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Section 1: Finished Artwork
Self-Portrait š¤”
Dimensions: 11 in x 8 in
Date: October 23, 2023
Idea: I created a self portrait with colored pencil on black paper after taking the image that I would use for the piece. The piece has black and white elements as well as a vibrant red to contrast the monochrome environment.
Materials: Colored Pencils
Process: After taking a photo using red paint, I recolored the image to add both monochrome aspects and vibrant colors. I used black paper to match the dark background of my photo and colored the lighter and red areas with colored pencils.
Section 2: Planning & Practice
Grid drawing practice, Eyes + Nose + Mouth + Hair Practice and additional colored pencil practices.
Grid drawing practice: This practice was to try drawing with the usage of grids. We rather than looking at the whole image, it was broken down to equal sized grids, and we sould focus on individual grids.
Eyes, Nose, Mouth, Hair Practice: This was a pencil practice to draw different parts of the face, mainly focusing on the eyes, nose, mouth, and hair. This practice allowed me to experiment with textures and shadows, textures such as wrinkles, hair and skin and shadows in dark parts of the face as well as areas with more depth.
Colored pencil practices on black paper: In my final piece, I wanted to use colored pencil rather than graphite with black paper because I wanted my image to have a darker background. Instead of coloring the dark areas, I would color the lighter areas with white colored pencil, and I also practiced using colors on black paper.
Image Ideas and References
For the image I would take for this self portrait, I was intrigued with photography that utilized colored lighting. I found various images that used red lighting to had vibrant shades to the person. However, I didn't have effective ways to recreate this light, so I improvised by using paint, referencing the second photo to add the vibrant colors through smearing the paint on a part of my face.
Section 3: Experimentation
To prepare taking the photo, I bought cheap watercolor paints from Daiso and mixed some of the red paint with water on my hand and smeared it on the bottom half of my face. I also had some paint brushes to paint in small spaces without paint and to paint my lips a slightly darker shade of red to differentiate the tone from the rest of my face. When I tried to wash it off, the paint wouldn't come off, so I learned I shouldn't buy paint and put it on my face before checking because I spent an hour getting it off my skin.
After taking multiple photos, I chose one with a composition I liked the most. I edited the image to dramatize the lighting a bit more, ending with the image on the left. I wanted my final piece to make the red pop out in contrast to a more black and white environment, so I made a grayscale image then added color mainly to the area with red, making my final image.
Section 4: Process
After deciding to place my object in the right side of the piece, I sketched out the object with white chalk over the base color I had on the paper. After the rough sketch, I painted the outside/background with black acrylic paint to separate the object from the background. Upon a few experiments with ideas for the background, I used a new tool, a palette knife, as well a rectangular brush to paint the background to create unique and abstracted textures. I did not want the background paint to be outlined around the object, so to prevent the paint from getting on the object, I used masking tape. After completing the background, I took off the tape and started incorporating my modified contour to my object with chalk.
Section 5: Artist Statement
Although a self portrait seemed like common and simple concept, it was still a challenging unit. First challenge is the usage of white colored pencil on black paper. It differed from the opposite, using black on white paper, and it sometimes confused me to invert the areas I would color from usually coloring and shading the shadows and dark areas to coloring the lighter areas or highlights. Eventually, it got much easier once the base highlights were done so I get familiar with the areas that should be colored lighter. I also kept the red paint smear from the photo, coloring it with red to make it stand out. I felt more familiar with this aspect from last year, utilizing different shades of red, dark blue, orange, and peach to add to the depth and shades on my face. I find self portraits difficult because of how detail accurate I feel it must be. With portrait practices of strangers, minor changes in detail don't bother me as I am not familiar with the person I am drawing. However, when drawing someone I know or myself, I find those changes or errors very irritating as those small details can change the overall look of the person. I believe this project was both familiar and experimental to me in different aspects, and overall was a unit I found interesting and enjoyable to work on.
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