soft pastels -2

     Soft pastels are one of my favorite mediums to work with, and since I hadn't put up something in a long time, I created this artwork which I've been working on for quite some time.

Throughout each of our lives at some point, somebody would have told us to not be the puppet but the puppet master of our lives, to take control over ourselves and be confident about it. But when saying that, majority of the people forget the most important element of a puppet, the one that attaches it to its master, the strings. And that is what is portrayed by the artwork.

Concept:

    When considering puppets and puppet masters, one tends to automatically come to the conclusion that the master directs the puppet. As far as that's true, the one reason that the puppet follows the hand, is because of the strings that connect the two. In this artwork, the hand portrays life and the puppet depicts us. Together representing that the strings are what matter throughout. They're what are needed to attach us to life, and without them, one would lose all purpose completely.

    Now these imaginary strings binding one to life will obviously differ from person to person. They can either be a goal, a person, an inspiration, a thought, one's passion or even an object. Anything that gives a sense of encouragement, linking them to life, is their string. Once one is attached to their string, have found their motivation, all that's left is to go where the hand takes them. If one knows their strings, and the whole world sees them as a detached puppet, it shouldn't change anything, because they know they aren't, which is what really matters. The strings are a reminder of the fact the puppet wont come collapsing down, and its secured to the hand. Just like in a puppet, these strings build up confidence and give a sense of certainty.

Role of Colors and Objects:

    Along with the message, since this artwork isn't black and white, the colors also help depict the meaning. The hand is shaded with the intention to making it look just about as realistic as it must be to make the audience visualize and understand the reality of the message and not just assume it to be another aesthetic wall piece. 

    The puppet however, is anything but real, even though it's in the shape of a human to get across the message more clearly, it's also filled in to seem like a galaxy without stars. Which is why the strings appear to be helping the puppet fly and reach the stars it needs to gather to fill itself up. And lastly, all of this lies on a pinkish red background representing the puppet's love for the strings, after all they're the only reason it's able to fly. 

Above is what the artwork looked like before and after I filled it in with soft pastels. And it's quite evident that it clearly impacted the artwork as well as its meaning.

    All of this combined, is what gives out the real definition of this artwork, the medium, the size, colors, all of that. Everything combines to reveal its meaning. This piece as a pencil sketch wouldn't have been so bold, it wouldn't have gotten across the true hidden concept of it. Which is why all of these little things play a major role in all artworks, especially this one.