PUNEET KAUR

The Skin Layer (2023)
Puneet Kaur, 17, Waterloo Collegiate Institute
(Mixed Media)

My idea is very straightforward and I already had a plan as to how I was going to achieve the final outcome I wanted, so it was easy to create what I envisioned. I wanted to create a human nature piece that expresses how we are all the same under our skin, but it is our beliefs and religion that sets us apart. My piece goes against racism and displays why it is such a significant issue in the world. I used plasticine to create the cracks on the mask then covered everything with plaster to make the mask itself. Then when I took the mask off I patched up any holes and put polyfilla on it to make it stronger. After I sanded, primed and painted the mask.

A challenge I had was creating the cracks and because I had this challenge it set me back time wise. I was supposed to have created my cracks and mask base faster but it ended up taking me a whole week to figure out how to create the cracks. I had to build and paint my entire mask in a week to finish the project. I had to come in at lunch everyday and take my mask home everyday to ensure I finished on time.

I believe my piece looks very similar to my sketch and I think I was very successful when creating it. I believe my final piece is very detailed and included everything I wanted to include. I feel the most prominent elements in my mask are space, texture and value. I used space when creating the cracks, if I used the space wrong the cracks would have taken over and it wouldn’t have looked like a face. I used texture when creating the blood to make it feel and look more realistic. I also used texture on the skin to make it smoother than the blood. Lastly I used value to make certain parts of the blood darker than others and make it look more real. I wanted it to look dried and scab-like so I added darker red, dark pink and black to certain areas.

Some examples of the Principles I used are balance and emphasis. I used balance in the cracks in a similar way I used space. I used balance when making the cracks and to make sure they weren’t overpowering the face. I used emphasis to make the cracks standout and when I was designing them to be 3-D. Something I would have done differently next time is I would have planned time wise better and experimented with how to make the cracks faster.