Art-Historical Self Portrait

Kara Walker Presentation (artist research presentation)

For this assignment I had to create a self portrait with a background inspired by an artist or art movement. The self portrait was drawn using a grid so that the proportions would be accurate. I chose a photo of my self that had a full range of value and drew it into the grid. Then I added value to me drawing with a pencil and blended it with a tortillon. After that I drew the outlines to some objects above my portrait and filled them in with a pen

In my drawing I mostly used value. My self portrait is basically composed of highlights and shadows. It has a full range of value, or it would have if I had darkened it up a bit after I finished.

My drawing also had a little bit of contrast as well. Because the actual self portrait part of my drawing is so light, the black of the silhouettes stand out quite a bit. It does kind of contrast.

For the background, I was inspired by the artist Kara Walker. She used silhouettes of people and other things to create scenes that conveyed a message. I was inspired by the silhouettes. I wanted to do something similar but without using people or trying to show some kind of idea. I wanted to just use silhouettes to show elements from a place that I liked. I used things that I saw at Old Town House park and used them for the background.