Theme: Child Abuse/ Child Labour
We hear stories about child abuse quite frequently in the world these days, which is shocking at least to me. In my opinion, child abuse is a serious matter and shouldn't be taken lightly. If parents are not emotionally or physically (providing secure environment for their child) ready to be responsible for the life of a child, I strongly suggest that they do not plan for it.
Child abuse can happen in the form of physical, emotional, sexual and even neglect. Any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or other
caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm
to a child can be considered as abuse. These abuse can occur in almost any places and at anytime be it at home, school, communities any child interacts with.
It is not easy to identify if a child is abused mainly because they are afraid to speak out after being threatened by the abuser. On the other hand, the abuser have full control over what the child can say and who the child can speak to. Which makes it even harder to identify these cases especially those happening at home.
Child abuse can cause irrevocable damages. Two types of effects include in the form of psychological or physical. Psychological effects include disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder. Another example is the disorganized attachment style they will face when they are older and have their own children. Physical effects are resulted directly from beating and other forms of physical abuse. These effects can be in the form of bruises, cuts or broken bones etc.
Child labour on the other hand is the act of depriving children from going to school and their supposed child life and forcing them into work. These work can be harmful to them in terms of physical, mental, social and moral. This usually happens in poverty-striken countries where their parents do not have the ability to fend for their children and resorting to selling one of their child for money.
Child forced to work are also often deprived from proper basic needs such as food and shelter. Because they are still young and are unable to speak up for themselves, exploiters use this chance to get as much advantage from them as possible. These children also face the rejection from their families besides hardships from working at such a young age.
Source: Wikipedia Encyclopedia
Using this theme, I had a few ideas for my project as shown below :)
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| I wanted to create a surrealism art by combining a teddy bear and an abuser. The story behind this is that a child gets to fearful of everything including his or her own best friend, the teddy bear. |
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| This art is more of a naive art where i wanted to create again, a very fearful child covering herself in blanket as her father opens the door to abuse her again. |
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Finally, I chose child labour in circus as my inspiration for my artwork. Many a
times we overlook the issue of child labour when it comes to circus. We
should realize that these kids although are performers and seem to be
enjoying what they do, they are still forced child labourers. Through my
artwork, I intend to illustrate the fearful and bleak emotions of a
young circus performer.
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| This is drawn by my friend (but the idea is totally mine). |
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| The final drawing done by me :) |
Below are the colouring steps done with photoshop!
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| This is the drawing. |
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| Started off by colouring the stage. |
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| The clown's teeth |
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| Red for the clown's nose and lips. |
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| The clown's eyes and the poles. |
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| Painted the seats blue and the lights. |
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| The audiences are grey in colour and the boy on top of the pole. |
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| The young performer. |
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| The overall picture at first. |
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| Finalized work 1. |
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| Adjusted the curves for the audience to make it more obvious and changed the colour of the outift for more effects. |
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| Added stars to the out.fit |
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| Final work. Not perfect but my very first :) |
