^Reference photo

I think that the curves and shapes that the bills make produce interesting shadows

^My pencil drawing of the reference image (very rough, but will be refined in illustrator)

^refined by tracing and adjusting over a scan of the sketch. I added a little bit of shadow around the coins using the width tool in illustrator. 

^I thought about using colour for my tonal mapping, but I didn't like how it was going. It also looks like the bisexual pride flag which is not what I'm going for. 

^tonal mapping using black, grey, and white. I feel like there is too much white (highlights) but I think if I did any less, the composition would look very flat. 

^Starting to experiment with task 3a using pencil, watercolour, and marker. I'm starting with green, which I think I will use on the bills. I plan on using another colour (either orange or pink) on the coins. 

^I've been doing some research on global wealth as I move forward with my composition and found this chart at https://www.visualcapitalist.com/distribution-of-global-wealth-chart/. Basically the top 1.1% of people hold almost half of the global wealth (as of Sept 2021). In my opinion, that is really disgusting. This article also talks about how the pandemic has affected the world's global wealth, which is also sad to think about. On top of trying to survive a once in a century pandemic, many people are struggling with money. 

I also think that there is a toxic idea that if you just work hard enough, you will make it in the world, and that poor people are only poor because they're lazy. Of course, many people see through this rhetoric, but a concerning amount of people still don't. In a Vanity Fair interview, Kim Kardashian, who is known to have been born into considerable wealth and fame, said "I have the best advice for women in business: get your f--cking a-- up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days". This article outlines all the ways that that statement is just messed up: https://globalnews.ca/news/8675766/kim-kardashian-backlash-women-business-advice/. 

I did some research on colour and wealth, and found these articles: https://artsandculture.google.com/usergallery/the-color-of-royals/2wKyQ40ioxf3IQ 

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180801-tyrian-purple-the-regal-colour-taken-from-mollusc-mucus 

The Google Arts and Culture article summarizes what certain colours symbolized to royalty, and the BBC article discusses the history of a purple dye that was worn by royalty. After this research, I will be incorporating, blue, purple, and gold into the final product. 

^I lightened the mid-tones in my tonal mapping to give it more range

^some photos I took to add texture. I took photos of some "luxury" items, such as leather (though in reality I'm pretty sure this is fake), a Louis Vuitton wallet, and a (fake) gold chain that created some interesting highlights and texture. The skylines reminded me of bar graphs, such as the aforementioned graph about the wealth distribution. Finally, I took photos of the residence walls, which reminded me of the texture of the desk in my original photo. 

^I changed the leather to be purple to match with my research (purple symbolizing wealth), while keeping some brown highlights. I changed the chain to be royal blue, another colour associated with status. 

^ I started the highlights by editing chain image to a desaturated gold, then added a transparent purple fill. For some shadows under the money, I added an image of the cityscape and added another purple fill, then did the same for the background. 

^I changed the purple fill on the highlights so that it kept some of the lighter values. I found that if I fill on these images, it doesn't do a flat fill of the whole image, but instead only sections of it, which I think adds to the texture.