Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Face #14 of the '29 Faces' Challenge -- Art Journal Entry Based on '1984': Finished!

Student Art Journal Guest Entry, as Inspired by the book, 1984
#14 Face for the '29 Faces' May Challenge (still catching up from recent computer issues!)......

For Face Number 14 we are revisiting my "1984" art journal guest entry once again ("1984" by George Orwell being a book that was read and very much liked by this student, as part of my literature class).  The first time I featured this page was back on Day 9, when I uploaded my work in progress at the time, the beginnings of a portrait of Winston Smith, the fellow on the right and main protagonist of the book.  Then it was featured again, for Face # 10, upon starting the portrait of 'Julia' (on the left),  political rebel and Winston's love interest.  Finally, we have the Face in the middle, my 14th.... featuring the icon known universally as 'Big Brother' within the repressive totalitarian society in which Winston and Julia live.  'Big Brother' is their dictatorial leader, all encompassing -- in fact one of the most prevalent party slogans that is constantly jammed down their throats is that "Big Brother is watching YOU....".  Nice, eh?

'Big Brother' appears here upon what's known in the book as a 'Telescreen', which, in the vaguely futuristic era in which they live, is sort of a combination of television and Skype.  The Telescreens are set up everywhere for citizens to receive non-stop political messages from the government, while they in turn are themselves watched and overheard via these ever-present monitors.  Everyone's behavior is being constantly observed, and noted.  There is no such thing as privacy, and no one is safe.

This last portrait was challenging to paint, only because of how I composed this two-page horizontal spread -- in that the fold of the book was EXACTLY smack in the middle of 'Big Brother's' face (oops!).  Made things sort of tricky mechanically -- but still, I think it somehow works.....



My progress pics:

Winston Smith, in progress....


Winston and Julia, in progress....


4 comments:

artlover said...

Thanks for sharing your process!
Well done;-)

Ayala Art said...

Awesommmmmee!

Patience said...

Dear Merriette, Artlover -- thanks so much for the kind comment! I do enjoy reading about others' artistic processes, always so fascinating -- so I try to remember to take pics and include my own processes when I can (or at least my THOUGHT processes if nothing else....!) ;-)

Patience said...

Thank you so very much, Martha -- lovely to see you in here, and please stop by again....! :-D