Images #3

The idea behind this work was to create a face that seemed almost ugly and emphasized all of one's insecurities to an extreme level. I wanted to not make it look gross, but definitely I would want somebody to look at it and think that it looks super disproportional and wrong looking. I did this by taking a picture of myself in a tired position and examining the picture for places in my own face that I often found myself displeased with and I emphasized those in my drawing. After that I wanted to connect my materials to my idea since oil pastel did not have much of a connection to perception so I crushed up mirror and used it for the hair. I though mirror could represent how one sees themself and then the drawing would represent the distorted element.

I used oil pastel because I wanted the drawing to be full of vibrant colors and catch the viewer's attention at first as being pretty colors, then once they looked at the subject they would see it being almost ugly. I also felt like the oil pastels would blend really well and so would give the sense of smooth and almost melting which connected to the idea of perception. I then used crushed mirror for the hair which was surprisingly sparkly which I liked, but originally the thought process behind using it would be that it would connect the piece to the idea of a distorted vision of one's self.

I started out with a sketch, but my piece changed a lot from the original idea. I started out with just flat hands cradling the face, but then for no other reason than it adding more distortion and looking cool I decided to use my fingers to physically manipulate the look of my face. I started by taking pictures of myself in multiple poses and chose which one I liked best. I then made a sketch with just graphite pencil but I struggled to make the features as pronounced as I had hoped. I struggled with how other features would react if one feature shrank or grew significntly. Eventually I settled on playing mostly with asymmetry and wrinkles. When it was time to add the mirror I used the broken mirror bits from the second SI from when it hadn't worked out. I put them in a paper and plastic bag and hit it with a metal hammer. I had to hit it for about 5 minutes straight for it to be small enough. I then put it through a kitchen colander and sifted out the really small pieces to use for hair. I had to use gloves and safety glasses to smash and sprinkle the broken glass onto the paper. I painted elmers glue onto where I wanted the hair then poured the pieces over it and waited for it to dry before dusting the additional glass bits into the trash, I then did a second later because after brushing off the excess there were bald spots.