Realistic Self Portrait

During this piece, I attempted to pay as close attention to the detail as possible. I enjoyed using the grid for this, as it helped me focus on just a small portion of this project at a time. I tried to use very detailed and realistic ideas, in order to make this piece as accurate as possible. This project relates to my life due to the fact that it was a photo of me, I had a lot of time to just look at the photo and try to notice as many details in the piece as possible and try and copy those details in the paper. When using value I tried to reference my value strip as much as possible in order to just make the portrait as accurate as possible and match those values both to the photograph and to the drawing itself. When initially taking my photo I wanted to have my mask on in order to sort of try and represent/relate to this specific year. Even though I was home I still had the mask on in the photo, wanting to make that specific part as significant as possible.

During this piece I used graphite, and tried to stick to just a 4b pencil. I did this because I could get all of the values that I needed for the piece out of just a 4b pencil, it was soft enough and was also not too dark or light and I could control the value pretty easily. In the beginning I tried using other values as well, but in the end just stuck to using a 4b pencil and believed that that was the right choice for this project. I also used a kneaded eraser in order to play with value a bit and lift off value that was unneeded or just unwanted, and sort of add depth to the piece.

At first I found this project a little bit more difficult, but as I got used to working on it it became easier to work with/work on and the project sort of moved more smoothly as I went along. This piece evolved as I played with value more, and especially began to play with attention to detail and value with the hair. The hair was the part I believe turned out best and the one that I found the most fun within the piece. I do believe that towards the end I definitely could have slowed down more, and I’m definitely least happy with how the bottom of the piece turned out. Overall when shading at first I believed my piece to look a bit too simple, and it evolved from that to a more detailed and realistic piece as I added more value and detail.