PROJECT 5: Digital Painting

DIGITAL PAINTING PROJECT:

For this project I had a difficult time trying to come up with an idea that I felt would mean something to me. I decided to create a work that represents this idea of a “perfect life”, otherwise seen as consumerism.

The core idea of this project was creating a representation of a “perfect influencer lifestyle”. I was wanting to include ideas of Instagram perfection, luxury brands and beauty products.

 

The step-by-step plan that I created for myself is the following:

STEP 1: Collecting Images

·       Main subject:

o   Instagram “model”

o   “Perfect skin”

·       Influencer Lifestyle:

o   Coffee aesthetic

o   Clean girl

·       Extra Objects:

o   Skin care

o   Makeup

o   Perfumes

o   Phones

o   Jewelry

o   Fake nails

STEP 2: Building a base composition

• ·       Use an editing tool to place the face in the center of the image
• ·       Surround the face with lifestyle objects:
• o   Consumerism items

STEP 3: Start transforming

• ·       Make the skin look almost plastic
• ·       Very glass skin vibes
• ·       Make it look slightly fake
• ·       Make it look almost ad like
• ·       Repetition:
• o   Same lipsticks
• o   Repeated images
• ·       Scale distortion:

o   Large and small lips

o   Large and small coffee cups

 

ITERATIONS: 

Iteration 1: 

Iteration 2: 

Iteration 3:

FINAL PIECE:

FINAL PROJECT REFLECTION:

For this project, I created a digital painting that focuses on consumer culture and how ideas of beauty and lifestyle are constructed through advertising and social media. I used a central portrait of a model and surrounded it with images of products like perfume, lipstick, coffee cups, jewelry, and phones. I chose these specific elements because they all relate to influencer culture and the idea of a curated, “perfect” everyday life that is constantly being presented online.

In terms of process, I combined digital collage with painting to blend the images together while still keeping some areas intentionally obvious as constructed. I smoothed and enhanced the model’s skin to make it look almost unreal, similar to beauty ads, and added subtle highlights to give it a more glossy, artificial finish. I also repeated certain objects, like the coffee cups, lips, and products, to frame the face and create a sense of consistency and branding across the image. The colour palette stays mostly within warm pinks and neutral tones, which helps everything feel cohesive and visually appealing.

I think the final image sits somewhere between being celebratory and critical. At first, it looks clean and attractive, but the repetition and level of perfection start to feel slightly unnatural the longer you look at it. That contrast was important to me, because it reflects how these types of images can be both desirable and unrealistic at the same time, shaping how identity and beauty are presented in digital spaces.