This is some art work that I have done inspired by graffiti. It was inspired by urban art that surrounds us everyday and most people don't take any notice of it. I wanted to show that graffiti can be beautiful and is a great type of alternative art.
It was an interesting process of making these images. I started by taking portraits of people against a white background. Once I had the portraits i took them onto photo shop and turned the contrast right up. this way it would exaggerate the features of the two people. I chose these two portraits of people as one had a very high contrast (Jo) and was only showing the main important features while the other one had stronger features (Alex) in his more features came out and made your eye draw to him. Once those had been edited and printed in black and white. I stuck them onto board and draw over the top of the faces, especially on Jo, to draw out more of the different features. Once that was done i cut out different logos of brands from recycled fashion magazines and stuck them to make a cloak for each of the heads. Then using paint pens i copied various different graffiti tags that i had seen in local streets. I did it in all different colours to make it colourful and draw your eye in. Once that was all done i got some spray paint to give it the more graffiti feel about it. Using all different objects to spray around the images to draw your eye into the portrait and give it an urban look. I sprayed it heavily in the outline and more lightly on the actual portrait.
Jo: This is the portrait of Jo. She had higher contrast as she was quite pale and had quite a light hair colour too. This meant that when cut it out and stuck it down i had to draw more onto the image to bring out more of her features. I really like this image because i think it looks quite haunting and spooky. I also like the image as the outline of the tags and spray paint and really draw your eye into the image. If i could improve i would have improved the shape of her face so it looked a bit more realistic but in a way i think it adds to the Urban Grunge effect of it.
Alex: This is the portrait of Alex. He had stronger features with darker hair. Thuis meant that it was easier to cut out and find where the edge of his face is. This time i linked it with the bold backing and edging to match his bold features. I really like this image as i think that it is really bold and stands out. I also added some ink into this too onto the face to make it more dramatic and spooky. If i could improve i wouldnt have used so much spray paint as i think in some spots its a little bit too much.
