Portrait/Propaganda (Ambitious/In-Depth Assignment), DUE Tuesday, October 9

For this project we had to create two pieces of work using any medium. After brainstorming through many ideas of which mediums to do that I have never done before I decided to create a collage which I have only ever done about two times in the past. When this project was assigned I immediately decided to chose Elon Musk because he is my favorite Entrepreneurs and creators. In order to start my collage I had to gather the right materials. I went to Barnes and Noble to buy magazines that had stories and social excerpts on Elon Musk so I could cut it out to paste on my two black Matt boards. I found two magazines. One of the problems I ran into was with the image of Elon. I new that I could cut colors out of a magazine and create the face of Elon piece by piece but I did not want that effect because I wanted it to look more like a professional photographic poster. After going through the critic my opinion has changed and now I think that that effect would have maybe been a good idea because it would better differentiate the portrait from the propaganda piece because my outcome came out to be two propaganda pieces rather than one. 

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This was the first stage of my project. I had the magazines to use for images, however, the size of a picture of Elon Musk was not big enough. This is why I printed out images of Elon. I attempted to print out images of Elon using very glossy paper to resemble it being a print from a magazine as closely as possible. I found a page in a magazine that had a special about Elon Musk and came across this really interesting image of machines with a red filter on top and the words creative destruction. I wanted to use this image of Elon along with this photo of the red machines to use as my portrait. I think that after going through the critique I realize that this ultimately relates to being propaganda rather than a simple portrait. I also began to cut out pieces of organic material to attach to this such as the cardboard underneath Elon's eye.  

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Beginning with my main propaganda piece, I attempted to create Elon to be a very good person. I began with cutting the outline of his head and putting a yellow circle behind his head which represents not only the sun but also references a halo. Next I began to find text that I felt describes Elon in a positive light. I also cut out things from my magazines such as a type of mechanical object to put on his arm to elude to the idea that in this image he has a half robotic arm. This represents his innovative ideas along with his interest in artificial intelligence. Moving forward I also created a 3D piece in the center of his chest. I used foam for the red and gray structures, and blue fabric to art as blue electricity running through the device. This piece is the arch reactor that Iron Man uses to keep him alive and power his suit. This signifies on Elon that he is a Tony Stark character, a genius, and an unorthodox but very likable person. I also painted using acrylic paint Earth on his left shoulder along with a bandaid on top of the Earth. This gives the image of being a hero and the savior of Earth due to the countless amount of effort he is giving in order to create a better future for us and create a world where we can use sustainable energy instead of energy that cause damaging pollution to the earth. I also ripped the side of the image of Elon in order to put elements in the background. 

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As I am working on these two collages, I would work on one for a little, leave it, and return to it periodically. I think that this was a very good way for me to come up and finalize certain ideas. Returning back to my attempted portrait piece, I continued to add and take away from the piece, primarily using the single red element. I think that this red element is simple but works well with this image and is all the image needs because of the color scheme that matches the face color scheme. I added the element of the tie to add a certain meaning. I also made sure to add the tie in a messy manner and not well done. The tie is meant to show how Elon is a business man but he is not a good business man. 

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Switching back to my propaganda piece, I added many more elements. I added more text to exaggerate his positive view. I also added more images of things that he is associated in and also take part in such as tesla on the bottom left and a city running on solar energy on the top left. I also contunued to use materials to spread an idea, such as aluminum foil. This is a special material that is used a lot when humans are exploring space. 

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Continuing with the negative feeling that this piece gives off, I cut more of the original image. I also added a small piece of text on the bottom left. This text say "In 2016 we dumped 40 million tons of electronic waste". This is not a quote that Elon said but I think that this quote relates to the line of work that Elon works in. In the addition of this text I made sure to keep the eye direction to look in the exact opposite direction of this quote. This shows that this is something that Elon tries to ignore because it impedes his goals on what he wants to do in his career. I also added a robotic eye to once again show his interest in artificial intelligence and future technology in general.

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Final pieces

Here are images of the final pieces completed along with images of the pieces hanging for critique. One important last minute change that I made to the propaganda piece with the halo over Elon's head was the moving of the image of the Tesla car on the bottom left slightly upward to match the top right  in order to add better balance within the piece. In the end, I created two propaganda art works. I think that they are well balanced and I thoroughly enjoyed creating these collage pieces. I understand what a propaganda piece is now and I understand the difference between that and a portrait of someone.