Egg Composition

When I first started my Egg Composition I was really excited as I thought about how I would make this artwork personal to me. The idea of an egg face clicked when my friend said that my face looked like an egg and that was considered beautiful in Korea. I wanted to incorporate my culture in this artwork by mentioning the beauty standards Korea has. The egg yolk dripping out where an eye should be was to represent the tears of the girls and boys who feel pressured to meet Korea's beauty standards, such as that you're not a girl if you're above 50kg.

Preparing for my reference photo I put a lot of thought into it. I decided to let my hair down and wear a light-colored shirt to contrast with the white background. At first, I was going to take a picture with one of the plastic eggs as the eggs at my home had spots on them. However, in the end, I decided that those spots could add something meaningful to my artwork, as it could act as the scars or imperfections like freckles that most Koreans don't think as beautiful. 

When I first started drawing and shading my egg I relied on my grid lines to be exact, however, I soon realized that it was not a good idea. During class, Mrs. Harvey recommended us to put our artwork on the floor, and look at it from a distance, not always 15cm closeup. With the distance, you could see the transitions and it was easier to spot out the different areas of shades. Compared to differntiating how dark and light the shades are up close. For example, the crack on my egg I realized needed to contrast more after looking at it from far. Looking up close I thought it was very dark for I couldn't really compare the shade with the eggshell shades as my view was restricted. Looking at my artwork from far away also helped me with the shading of my hands. At first I just shaded in some parts of the hand where I thought was dark, however, after looking at it from a distance I realized that the shading was too dark in some areas as the hand was almost the same shade as the dark areas of my egg. I also saw how the area of my hair the light reflected needed to be smoothed out and not so perfectly cut out as white.

Looking at the reference photo from different angles and not zoomed was helpful. The reference photo from a distance helped the white part that the light reflected as well as the dark shadow underneath the tear catch my attention. These things helped me realize that even in dark areas there are light spots as well.

Some challenges that I faced were using moldable erasers. During the process of smoothing things out, I realized that the moldable erasers left some marks on my paper which I had to erase and go over. However, I realized that it could add to my artwork as the scars and insecurities. In the end, to add on more to my artwork. Finally, I learned that I need to use thick and thin lines. After drawing my hair I realized how unnatural it looked. Almost like the hair was wet as I didn't have any strands poking out. So I worked on drawing strands of hair, however, from a distance you couldn't even see it, which is how I realized you need to use thicker lines if you want them to stand out. I also realized this by taking pictures of my hair. I realized hair doesn't only have thin lines but really thick lines as well from hair strands clumping together.