Color Me Human
Color Me Human is my response to the ongoing racism and xenophobia that has been increasing over the past year (2020-2021)—including but not limited to the rising anti-Asian violence and discrimination around the world. The purpose of this project is to create a coloring book that celebrates humanity's beautiful differences and similarities, inspires mindfulness, and provides hours of relaxation through creative expression. After spending some time to gain a deep understanding of my audience, I designed four hand-drawn illustrations of beautiful women from different minority groups, adorned with various floral emblems and ethnic patterns.
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I included different floral emblems to give the book a cohesive look and to symbolize that although we look different, we still do have our similarities. I started each page by researching the country it was inspired by, gathering images for reference, and creating an inspiration board. Once I had enough sources, I began sketching the woman first as the human aspect is the most important one in this project. Afterward, I added the flowers to enhance the design. When I was pleased with the layout, I designed the background.
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Initially, I was planning to create six pages of simple illustrations without a background. After some feedback, I decided to add a background to increase coloring opportunities. One of my peers suggested that I use textile patterns for the background. I expanded on that idea by doing further research on various patterns often seen in ceramics, embroidery, folk art, tribal art, and woodcarving. Due to the extra time spent on research and designing the background, I chose to narrow it down to four pages instead as I wanted to focus on quality rather than quantity.
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The first page was inspired by the Philippines. Sampaguita is the national flower of the Philippines, and it symbolizes purity, simplicity, humility, and strength (Pangilinan). I also added some Waling-waling since it is considered to be the "Queen of Philippine Flowers" and is worshiped by the indigenous Bagobo people (Lizares). I also incorporated various cultural symbols inspired by various textile and woodcarving patterns.
The second page was inspired by Mexico. Dahlia is the national flower of Mexico, and it symbolizes beauty and diversity (Burton). I also included several traditional patterns inspired by embroidery and folk art.
The third page was inspired by South Africa. King Protea is the national flower of South Africa, and it symbolizes diversity and courage (“African Protea”). I also added a variety of ethnic patterns inspired by fabric and tribal art.
The fourth page was inspired by China. Peony is considered to be the “King of Flowers" in China, and it is seen as a symbol of opulence, beauty, and honor in Chinese culture (Wang). I also added some traditional patterns inspired by silk embroidery and ceramic art.
In addition to the illustrations I created, this project also includes the creation of a website to display my work. Consequently, this website demonstrates my skills in graphic design and programming. Moreover, this project has taught me how to present my work not just visually but also orally and in written form to various audiences beyond my peers and professor.
During the capstone process, I have learned to embrace the unexpected (i.e., Texas power outage during the winter storm). I have also learned to use in-class critiques and feedback to improve my project. Research, investigation, and exploration are also essential to my process to allow for a compelling visual and communicative artistic concept.
Overall, I am pleased with the prototypes and the website. I do plan to continue working on this project as I would like to eventually publish a coloring book with at least sixteen pages. If I were to do another coloring book project, I would like to try creating grayscale coloring pages instead of simply black and white images. However, for this project, I think the traditional black and white style works best due to time constraints.