open genre explanation

For my open-genre project I decided to do portraits of my favourite characters—and Macon Detornay—from all the books we read. As such, I turned in my interpretation of Odysseus, Jewel, Jefferson, Ma, and Macon. I took liberties depending on my opinions of them or their arc. Each portrait is unified in their incomplete eyes, which I did to represent the reader seeing themselves as the character. Furthermore, each character has some multi-coloured element. I chose this particular style because I wanted to convey how each character can imagined and their arcs interpreted in a variety of ways. 

For me, the colours were supposed to visually convey all the ways one could thing of the character.

However, each portrait is also quite unique. I unified them in palette, not in subject. To differentiate, I accentuated the character’s most unique trait. Hopefully, after explanation, the portraits will make sense. Below, I briefly articulate some of my decisions.

-          Odysseus.

o   While making Odysseus, I kept thinking “Odysseus is a complicated man.” Thus, I really tried to complicate the portrait. Though, it’s not obvious looking at the final product, none of Odysseus’s features were sketched completely. I did this to leave lots of leeway and allow for his image to arise organically. More obviously complicating his image is his skin tone. I deliberately made him taupe so it’s as if Odysseus could blend into a variety of cultures (as he did), given colour reduction or addition.

-          Jewel.

o   I really liked As I Lay Dying. It was one of my favourite books of the semester, I really liked its character development. I chose to do Jewel because I had so many mixed opinions of him up through the last pages. Thus, it seemed fitting to try to encapsulate him in my art. For Jewel, his skin is the multi-coloured bit. Rather cleverly—I think, at least—I decided to do so because his blood is mixed, half Addie, half the minister. Thus, he would turn out mixed as well.

-          Jefferson.

o   Jefferson’s portrait is my favourite. I drew upon a lot on of American imagery to create it. First, I decided that his skin should have blue, rather than brown undertones. I did so, because I remember reading Babe, the Blue Ox, which was Paul Bunyan’s (an American folk hero) pet ox. Babe was so black; he was blue in the sun. By depicting Jefferson as blue, I tried to conflate Jefferson as very dark and an animal like the prosecution did. I also intentionally tried to make Jefferson look like a caricature of a black man. Thus, he has very large and red lips as well a wide nose. Furthermore, to show he’s a dead man, I outlined his features in white and made him noticeably gaunt.

-          Ma.

o   In all honesty, I really dislike Ma’s portrait. I don’t feel like I did her strength justice. Rather, she looks like an intentionally creepy battered woman—which is the opposite effect I wanted to give. My intention was to have Ma be a beautiful woman but with something a little broken inside, which rubbed viewers in just the wrong way. I remember in freshman year, Mr. Rayburn showed us a portrait of a nineteenth century woman which he loved. He told us that when showed his wife, she replied that the woman was an abused woman and it startled her to think that the artist captured that so well. Obviously, I’m not a classically trained painter, but I really wanted this type of feel. I didn’t capture it, though, and I really think the problem was my artistic abilities.

-          Macon.

o   Look, Angry Black White Boy is an incredible book and I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, I could never get behind Macon. His redeeming moments for me were immediately overshadowed by his following actions or other opinions. As such, I think my portrait of Macon may seem a little hollow. I chose to shade his eyes with a beanie because I generally felt like Macon was untrustworthy and I couldn’t see myself looking him in the eye. I also left Macon’s skin grey to show he could blend into different cultures like Odysseus, but I made sure to leave his mouth white. This was because despite all his activism, I still believe it should not be ignored that Macon is white fighting for the black cause—taken however you think it should be.

All in all, I really enjoyed making my open-genre project, and I hope everyone else does too.

- Tina

P.S. I'll add pictures of each portrait as soon as I can.
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