52 Fridays - This Week in Living Color

 

Welcome to week fourteen of my "52 Fridays" art project. I'm changing this from a "drawing project" to the more general term art because I want latitude to play with different mediums. Sculpture, painting,  interpretive dance? Stay tuned and see what happens.

This week is a drawing of a wood carved figure of the Gurunsi tribe from West Africa (learn more at Africa 101 Lost Tribes). I found the photo on "Zachary Feere—African Art" Instagram's feed, which has been a treasure trove of amazing stuff and this is not my first time pulling something from there. I was drawn to this piece because of the strong cuts across the face that suggest ritual scarification or maybe, healed wounds. The epic nose and sensual lips and overall shape of the head also attracted me. I decided to add color to this piece and used color pencils to overlay my ballpoint drawing. My girlfriend, Ieva, commented that "He looks bloody.", which I didn't notice, but see that now. I think he looks like a warrior who has been through hell and out the other side and wears has scars proud.

Happy Friday and see you next week!

OK HW