Reaching for Yourslef: Final and Critique

This project is by far my favorite project that I ever done for an art class. It actually turned out better than I initially expected and I loved being able to experiment with all of the different colors that my friends decided to use. I had each person paint their hand however they wanted so that each person would be clearly represented by their colors. I really wanted to represent the idea that each person has their own definition of success and way of achieving it. That's why I allowed them to choose their colors and designs. Their colors are a representation of who they are.

Jess:

Ryan and Shannon:

Ryan:

Shannon:

Tessa:

Tessa again:

Zoe:

Everyone:

My favorite picture:

Critique Analysis:

When first seeing my pieces, people thought that the hands were reaching out for something and that it was a very simple meaning. After I explained, they began to realizing that the idea was how everyone has their own way of achieving success and thought it was a very creative way to approach the message. Some questions they had for me were: "Did you edit the hands to enhance the colors?" and "Is there a reason behind the use of hands as your symbol?". I did edit the hands to enhance the colors because I really wanted to create a lot of contrast between the hands themselves and the background. My reasoning behind using the hands as the symbol is because even though we don't always physically "reach" for success, we are still "reaching" for it. They liked the way the group of people was reaching for the words in one of the pieces and thought it would be a good idea to do that in more of the images, but they also thought I could have chosen a better layout for the words. They really liked the simplicity of the project and the way I used the bright colors against an all white background