"Helping Hands"
Oil on Canvas
Message of the piece:
The idea of this piece is to show how even though the people around you try to help you, guide you, and protect you, they end up changing you. You never fully develop as yourself. Instead, you become a mix of the people around you.
Final Piece:
Artist's Statement:
In order to show the individual changing, I decided to challenge myself and paint part of the face using only a palette knife. The idea was that from far away, she looks normal, but from up close, you can see all the textures and colors added by the "Helping Hands". This task proved harder than I thought. Not only was this my first time working with a palette knife, but I only had a size 40, which was too big for the small details I intended to make. I ended up just using the tip of the knife so the resulting texture wasn't what I intended for. Getting the shading right using the knife was also hard so I painted with squinted eyes. I'm so glad nobody was there to bear witness because what I sight I was! The large size of the piece was also a struggle. Everything took longer than usual so blending certain sections and color matching was difficult. I thought I would never be able to finish this piece.
