Graphite Self Portrait

The main purpose of this art was to understand and use shading. Shading is very important to detail, as shown through the transition between the value strip and the graphite self-portrait. Another purpose that guided my art was the use of graphing. We used graphing to map out the drawing square by square, I used this to help me push to make use of shading and details.

For the value strip, I used graphite pencils on photocopy paper. For the self-portrait, I used graphite on pastel paper.

My first idea of this process was that it was going to be very hard. I have little to no experience with realism and the process in which it took to get to a final realistic art piece was very intimidating. Starting with the squares I just used what I knew about shading and different types of pencils, but when it came to the portrait I just took my time detailing and shading each individual square of the graph. Although it does not show after finishing my portrait I added a purple outline. I did this to emphasize a box around the photo as if it was a picture. I did this because the art was taken from an image and I thought a colorful border would add meaning to the art.