Self Portrait

Artist Statement

The subject of this piece is me. It's a self portrait of the profile of my face. I made this by using ink for the background, and graphite and charcoal for the shading on the fact and body. I chose to use this perspective because most other people in the class were choosing the do their piece from the front-view. I wanted my piece to stand out a little bit, so I drew it from the side. Also I wanted to practice drawing profile view faces, because I feel like I could use some studying of that view of the face.

I demonstrated the concept of having my center of focus different from what one would normally expect (by turning my subject to the side, rather than straight on), also I had the subject activating one of the edges of the paper (showed in how the body goes off the page, rather than just being contained within the page.) I chose to create this art work with value, shape, and line. Value comes in with all the shading and scale of values used in the piece. Shape is in the sketch and shape of the face and facial features. Line is in the line work and forms I created.

The meaning of this piece is sort of how, sometimes the world is scary, and everything else is black, and you just have to focus on yourself before you can readjust and see the world again. Or maybe it's just a self portrait I was told to draw. You chose what you think it means. My project relates to me because it IS me. It's a representation of me. I definitely think that this work could be better. When I sketched the face, it looked decent, but when I went in with the ink, I messed up the side of the face, and I couldn't do anything about it at that point, so I had to just keep working. I dislike the face, and if I could, I would go in and change it.