MLIA Final "Art Nouveau" - Bialek

Melissa Bialek

06.07.13

GD 360

My Life in Advertising - "Art Nouveau"

For this final project, I chose Art Nouveau as a style of advertising to represent me. I based this illustration, quite obviously, after the very famous print "Absinthe Robette"by Henry Privat-Livemont. It's always been a famous piece of mine, as is Art Nouveau as a general aesthetic style. Here I chose to omit doing some shading that is still present in AN work, but the thing that catches me the most about this style is how the differing line weights and color add or remove emphasis from certain parts of the drawing.

I chose to do my advertisement in a warm color scheme, since those are my favorite colors - especially pink and red - but I left the water blue to make it stand out and for it to, you know, look like water. I chose to make myself holding a water bottle because I love to work out, and I love drinking water, and it's necessary to stay hydrated when you lift, do cardio, or whatever it is you do to work out.

Trying to stay healthy and creating a healthy body perception for myself is a big part of my life and a constant struggle. I worry about how I look very often, and I make an effort as an "artist" (term used very loosely) to make myself look less than ideal, since many other artists choose to draw their subjects or self portraits highly idealized. I feel like it is important to realize there is always room for improvement, and not to be too sweet to yourself. You have to always strive to change for the better, and I feel I'd rather feel I see the reflection of me 30-35 lbs ago in high school than what may actually exist now since it spurs me to continue fighting.

This advertisement represents me because of the choice in color palette, the choice in style, the fact that I drew this all by hand (of course with the original "Absinthe Robette" as a guide, I will not deny that fact), and because how I chose to stylize myself.

The only thing I wish I could go back and fix, other than adding in some soft shading on the skin and hair, is that I wish I could have made a better font. I created the font with my own stylized handwriting, based off the original text used in "Absinthe Robette", but I feel it is uneven and sloppy. However after working 5 hours on this piece, I needed to give it a rest before I destroyed it any more than I already did.

I hope this piece stands out as something a little strange, since I feel that's where I place in this class.