Charcoal Self-Portrait

16 x 20

Artists Studied:

Yan Pei-Ming

Essential Question:

How much information is needed in a portrait to make the subject recognizable?

I don’t think much information is needed to recognize a portrait. Sometimes all it takes are a pair of eyes or lips to guess who it is. In my portrait there is more than lips and eyes, because of this the portrait is easily recognizable and distinctly looks like me. I chose my composition because I tend to gravitate towards that particular stance and facial expression. I thought it would match my demeanor and daily attitude which would let the viewer understand or see who I am.

In order to do this portrait, I had to pour charcoal dust onto paper. This forced me to work backwards, I had to start with a covered paper and I only had an eraser. It was very intimidating in the beginning and I kept wanting to darken the values by erasing and it would never work. It allowed me to search for the light and overall showed me a new way to draw which I really enjoyed.

The style in my portrait demonstrates precision, detail with some areas messy. My style is distinct in the way that I want as many details as possible, I have a hard time leaving things out When strangers look at my portrait I think they will understand that my personality is very serious and sometimes humorless. If I wanted a different impression of myself I could have chosen a different expression or composition.

In Teo's portrait he did a good job of keeping to his personal style. There is no doubt the portrait is of him, he was able to show distinct characteristics such as his eyes and nose. The effort and detail he put into his facial features added to the success of his portrait as well. The detail in his face contrasts well with the abstract and expressive background.