This may be my last one for a while since I'm about to move to Tampa, FL to start my new job. I've been wanting to revisit Tupac for a while now (especially since I've been listening to his music so much lately), and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. So much of Tupac's lyrics contain prophetic words-- particularly songs like "Keep Ya Head Up" that offer critiques of modern society's willingness to turn its back on folks. Of course, on the flip side, there's a lot of violence in Tupac's story, so I feel like a phrase coined by my friend Daniel Johnson applies well: he was undeniably called, but he certainly made mistakes in living out that call.
Pursuing that prophetic theme, I decided to do a sunburst pattern in the background in imitation of stained glass. The red, white, and blue have multiple possible connotations, but I honestly just picked them because they created a nice triad with the yellow/orange/brown tones on Tupac himself. I leave the symbolism of these color choices to the observer.
Of course, one reason I really loved working on this piece was that I finally got to experiment with realistic skin tone. People have often asked me about the reasons for my color choices ("Yes, but why is she green? What does that mean?"), and the truth is usually disappointing: I just don't have any flesh tone post-its! With Tupac, using a range of yellows through browns, I was actually able to develop something that resembled his actual skin tone, and now I'm excited to use this color palette again (you know, once I get settled into my new job).
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