Final Design Project

At the very beginning of working on this design project, I had a couple of different inspirations and ideas on how I wanted the artwork to look like. However, after much consideration, I decided to settle with this one sketch which I find associate the most to the topic given which was social media issues. 

Step 1

For my final design project, I first started working on it by drawing/sketching the image of a human with a cigarette in one hand. After the sketch was completed. I continue on by painting the image with a brush tool.

Step 2

Continuing on, I inserted a layer of eye prints that I created onto the human image.

Step 3

In the next step, I started drawing the cigarette smoke using the pencil tool.

Step 4

After that, using the brush tool, I started colouring the smoke by changing the opacity, flow and hardness at different times in order to create a better tone.

Step 5

Once that was completed, again using the brush tool, I decided on choosing the colour black as the background colour for my artwork.

Step 6

After the colouring is done, I start inserting logos of various social media over the smoke. In order to remove the unwanted white patches around the logos. I used the magnetic lasso tool.

Step 7

Once the logos are inserted, for some of the images, I used the overlay and soft light function to change the appearance of the logo.

Step 8

Step 9

Step 10

Final Step!

And lastly for the finishing touches, in order to make the smoke appear more realistic, I added different tones of grey to the smoke by using the brush tool.

My final artwork on social media issues.

Artist Statement

When I first thought about the term, social media issues, a jumble of words started popping up in my mind like a gush of water. Meaningful associations that I personally believe that are very much related to this topic are the issues of privacy and addiction.

Through the artwork that I have created, the message that I am trying to convey is the fact that social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (just to name a few) have caused major addiction problems particularly towards the younger generation of people out there who seems to be relying on social media on a daily basis, which I find similar to the addiction of smoking cigarettes. 

The cigarette shown in the artwork symbolizes the usage of social media. Smoking can be seen as legal and so is the usage of social media. However, using social media can be as addictive as smoking. When both are used excessively, social media and smoking can cause danger to its consumer and at the same time can be life-threatening as well.

Having said that, based on the artwork, the eyes mainly indicates privacy. The reason why I covered multiple 'eye print' on the human's body is because I am hoping to illustrate a sense of vulnerability and over-exposure of oneself. Constant use of social media, unknowingly, people are putting themselves in danger by over exposing their personal details and revealing it out in the open and the realization that people are watching you without you having the slightest knowledge about it. 

References 

[YouTube Logo]. Retrieved April 12, 2013, from: http://9to5google.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/happy-5th-birthday-youtube-501ecffedf.jpg

[Twitter Logo]. Retrieved April 12, 2013, from: http://www.rainbows-angels.com/blog/twitter-a-felony-in-oregon/

[The Latest Facebook Virus]. Retrieved April 12, 2013, from: http://teenspeak.org/2011/11/23/the-latest-facebook-virus/

[Instagram didn't get the tome wrong]. Retrieved April 12, 2013, from: http://asburyandasbury.typepad.com/blog/2012/12/instagram-didnt-get-the-tone-wrong.html

[Tumblr Logo Vector].  Retrieved April 12, 2013, from: http://www.logoeps.com/tumblr-logo-vector/4573/

[The Many Looks Of the MySpace Logo]. Retrieved April 12, 2013, from: http://www.webpronews.com/the-many-looks-of-the-myspace-logo-2010-12

[15-Blogger]. Retrieved April 12, 2013, from http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/blogger/
http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/blogger/

[Untitled photograph of a Flickr logo]. Retrieved April 2013, from: http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/blogger/

[ICQ]. Retrieved April 2013, from http://www.crunchbase.com/company/icq-2