Self Portrait

This project is a self-portrait drawing because it is a drawing of my self, based on a picture of me. To make this artwork I took a picture of myself and then printed it out. So the goal was to make the drawing look as much like the picture as possible. Materials I used were different values of graphite pencil, black charcoal, white charcoal, and different tools to blend. I choose to create this specific artwork because this is the picture of myself that I choose to do, and the goal was to have a final product that was a self-portrait. I used different principles and elements including balance, shape, value, texture, and space.

I used a variety of techniques and methods including using gridding and different color values. I used gridding on both the photograph and the drawing so that they'd have the same proportions. I used different black and white values throughout my drawing because the right corner of the forehead is very light and the eyes and some of the hair are very dark. My project evolved because I started over. At first, I had about 1/4 of a drawing done but I wasn't taking my time doing it square by square, so it just wasn't looking good. So I basically changed my whole project by starting over.

The story behind my artwork is that sometimes it takes a second draft for you to do better, and fix your mistakes. This project relates to my life because I drew myself. To make my artwork stronger I would probably fix the bottom lip so that it's not as big