Welcome Back Response

A Chinese exchange of arbitrary words left me with "flower." "Flower," was to be my inspiration for a piece of my preferred style and medium. As a first piece I played it safe; I pulled ideas for content from a previous pastel face and flower I had done. Stylistically I chose to do pop art. I was fortunate to be able to use "flower," as my motivation for this piece because I thoroughly enjoy drawing portraits especially when I can add the flare of a flower. Due to my love of flowers, faces, and pastels, it is probable my portfolio will contain multiple pieces of this style.

I've had a few ask, "who is it?" referring to the girl in my piece; I do not have a legitimate answer for that question, I just started drawing and that is what came together on my paper. I used all shade of blue for the face and hair, excluding the lips and shadows of gray and black. Once I reached the flower I was torn between color choice. I consulted Quinton with options: pink/magenta shades, yellow shades, or green shades (lime green is how I envisioned it.) Quinton advised no green because the color palette would be too similar. We decided yellow as best option. I also included one streak of yellow in hair for a random kick. I finished the whole portrait itself but was left with immense negative space in the surrounding. Yet again I consulted Quinton with the option of black. He gave good advice which was, black would make it too dark; he then brilliantly suggested red. I then consulted Hannah with the idea of red. We all liked it so it was a go. Because there were no red markers readily available at the time and I didn't want to compromise the pastel with paint, I painted bristle board red, cut out the portrait then pasted it to the board. Thank you Mrs. Glenn for that suggestion.

Self critique: the shades are brighter than I wanted but I can't control the shade of my pastels. While doing the right side of the hair I lost perspective of what the hair should look like; disregard hair on right side. (Luckily the placement of the flower on the left draws attention to that side and away from right). I added a shadow in dark red on the left of the portrait as a final touch but once I had finished I immediately regretted it. For one, the shadow is on the wrong side, and the proportion off it making it look awkward.

Give critiques please so I can better my art. Thank you much.