Charcoal Self Portrait

The charcoal self portrait assignment required me to create a self portrait of myself, using a mirror and charcoal. I had to show a contrast of values and had to incorporate a background as well that could incorporate mixed media, or other materials.

I started this drawing by creating a outline of my head with graphite pencil. When I liked the form of my head, I began to make some of the details of my face. To do this I drew light guidelines horizontally and vertically on the paper on my face to plan out where my features like my nose and my puts and ears would be. When I had those lines in place I lightly sketched in those features. Next I began to use charcoal. I first started with the darkest area—my hair. I tried to mimic the pattern of my hair style while trying not to copy every strand of hair. I tried to make this part of my face very dark by applying multiple layers of charcoal. Next I did my eyes and mouth, which I tried to make detailed and tried to make a contrast of values. Then I did my nose where I tried to capture the shape of it through using just shading with charcoal. Next I filled in the rest of my face and the neck where I tried to emulate the light and shadow that was falling on my face in the mirror. After that I filled in my shirt and shoulders and my main body was done. Then I went on to the background. I initially was going to do it with colored pencils but then decided to use colored pastels (with the aid of my teacher). I really lobpved using them because I could make vibrant colors in the backround. I decided to go with different shades of blue in different areas.

The reason I made the self portrait so dark was because I love applying a lot of material and making things stick out. I wanted to make a contrast from the dark of the face to the vibrant blue background. I also wanted to make the background so bright for the same reason and also because blue is my favorite color so I love to Spurs edit when I get the chance to.