I chose to reference the artworks of Frank Shepard Fairey, an artist that is widely recognized as “obeygiant” on social media. He is a street artist and activist that has clear messages for change and recognition of important topics incorporated into his art pieces. I found his art style interesting because it is composed of solid and vivid colors that clearly outline the figures in his drawing. He uses colors to manipulate the presentation of shadows and highlights in the people drawn in his art without the need for the colors of skin tones. For example, he primarily uses shades of red or blue when painting people. Overall, I found this artist interesting because his bold colors and defined shapes instantly attract the viewers’ attention and allow the viewers to grasp the art’s message immediately. He also incorporates text into his drawings to push the artwork’s statement into the viewer’s head. I feel that his art is a very effective way of spreading a message, which is shown through many of his recent artworks that shed light on views of justice and the current American system.
When referencing Shepard Fairey’s artworks, I chose to use a similar color palette of warm colors with high intensity and high saturation. I used defined shapes on the face to create the effect of highlights and shading. While the solid colors make the drawing seem somewhat flat, the shapes that define the shading and light on the figure’s face give the figure more form, hence a more 3-dimensional aspect. I used the vivid warm red and yellow tones to put more emphasis on the face and draw the viewer’s attention to the human. Then using a light blue tone to contrast with the warm tones of the face, the second place I draw the viewer’s attention to is the mask. This is to spread the message that a person is directly affected by the corona virus as well as other human beings; however, the step to take to address this issue is to wear a mask. Filling the negative space is a gray background, which places more emphasis on the figure and the orange and white text: “Protect” “Yourself. Others.” As for lines, the drawing has solid black lines to form the hair, eyes, and eyebrows of the figure. These solid lines especially draw the viewer’s attention to the eyes, in order to see the human characteristic of people and develop sympathy for others and the need to protect themselves and the community by wearing a mask. The bold lines and my color palette parallel the artworks of Shepard Fairey.
My idea in this drawing is to spread awareness about the need for the use of masks in public during the corona virus pandemic, in order to protect not only yourself but others in the community. This is similar to the ideas of Shepard Fairey because he is an activist that uses his art to comment on apparent and growing problems in our world, as well as ideas that deserve recognition. For example, he created an art piece that depicted a nurse that said “protect workers”, which showed appreciation and respect for healthcare workers that were risking their lives to save the lives of others. He also made an art piece in response to the black lives matter movement and even shared his thoughts on the matter of George Floyd. Like Shepard Fairey I wanted to comment on a problem that I see in my life in front of my eyes day to day, which was the fact that some people refuse to wear masks when they go out. I find it worth mentioning that on July 22nd, news about a COVID poster campaign came out, in which Shepard Fairey created posters of people wearing masks, in order to encourage others to create art that shows the importance of wearing masks. Although my art is similar to these pieces in the concept, I completed my art piece before the news of this campaign and the reveal of these artworks came out, so at the time my idea was original and I did not copy the concept from the campaign poster artworks. Furthermore, my art is different from the campaign posters through my more prevalent use of warm tones.
