boat that never saw them. In the other hand, my piece also has do with showing the vine of hope. The hope the animals have that sooner or later, they’ll be released from the circuses and back to their lives in the wild. It’s about trying to get a taste of something they’ve never experienced before because animals that work in the circuses are usually recruited when they’re small. Also, Raft of Medusa wasn’t made with colored pencils so it gave off a different effect, whereas mine tends go be dull and not give off the same effect because it was made with something else and not on a canvas but an illustration board. |
Reflection
Overall, I did have fun with this medium and I would do it again if I could. I did have a lot of trouble with creating the animals in different positions, also had trouble with making them realistic but I believe I did I good job for my first time drawing and I’m pretty sure it gets better if I don’t stop here. If I were to do this again, I would think about my colors first and organize in a way so they don’t all look dull and cluttered together. I had created a piece with form and line, line for the detail within the animals and from within the blending of the color pencils. Blending colors and give off a three dimensional form but one really has to do it well. Other than that, a principal of design that I believe was presented within my piece was movement. I say that because the animals were put in positions where they’re helping each other out. Therefore, if one starts from the bottom of my piece and make their way tot he top, where the dog is reaching the “window”, one could the movement within that structure. Besides that, I really wish I had put more animals so it seems like my inspiration. I say that because in The Raft of Medusa, there’s so much men on the raft, it’s insane, whereas in my piece, there’s just a couple of animals. I wonder if I added more, it would change anything.
ACT Questions
1. Clearly explain how you were able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and it's effect upon your artwork.
In The Raft of Medusa, it was mentioned that the artist tried creating a vain of hope, and I really liked that, so I tried incorporating that within my piece, as in animals having hope to be in the wild again.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach from my inspiration was to create hope within a tragic event, which is similar to mine where I tried creating hope within animals while they're being held against their will.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while researched your inspiration?
I had concluded that people don't tend to consider animals feelings, they don't consider the fact that they also have a family and what not and are made to reproduce in the wild.
4. What was the central idea or theme around inspirational research?
My central idea within my piece to express how circus animals are being held when they should be in the wild. The piece tends to represent what animals would do just to get a glance of the wildlife, the life they should have.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
An inference I had made while reading my research is the fact that it's common that rescue boats don't tend to find survivors when they go out look for them, but the sailors still had hope overall. In The Raft of Medusa, one could tell how all the sailors keep trying to get the rescue boat's attention because they had hope.
In The Raft of Medusa, it was mentioned that the artist tried creating a vain of hope, and I really liked that, so I tried incorporating that within my piece, as in animals having hope to be in the wild again.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach from my inspiration was to create hope within a tragic event, which is similar to mine where I tried creating hope within animals while they're being held against their will.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while researched your inspiration?
I had concluded that people don't tend to consider animals feelings, they don't consider the fact that they also have a family and what not and are made to reproduce in the wild.
4. What was the central idea or theme around inspirational research?
My central idea within my piece to express how circus animals are being held when they should be in the wild. The piece tends to represent what animals would do just to get a glance of the wildlife, the life they should have.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
An inference I had made while reading my research is the fact that it's common that rescue boats don't tend to find survivors when they go out look for them, but the sailors still had hope overall. In The Raft of Medusa, one could tell how all the sailors keep trying to get the rescue boat's attention because they had hope.