In a nutshell, the Memory Project is an organization that provides student artists with images children around the world in orphanages or foster care, which the artists then turn into artworks so the children have something to cherish as they grow up and so that they can have something positive to look back on when they think about their time in the orphanage or foster care. I have taken part in the Memory Project for 3 years, soon to be 4, and this has been my experience with it and how I have made my works: First off, I feel as though I should inform those of you who are not aware that I am a 3D artist and the Memory Project only accepts 2D artworks. This is why, at first, I almost didn't participate in this project, but then I was told that I didn't have to paint it, or draw it, or do some chalk pastel rendering of it, I just had to make something that fit inside the protective sleeve. Upon hearing this, I decided that I would simply make a collage of magazine clippings to create the images. That proved to be easier said than done. The first major problem I ran into was purely psychological: I felt like a creep going through hundreds of magazines and cutting out sections of people's skin that I knew I was going to use to recreate the face of a child. To be entirely honest, I never got to the point were I felt less creepy doing it. Finding the magazine clippings for the skin was harder for some children than it was for others. This is due to the extreme under-representation of people of color in most media, especially those who have medium skin tones. I always knew this was a problem in the media but it wasn't until I took these projects on that I realized how big the problem is. This was a big problem for two of the four children I have done portraits of. Both of them were from Afghanistan and had medium skin tones. I searched through every magazine that I owned, every magazine that my art teacher owned, every magazine that my friends owned, and even some from the countries the children lived in, and I rarely found anyone with a medium skin tone. Everyone seemed to have either dark skin or fair skin. Eventually, I scrounged up just enough skin to be able to get by and finish their faces. Creating the faces is the hardest part by far. Not only because of how difficult it is to match skin tones and undertones, but also because of how hard it is to find areas that have gradual shading on them. I spent a minimum of 8 hours working on constructing each face. The construction was done by taking the large skin samples and overlapping them to create the desired features and shading. There is no short cut to this, it is all trial and error. I tried to create shading by drawing over top or or tinting the images but this never had the desired effect outside of creating a slight blush using shavings from a pale pink chalk pastel. The process is slow and tedious but I have always loved the outcome of it. As tedious as making the face is, laying down the hair is more annoying than making the face. Thankfully, finding the hair is a lot easier because hair is everywhere and no one's hair is one uniform color. The hard part of it is making the hair look like individual strands rather than like a photo of some chick's ponytail that you chopped off. The best way I have found to do this is by chopping it into incredibly tiny pieces, making sure to cut with the direction of the hair, and gluing them on, one by one. When laying down the hairs, make sure to pay attention to the layering of the hair. I am not talking about the style of hair cut they have (but you should probably look at that too), but rather about in what order the individual strands of hair present themselves. If you are thinking "That sounds like it takes forever and is a pain to do!", you are absolutely correct! There is no way to do this step without getting covered in glue. I don't recommend using tweezers for this because they just get full of glue and seem to stick to the pieces even more than your glue covered fingers do. Also, as odd as it may sound, I don't recommend that you wash your hands during this process. By washing them, you are just re-activating the glue and it rarely actually washes off once it is re-activated. This just turns everything into a giant mess. You simply need to accept that you will be covered with glue when this is done. Don't fight it, the struggle only makes it worse. And at the end of it, you get to re-live the portion of your life where you would purposely pour glue on yourself just to be able to peel it off, and who doesn't miss the satisfaction of doing that? Creating the background is the final step (or the first, it works either way). You can do almost anything for the background in any media. The info that the company sends with the image includes the child's name in English and their favorite color, both of which I include in my background. Maybe it is just the basic white person in me, but I think it would be really cool if someone wrote my name, or the equivalent to my name, in a different language. And for obvious reasons, I made a collage of everything I can find in their favorite color as the background. Attaching the face to the background is pretty straight forward, I just take a glue stick and smash them together. After you have spent ages creating this face, background and attaching them together, you then have to seal it. To do this, you can use any number of sealers (check out my list of cheap sealers here) and I personally used Modge-Podge for all of mine. I have found that it would occasionally smear the ink on the pages, so I would recommend going over it with a clear spray paint a few times before you use the Modge-Podge for the final few layers of sealant. Once you have done all of that, you simply slip the artwork into the clear protective pouch the original image came in. They generally also have a slip for the students to fill out in the child's native language. This generally consists of: the artist's age, favorite color, and first name. You fill this out according to the instructions the company sends and then attach the slip to the back of the finished artwork. Then you put it all back into the envelope and ship it back to the company. I would highly recommend that anyone who is interested in trying this project do so. The cost to be a part of a beautiful idea is $15 USD and if you/your students cannot afford this price, they are willing to work with you to bring it down to a price you can afford because they truly want to impact as many children as possible and tell them that someone, somewhere, cares enough about them to want to make a portrait of them. Click here if you want to sign up for The Memory Project, to learn more, or to donate to allow them to provide this opportunity to students regardless of their financial situation. Author's Note: My school's art team is just starting to do this year's Memory Project and I will try my best to document my process and update this page with the images.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Cinder Blackwater
An artist who is constantly looking for new things or new ways to use old things. Honest to a fault. As frugal as a broke college student. Individuals in the Creature Family
Categories
All
|