Initially I started off with Stewie Griffin. The show family guy is one of my favorites, and I enjoy the look of the characters. Because this picture of Stewie is in black and white, I had a lot of potential for change and that is part of the reason that I chose it. I thought the best way that I could make changes to this picture was to draw it free hand on a separate piece of blank paper and add on the details as I went. He is a pretty easy character to draw as a cartoon because of his basic shapes.
After I was finished drawing him onto paper, I thought about some of the details I could add. I initially thought of adding color, which I did as my first change. For this I used colored pencils as well as a couple of markers. He was beginning to take on more and more life. When I scanned the image, it unfortunately didn’t look quite as good as it did on the paper.

The next thing that I opted to do was add a second character to the scene. For the second character, I chose to add another familiar character from family guy, Brian Griffin. Brian is an alcoholic, so I felt that it was right to draw him holding his favorite drink, the martini. After I checked the suggestions on my blog I decided to also add a weapon. That is the reason that I added the grenade in his pocket. Stewie is a very maniacal baby, so it was easy to understand why he should have a weapon. After the grenade was added, I colored in both the grenade and Brian. For Brian I used markers but for the grenade I used colored pencils.

After my second change to my image occurred, I didn’t receive very much feed back as far as changes were concerned. I did find the image to be slightly bland though because of the lack of background. For this reason, I decided to add one. For this alteration I used the program paint. Initially I placed the background down first as a base layer. I then took my image and pasted it over the background. Because there was so much white space, the background and the image overlapped. I think it adds a lot of color to the image as well as giving a kind of retro feel.

There is a lot that I could still add to this image. Some of the things that I was considering were: adding more characters, putting background items behind them, and putting some words in. I’m pretty satisfied with the piece all together as it is though. It’s pretty unique, and it has a lot of character. I will probably continue to draw family guy characters because I enjoy it, and I have had some positive experiences doing so.

FOLLOW UP:
In a response to Plato’s analysis of what we know, my slide show represents a concept of war that I feel very strongly about. I personally do not believe that we should be at war in Iraq. The images that I chose to represent what I believe to be right are images of food supplies being dropped over the country.
Although we supply these people with supplies, I don’t believe this makes up for what we are doing in that country. I think the useless killing is not justified by this supplement. Because I have seen so many images of war, carnage, and heard a lot of propaganda against the war I have developed such a perception on the topic. Through my perception, I have recreated something that reflects this perception. Despite our attempts to make amends for our actions, I don’t believe that sending in minimal supplies can accomplish this.
Because of my perception, I have created my own opinion, and recreated this power point to express my perception. Thus, it is an expression of “what I know”. An interpretation of what may or may not be the truth.

Plato seems so be saying here in his explanation of “what we know” is; everyone has their own interpretation of what is perceive in the world. The original creation of something, which Plato can only explain to be through the work of a “God”, cannot be replicated. For example: God (or any form of original creator) can create a chair. This chair can be perceived by a carpenter or workman. After this perceiving the original form, the carpenter or workman may create a, seeming, replica of the chair. It may appear to be an exact copy of the chair, but the original creation of this chair cannot be perfectly replicated. Beyond this, an artist may observe the replica of this chair, and create an artistic representation of this replica, such as a painting, but it is never truly the same exact chair.

This truth rings true in my eyes. In life, I believe that no one’s individual perception of the world can be replicated. Everyone has their own perception on what we know. Something may seemingly be entirely understood, but the reality of undeniable individuality comes into play making it impossible to be 100% the same. Referring to the previous example, God (or any original creator) had an original idea in mind for the creation of the chair. The artist that follows perceives the chair undoubtedly different than this original creator. No matter how similar the perception is, there will always be a difference in the reproduction. Respectively, the artist encounters this same problem.

In conclusion, no creation including: artistic, architectural, literary, etc. can be replicated in every aspect. This is due to individual perception of what we know.