Fortune Cookies
In this series, I produced four unique compositions of fortune cookies to develop my technical abilities in the first month of my studio art class. For each piece, I was prompted to use a different medium and set up to explore the possibilities of a simple cookie.
Graphite Value Study
My first fortune cookie study was centered on using graphite to experiment with value. In this piece, I chose to use a symmetrical composition to guide the viewer’s eyes vertically across the picture plane.
Sept. 2025, graphite pencil, 11” x 14”
Charcoal Study
This piece was my first-ever attempt at utilizing charcoal. I found that charcoal is beneficial when the goal is to achieve depth and stark contrasts. I chose to have a single fortune cookie cut off at the edge of the paper, allowing the viewer to enter the piece in various ways.
Sept. 2025, black & white charcoal, 8.5" x 11"
Fortune Reveal
Sept. 2025, chalk pastel & charcoal, 14” x 11”
In this piece, I was prompted to use two different media and to reveal a fortune in some way of my choosing. I decided that chalk pastels and charcoal would pair well, especially with the warm palette I chose. Using a flashlight covered in pink tissue paper, I tried various angles of lighting to create the effect shown.
She Holds Him, He Holds It
She Holds Him, He Holds It, Sept. 2025, brown pen
In this final piece, each student chose how to depict the fortune cookies. I landed on making the fortune cookies the smallest emphasis, focusing more on integrating actual characters to set this work apart from the rest. I cut out the figures–leaving their clothing up to the viewer’s imagination–and pasted them on black cardstock to incorporate the Gestalt principle of closure.
