07. Observationl Self-Portrait

Artist Statement

For this piece, we were tasked with creating a self-portrait influenced by the emotions that we were feeling at the time. Using colors, motion, and texture, with a collection of these elements our portrait was supposed to express what our chosen emotions were. The emotions that I was feeling during the time of this project were tired, anxious, relaxed, and ok; all of which I tried to portray in my portrait. Using oil pastels on watercolor paper, I blended with my fingers to make more smooth lines; the more focused ones made just by not blending. When creating this piece I kinda just went with the flow of it. This was also my first time using oil pastels as a material, so I was also kinda experimenting with it as I was defining my features. Starting from a basic stretch in green I just expanded from there, adding depth and details whenever I felt it was needed.

Since the material in this project didn't really have the ability to make fine details, something that I usually do a lot in my artwork, I was very straightforward; never really stopping to think about future aspects, I just drew and blended what I saw; because of that my project never really evolved. Though I will say I was having some conflicting ideas on what I wanted my background to be, in the end, I just cut it down to a much smaller template and went on from there.

Because this project was based all on emotion, I think there are multiple feelings and stories that you can gain from this piece. I’m someone who's sleeping patterns are literally all over the place, sometimes I can sleep a good seven hours a night others I can barely make it five. I think the emotion of tiredness is most poignant in this piece, an emotion that I was heavily feeling on the day that I started this piece, framed by almost a dreamlike haze. The pale eyes, heavy bags, an almost smeared conscious, which then slowly transitions into a cloud/ocean scenery; my head is left floating in whatever dream my mind had previously been occupying. Overall I’m really happy with the way this piece turned out, more so then I thought I would be. The dreamlike state that I get from the piece is perhaps my favorite, especially with my hair slowly transitioning into the scenery below; I think it all just blended together really nicely. If I were to revise in the future I would probably start to think about how I would mat this piece. I feel like a white background would be too plain but a black one almost too distracting; this will come to be something that I think about in the future.