An award-winning charcoal portrait I created. It placed "Best in Show" in two local competitions. Piece Description: "Cast Into the Shadows" reflects the struggle faced by people of color within America upon realizing many of them are born underprivileged and without the necessary means to achieve success. The illustration depicts a black family paralyzed by fear as they see their capability, but know they cannot reach it. The piece touches upon the lack of educational, monetary, and systematic support for people of color as well as the feeling of alienation. The creation of this work included a long period of thought surrounding how technique and composition would contribute to meaning and significance. For example, I used pastel charcoal with the goal of blending the figures together, to show how entire groups of people can be left behind. Overall, the piece altered my ways of beginning my artwork and evoked a new sense of thought and complexity within underlying and surface-level meanings.