Gail Arts: Constricted (Freedom Interpretation Art)

Hello! Yesterday was such a hectic day for me. I wanted to share to you my fun experience during the barangay elections. I also wanted to share what happened when we went to different malls downtown to look for some clothes and footwear for my aunt who will be joining a wedding. I do hope that next time it would be my wedding she would attend. Haha!

Anyhow, I think I need to set aside that first but instead focus on sharing to you a quick artwork that I made in the morning.

I was not that hyped though to create something magnificent. I just want to exercise my fingers in using colored pencils since it is quite different from using a water color. Water color gives a bit of cakey, translucent, and fairylike result while colored pencils give a rough result. Or could it be because I am not that good enough.

This artwork that I made is an interpretation of mine of how it feels when a woman is being constricted from expressing or showing her full potential.

Despite the fact that we are living in a Post-Cold War society and there are a lot of feminist groups around the world, the efforts made is not yet enough. There are still pressures in the society that causes women to be limited.

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Art Process

Because I still have a lot of brown cartolina left, I used it as my art medium. I also used colored pencils and few colors of my soft pastel.

Although it is not that very visible, I started sketching the eyes of this experimental portrait that I made. I started of with the eyes, making a small round and some curves around it like a real eye (referring to eyelids). I also sketched the eyebrows, and the nose.

For the base color, I used my white colored pencil and topped it of with color yellow and some orange. I also outlined the hairline with black.

I also began drawing the subject's nostrils. With black colored pencil, I made the eyes visible. The pupil is dark blue and then it is surrounded with sap green. As you can observe, there are different tones of yellow and brown being used. I just do not want to create a monotonous artwork though.

On the right eye (or left depending on your reference), I did the same thing too. I also made sure that the viewer or audience would be drawn nearer to the artwork by giving some depth on the lower portion of the eyes. I used reddish brown to add depth. Highlights had also been added using white colored pen.

I know this is not the Michelangelo or Da Vinci's type of artwork. I wanted to add feel so I added abstracr objects on the artwork to represent the factors that constrict a woman.

One of my friends told me she somewhat resembles Beyoncé. What do you think about that though?

When I was almost through, I added different colors for the background representing women from different communities.

I do hope you enjoyed this quick art process and I do hope to come up with more refined work using colored pencils.

Have a great day ahead!

^{@gailbelga or Johanna Gail is a free-spirited freelance artist. She took up Bachelor of Arts in International Studies in one of the Ateneo universities in the Philippines. She is currently a candidate for Masters in Public Administrations. She volunteers in various non-profit/nongovernmental organization which aims for human rights through political education. She draws and writes about the country to provide awareness and promote the Philippines to foreign tourists.}