Presentation reflecting upon the work of self portraiture / the

summer projectIn this power-point I will be covering the development of my painting ranging from my initial sources from the National Portrait Gallery to how I developed to create a painting of myself in the style of the portraiture.

When going to the national portrait gallery, I copied the artwork which immediately stood out to me when compared to other artwork in the museum. I felt this was the ideal way to create a selection of artwork which was portrayed in my style. This was because I knew at the end of this project my final piece would be a representation of myself- the artwork I chose I feel is a representation of myself in a different perspective; this is because I can see my self painting and creating artwork following these particular styles. I feel the artwork which I looked at ranged a lot but they all followed a slightly unusual surrealist view.

INITIAL SOURCES

Just above this paragraph we can see a “self portrait by Egon Schiele with bare shoulder”)- this was the painting which I went onto using to inspire myself to create my final image . This image stood out to me the most, this image stood out the most because I really liked how Schiele separated his tone using aggressive brush strokes. The paintings texture almost looked indented due to how the oil had been treated- this caused the image to come across and seem to look quite gruesome and unpleasant; accompanying this the face itself is distorted in a psychedelic format, due to the way the vivid contrasting colors seem to look as if they are free flowing this brings out different different angles where the light falls upon the face in a unusual style . The face came across as if someone had manipulated it- squished it as if it was clay, the painting in my opinion is difficult to look at- the reds have been positioned between pale common skin tones causing the red to seem even more unusual.

My representation Artist’s self portrait

SELF PORTAIT BY EGON SCHIELE WITH BARE SHOULDER

MORE INITIAL SOURSES

EDWARD ALEXANDER (“ALEISTER”) CROWLEYI decided to choose this artwork because I really appreciated the mood which was presented due to the use of warm colors; Its interesting because I feel warm colors usually put on at ease, the warm colors in this image make me feel at peace, I think this is also emphesized by the pose and gown which the man is wearing in the picture. The mans hands are resembling what I believe to be the Buddhist ohm sign- this sign is a yoga symbol which is a sign of protection. The mans robes are also red and draped over him as if he is a Buddhist monk. When recreating this image (see above) I have decided to work in biro in order to resemble the fine texture of the brush stokes. When recreating this artwork used a series of techniques such as cross hatching, I wanted to ensure my lines were very fine so I could bring about the peaceful tone presented in the image/ I did not want to have jagged lines because I feel this would disrupt the mood of the image.

This picture really stood out to me rather than the other examples at the gallery due to the contrasting colors to show depth and movement on the lower part of the body, the artist uses a diverse range of yellow tones in order to exaggerate Darcey’s exquisite facial features- dark tones have been used to reverse the figures adbomen to make a statement out of her rigid posture and poise alongside the movement exemplified by the colors of her legs creates an anticipation within the viewers mind of the ballerinas next movement. The light in the painting falls from the top right of the image in order to add to the sense of rhythm in the picture and works further to propel her to the opposite side of the canvas. When recreating this image I decided to use a black ballpoint pen I thought this would be a more creative medium because its not similar to the original piece yet a strong sense of depth and dimension is produced between the background and the figure alongside this fact the scribbles which I used to create tone represent the curved shape of the body of the woman. I feel the only anomaly I produced in this sketch was the proportions I feel the head is slightly oversized.

ALLEN JONES- DARCEY BUSSELL

The next piece I decided to look at is called George Melly I really liked this image because of the arrangement of the paint strokes they seem to appear as quite unorganised due to the blocks of missing paint- I feel like this messy style was put together to create movement. Although the general gist of the image is messy the detail presented in the painting is very advanced the faces seems to be constructed of very fines which match the clothing which they are wearing; I find it very significant that the faces seem to be in such high detail because this makes them stand out when compared to the rest of the characters body. When copying the image myself I started in acrylic and found it very difficult to create a resemblance of the paint strokes. I then decided to use ink and felt tip. I started this process by using felt tip upon the coloured parts of the image. I scribbled with the felt tip in a much unorganised way to show a similar structure of the artwork. After I had the colour placed in the correct place I then went onto using a ballpoint pen to bring about tone- when doing so I tried to rush the process so I could resemble the movement created. I think the combination between the felt tip and the ball point pen worked really well because a high level of contrast was created; although I feel I could have spent more time upon the figures faces and have paid more attention to the detail present.

GEORGE MELLY

After creating various copies of artwork I liked from the national portrait gallery exploring certain styles I liked, I decided to draw myself in different viewpoints which I thought I could develop in a format to bring out a similar style to the artists I looked at. So I thought the best way to approach this would be to pinpoint my favourite copy I made from the national portrait gallery- I decided to choose Egon Scheile with bare shoulder because I found the surreal style really captivating while being so different! After choosing the portrait I then decided to create a some biro and pen sketches which displayed really a varied selection of interesting angles; I wanted to make my angles as abnormal as possible, this is because this would follow with the quirky strange style of Scheile and I want my drawing to be as personal as I could make it in addition I see myself in a very quirky bizarre way, so by following up with strange angles was a key to the development in my work.I decided to only use biro and pen because this was a very slow process meaning I had to pay a lot of attention to the tones present upon my face- I found this to be very crucial to my project because when looking at the artist whom I was creating an interpretation of the dimensions. Below this paragraph are 3 portraits which have been stylised to show the curved contours of the face to help me further on through out the project (see upcoming slide)

HOW I DEVELOPED MY ARTWORK WITH EXPERIMENTS AND DECISIONS

HOW I DEVELOPED MY ARTWORK WITH EXPERIMENTS AND DECISIONS

After creating a series of biro studies for my development I then decided I wanted to experiment with my chosen medium before racing into my final image. The medium which I decided to choose was acrylic, I thought this would be a very suitable representation of the style presented in the image I was being inspired by. I feel by using acrylic over the medium of oil this means that my work would dry at a much much faster rate and the tones and depth of the image would come across to look really interesting when layered upon a series of different layers of swirling lines entwining with one another. In total I managed to complete five a5 acrylic representations of my work. I started this process by tracing around the outline of the biro studies and then working back into these studies with a series of layers and then slowly building the face up by pinpointing the main facial features. After I created a series of studies I noticed that I had completely forgotten about tone so I then ensured to use tone before working into the portrait with the trippy curvaceous lines. These drawings roughly took me about 3 hours to complete (each or even more time) the reason these portraits took such a long time was because I had to be so cautious when using my paintbrush due to the thin lines I was aiming to produce. Here we can see the contrast between when I used tone to build up the structure of the face before working into the portrait with the lines.

Final outcome – Portrait painting

I feel when going onto canvas a made a big mistake of using such a large canvas. I was not used to this scale and I found it very difficult to be able to draw out the proportions of my face because I had been so used to drawing on such a fine scale. I feel I could have got around this problem by either working on a smaller scaled canvas or gradually making the sizes of my studies bigger, although after a few hours I’m managed to overcome this problem by simply rubbing out my marks and going back into them . I found the developments really benefitted me to create my final piece. By planning ahead the final piece by looking into a series of styles and artists ad poses really gives you a wider range of options and a much clearer range of options.I found the final product of my project was very meaningful to me because I was given the opportunity to display myself in a way which I have chosen and developed- the boundries have been so open and I really could have gone any where with this project. This caused the project in my opinion to be a true representation on how I see myself and how I would like others to percieve me; following my last point up what makes this so special is that this is art and art means so much to me so this was truly a very personal project. This project has really offered me the chance to use acrylic in such a detail heavy way, I did not plan on seeing myself at the start of the project to be fiddling with the finest paintbrushes I could fine so I could create the perfect contours across my face and I feel this has really lead me onto appreciating how important the tone is to bring about the shape of the portrait.

REFLECTING ON YEAR ONEWhen looking back and reflection upon the work which I covered in the previous year I noticed the work which stood out to me astronomically when being compared to the other images was the work where I could show my imagionation and creativity to the highest degree. I believe I found the work of the Tate to be the most interesting because my style was so versitile and I really managed to expand my creativity throughout the project making the end results really work out to come across as really unique. Although in this project this factor really worked for unfortunatley I feel in other projects I did not use the full extent of my creativity and I feel to create better work I should really push the boundries and see where my mind really would lead me. One of the main walls in my learning passage was that I feel I stayed to in my comfort zone and did not go out to explore other mediums such as oil.

These two factors can certianly be developed upon because I want to develop them and this is the first step to developing them- having a passion. When starting this year off I want to explore a wide range of meduims and really push my creative boundries by thinking out of the box in ways other people would not think like/ this would in heindsight make my images a lot more personal as well! (images below from Tate project)

Over the past year my dream job has always been to be a record cover designer, but I feel as my knowledge has increased about degrees and the various course after looking at a series of universities I have decided I want to start my path at an art foundation course so I gradually build a vaster understand of what I would truly want by experiencing a series of different arts. I would like to study this at a university such as Kingston- to get into universities like this a portfolio will have to be put together to show my development in art and what I am working on now. I feel I could certianlly add into this throughout the year and that my EPC will tie into this really well and be a strong participent in the development of my portfolio.This year I am going to ensure my work is really personal and that I reach my creative boundries and really push myself to be able to create the best work which I can possible make and think out of the box and try to inspire myself rather than being inspired by other artists!

MY FUTURE….