“The Butterfly Project”
Inspired from a self-harm poem and combining it with a social media movement called “The Butterfly Project” (where you take a pen and draw a butterfly on wherever the self-harm occurs when one feels like cutting), I’ve come up with this drawing to raise awareness for self-harm.
With the hands as the focus of the drawing, it depicts a scene where one is drawing butterflies on his/her hand in a forest. The forest background reflects tranquility and the trees symbolises the idea of reborn, as self harmers (tries to) quit self harming. The right hand is drawn holding the pen in a way that looks like how one would hold a blade to make cuts on the wrist, but its now replaced with a pen as they engage in the butterfly project.
Extract of part of the self-harm poem:
My minds in a muddle
I still manage a small smile,
And close my eyes for a while,
I promise myself, from this day on and till I die
I’m going to be the best person I can
Or at least try
Like a old clich
“Live everyday like it’s the last”
Forget all the bad days, I’m leaving them in the past
The sun is shining, my dark clouds have vanished
My demons have gone, finally banished
Life is good, life is great,
Forget wallowing in self pity
I tell you, straight.
[From the first sketch]
Initially I wanted to depict a picture of a self harmer engaging in self harm. But I figured that it will be more meaningful if the picture is used to raise awareness for anti-self harming. I also experimented with different placement of the hands, different textures of the trees and sketched with a ball pen.
[From the second sketch]
Improved upon the first sketch, I came across the butterfly project and decide that I will transform my drawing to one that brings across a positive idea. I shifted the hands upwards and more towards to the right. I also experimented with different sketches for my trees, as they will form a large part of my art piece. I’ve also removed the vague shapes of the mountain from my first sketch as I feel that the drawing will lose focus on the main point which is the hand if there are too many layers in the drawing.
[For the final drawing]
By making use of perspective drawing, trees that are the nearest to me are darker and has more defined textures while trees that are further away are drawn with lighter and softer strokes. I also made use of shadows and shading to make more drawing look more dynamic.
