Self Portrait
Exhibition TextThis is a portrait of myself. The goal of this project was to create a self portrait in the style of a famous artist. I created this piece using aspects of Van Gogh’s style of painting from his self portraits. While creating this project, I slipped away from more formal styles of painting and I instead painted what I felt would work well.
PlanningI had two plans for creating this self portrait. The first was to do the self portrait as Van Gogh would have had to do it. The second was to take a picture and grid it onto the canvas. I decided to do the grid method with a picture as it would be more efficient and my proportions would be far more accurate.
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Self Portrait
91.44 cm x 91.44 cm Acrylic on Canvas November - December 2016 |
Inspiration
"Post Impressionism." The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. http://www.theartstory.org/movement-post-impressionism.htm
"Self Portrait 1889." National Gallery of Art. N.p., 2016. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/highlights/highligh t106382.html "Vincent Van Gogh Self-Portrait." Musee D'Orsay. N.p., 2006. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. http://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/works-in-focus/painting/commentaire_id/self-portrait-2990.html?cHash=a873609651 |
The inspiration of this piece was Vincent Van Gogh's self portraits. More specifically, It was inspired by a self portrait he did in 1889. Van Gogh was a major artist in the Post-Impressionistic movement. Artists of the movement painted what they observed and imagined using both color and shape in order to depict the intended observations. The Post-Impressionistic artists had developed their own personal styles, but each shared the characteristic of abstraction. Pieces from this era, 1880 to 1914, were created by applying paint onto the canvas in specific pattern which caused them to be considered more abstract.
Van Gogh had a very unique style of painting. He used saturated color and thick brush strokes. His artworks were often very symbolic and had some sort of personal meaning to himself. Van Gogh's Self-Portrait from 1889, seen on the left, has a dominant color with the focus being drawn to the contrasting face in the center. His hair is in contrast with the rest of the painting as it is a completely different hue. This makes it stand out and bring focus to his head. Another important feature of Van Gogh's work is his deliberate use of line. He uses repetition of line in order to create patterns which in turn produces the movement. In his self portrait though, this aspect of line is important in depicting the contours and overall form of his facial features. This means that the direction and hue of the lines were very important Van Gogh's pieces. I attempted to incorporate the important aspects of Van Gogh's portraits in my Self Portrait. I tried to incorporate the broad brushstrokes and differing hues in order to control the focus. I really focused on the directions of the brushstrokes for the contours and shading of the face. |
Process
ReflectionProcess: This piece didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped it would. Van Gogh’s style of painting was challenging to replicate. I was able to get a hang of the use of line and thick brushstrokes, but I had trouble with the use of color. My use of color was pretty straight forward and this caused the portrait to lose the aspect of using one hue and offsetting it with just one other color.
Meaning: The purpose of this piece was to paint myself and also express myself. This piece did a great job of this as it is a work that shows who I am. I really focus on straying away from typical painting and went with the flow. If I thought a certain color or line needed to be in a spot, I put it there. It may not seem obvious, but this is a piece of self expression. CritiqueMy inspiration was vincent Van Gogh’s self portraits from 1889. I decided to move away from realism and more towards abstract art. My piece incorporated the style in the use of line, pattern, repetition, and movement. This causes the painting to be quite similar to Van Gogh’s portrait, but I didn't keep the same use of color. Van Gogh used primarily on color throughout his piece and offset it with just one other hue. I instead used multiple colors and used pattern and shade to offset the focus from the background. The most important similarity is the thick brushstrokes. This is a prominent aspect of Van Gogh’s work that I made sure to include in my own.
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The first step in creating this piece was to set up the canvas and prime it with gesso. I put three layers of gesso on the canvas so that I could apply the acrylic paint smoothly to the canvas.
The second step was to grid the canvas and sketch out the image of myself. The reason I did this was so that the proportions of my face would be correct or at least reasonable. I then began painting my shirt. I started with the shirt so that I could experiment and see what worked well so that I could apply this knowledge to the background. I found that I was definitely going to need to mix a lot of paint because of the the thick lines of paint. I then painted the background by filling it in with one solid color and then creating the intended pattern with a different color. I finally used other colors to fill in the background and intensify the patterns and movement. The next step in painting was to paint the areas of skin. Once again I started near the bottom, the neck, in order to experiment. I found that creating small lines with one hue helped me to visualize the contours and forms of my face which also helped me find where to shade. I finished the face by placing the first lines in the basic skin tone and then filled it in with darker and lighter shades for the highlights and shaded areas. The final section to paint was the hair. I did the hair much like I did the background. I filled it with a solid color and added the thick lines in the direction of the hair. The most important part of this process was to create the piece using thick brushstrokes and use different colors to cause visual bending without actually blending the hues to create a gradient. ACT Responses1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between you inspiration and its effect upon your work.
Van Gogh's self portraits had a strong effect on my piece in the style and thought process throughout the creation. His portraits thick brushstrokes and seem as if he painted what he felt was right. I did this also and strayed away from realism. 2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration? Van Gogh painted both his observations and his imagination which means that he didn't see realism as the best artform. Rather, he thought it was better to tap into your inner self. 3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration? Self portraits are a great way to express yourself and find the line between reality and imagination. 4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research? The main theme for my research was self expression and self portrayal. 5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research? Portraits don't necessarily have to be realistic. They are meant to express who you are, not what you look like. |