Reflecting on the values of life.

As a miniature project within the reflection title, my art class was tasked with coming up with a drawing to suit one of the 6 values which are considered important within the Marlborough C of E School. These values included: Friendship, Justice, Forgiveness, Peace, Trust and Respect. Each of us was designated a value which we had to interpret and produce a response for. I was given the value of Friendship.

As a starting point I thought that it would be a good opportunity to do some observational life drawing and so I drew two of my peers embracing a hug. This can be shown in the image below and as you can see I have drawn this in pencil (2B) and worked in to it using a fine liner to add depth and tone. I have tried to bring in light and dark and concentrate on where the shadow can be seen which is mainly under the arms and where the two girls join at the sides. the light mainly hits the back of the girls, however I have faded this image towards the bottom to add the effect of weightlessness.

As you can see I have mounted these images on a purple background as this is the colour which has been given to express my value. 

Once all of the values had been drawn, I devised an A1 page to lay them out. Using the idea of a 'values wheel', I created my own using tissue paper to create a stained-glass window effect. 

The tissue paper creates a kind of film which covers the image. As a result I feel that this idea brings out the beauty and meaning of the drawings as can be seen when the whole wheel is shown. 

The quote: 'faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains' was used to bring together all of the values and to suggest that anything is possible if you have faith and put your mind to it. I created a wet-on-wet water colour background for the colour wheel using all of the colours which have been used to express the values. It is a subtle background, yet it adds emotion to the page and contrasts with the white of the wheel before reaching the colour in the middle. Using the outline of the wheel I have added annotation to reflect my thoughts and feelings on each individual value and I have suggested why each of these is important in a school environment. 

I particularly liked the effect of tissue paper on this page which creates a transparent and stained-glass window effect. Therefore to take this project one step further I decided to hang this page on my washing line to see the effect the sun had on this ordinary sheet of paper. 

And as you can see if you take a closer look at each of the drawings, they suddenly come to life and you can really get a feel of what they are trying to express and how they relate to their individual values. I feel the doves particularly work well when the light hits them as it almost seems as if real birds are suspended in the air, creating the feel of peace and weightlessness. 

To link this miniature project to the idea of reflection, i feel that it is important to reflect on the values which are needed to carry a person through life. Without these people would not make mistakes, learn from them and they would not make memories. Therefore i feel that these values are the fundamentals and the base for reflection to occur.