Child Abuse Awareness Poster Sketches

The topic I chose for my awareness poster is child abuse. Child abuse can be physical, sexual, emotional, or neglect. It can happen in the home, at school, at day care. People need to be aware of the signs of an abused child and speak up. No child should be hurt in any way.

My first concept is geared towards making parents and caregivers aware. They need to take a step back and think before they do something that can hurt a child. I wanted to show a little girl looking into a shattered mirror. Pieces of the mirror on the floor have words that represent things that are lost to the child once they have been abused. Making the viewer realize you are taking away their joy, their hope, and other happy things in their life.

My next concept is geared towards anyone. It is a simple statement to stop the abuse, whether that be stopping the act of abuse or stopping someone from abusing a child. I wanted to show a ripped up teddy bear with its stuffing falling out. I also put a stop sign for the word stop just because I feel like it is something we see all the time and would catch the eye of the viewer. I also included a ribbon (which would be blue because the child abuse awareness ribbon is blue).

My third concept is simply telling the viewer that children are defenseless and sometimes they need someone to defend them. I wanted to display boxing gloves with tiny baby/child hands. My original thought was a child cowering with his hands over his eyes, but his hands would have on boxing gloves. Well that was a bit much for my drawing ability so I stuck with the boxing gloves and a hand reaching for it. I also wanted to add in a crying eye mixed with blood for additional effect.