Calm & Confusion

This was another independently designed project. For this project, I chose to do a self portrait; although it turned out to become a self portrait series. I started the project by coming up with a reference image. I took the picture, and used an app to make it have five different values. I was thinking of doing something Jackson pollock inspired, so i figured I would need to make my values clear.

I started out by thinking that I would paint all my different values in the grey scale and then add the color on top. Using a pencil, I sketched out my features onto canvas. I got five different shades of grays and put them onto the canvas to match the reference image I had made. I figured I could make the portrait gestural because I would be going over it. Once I finished the grey scaled portrait, however, i did not think I should add to it. First, because of how gestural it was, it would be difficult to tape off these areas. Secondly, because I kind of liked the portrait how it was. The face was shorter than realistic, but I was satisfied with the way it turned out.

Once this portrait was over, I still wanted to try the Pollock inspired portrait because I thought it would look cool. I started by using a light table to trace the exact lines from the reference image this time to ensure it would be very precise. Next I figured out which values went together, and I taped off all the parts of the canvas that did not have the darkest value. then I mixed up three different paint colors in a very dark shade. I used a paint brush and flicked it off by tapping it against a larger paint brush. I removed the tape, and then taped off the next value and made another set of colors. I continued this until I had completed the image. I touched up some sections and added some more white to the lightest value.