Teacher Name:
Grade: 12

Materials:
Dimensions: 500px X 372px
Description: Through my piece “Concealed” I wanted to incorporate markers and colored pencils to explore the nuances of Black skin tones. I started by color blocking with markers for the focal face and hand, and then refined with colored pencil. Despite the colorful palette used in this piece, I wanted to display the impact colorism has on Black youth. The media and America’s prejudiced history have portrayed fair skin and Eurocentric features as socially acceptable. Seeing how all elements of society interpret Black skin has impacted the confidence of many Black children. Skin bleaching has been a “solution” for some Black and African Americans to blend into the standards set by their white counterparts in society. Therefore, I wanted to portray the practice of bleaching in this piece by having the girl in the picture paint her beautiful, vivid skin to fit into beauty standards; So many Black people don’t know the power and beauty behind their natural skin color due to crude opinions and criticisms.

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