Identity project

For my Identity project I chose to illustrate the two sides of the cosmetic industry- beauty and animal testing. I chose this topic because after working as a makeup artist over the past summer, I realized that there are still many high end brands of makeup that unfortunately test on animals. Even though the images I found online of animal testing were very graphic, I wanted to illustrate this concept in a way that was still graphic enough to grab the attention of viewers, but that wasn’t too graphically disturbing so that people wouldn’t want to look at my piece. I began my project by researching art projects that depicted animal testing to gain inspiration. I found many pieces that just depicted the animal being tested on, so I decided it was important to illustrate the human face so that people could personally connect with the message being delivered. I chose to do this by incorporating an image of a mirror into my piece. The mirror symbolizes how our actions of using non cruelty free makeup reflects back onto the animal’s pain, and how something as simple as putting on makeup can have major consequences for the animals.
I began my project by sketching out the compact mirror, and the woman’s face with graphite pencil. I then sketched out the lab assistants figure and the rabbit, and added the details like the chair, lab outfit, and makeup on the rabbit later. I searched for images of women looking into mirrors to gain inspiration and to make sure I proportioned the face correctly. This was challenging, because I needed to make the woman’s face a lot larger than the photos on the internet. I also searched for close up photos of eyes to make sure I illustrated the details of the eye accurately. I first began to add color to my project by using drawing pens to color in the woman’s eyes, eyeliner, and eyelashes. Then, I used color pencil for her skin tone and to add value to her face. For her lips I used brush tipped markers, and a clear one to blend and add value to her lips so that they looked more realistic. Her hair was challenging to make look realistic because the image was very blown up, and I still wanted her hair to have fine strands. The lab assistant was difficult to illustrate because there wasn’t images of actual people testing on animals, so I didn’t have a human figure to reference in that specific position that I illustrated. The rabbit was the easiest to illustrate since I purposely exaggerated its features with makeup and fur. I used the same materials to color and blend to add value to the rabbit and lab assistant.

Sources:
https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/animals-used-experimentation-factsheets/animal-experiments-overview/

https://www.hsi.org/news-media/about/

https://www.pcrm.org/ethical-science/animal-testing-and-alternatives

https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/23203/1/the-artists-pushing-animal-rights-further

https://thevegandatabase.com/animal-rights-artivism-30-talented-vegan-artists-to-follow-now/

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