Assignment Three

Preparatory Work

For my assignment piece, I decide I wanted to create a self-portrait due to my enjoyment of zooming in on faces and working up close, but in indirect ways, so not just a plain forward-facing pose, but with interesting angles or expressions.

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I settled on a pose in which my face was turned slightly to the left, leaving my left eye, eyebrow and side of my mouth looking much less than symmetrical and creating some rather interesting shapes and angles for me to explore with the paint, as well as some rather interesting shadows and colours to also explore.

Once I had finished the pose selection process, I then moved on to consider which format I wanted to work with and which would best suit the chosen pose. I quickly drew a rough landscape and portrait box as well as a square and then proceeded to draw a very rough sketch within the box so as to get a rough idea as to what the piece would look like.

For the next part of the preparatory process, I tried to focus on the base colours I could see within myself and made notes of them within my sketchbook as reference for when creating my final piece.

I then used a section of my sketchbook to play with the different methods of application of the paint and how I would achieve the best end result within my piece.

After this, I tried to work out the best flesh tones I could see within my face and created reference notes of this within my sketchbook also. I decided I would begin by using the colour ‘Portrait Pink’ as my base colour and then adding the different colours to this to suit the different areas, including raw umber for the cooler shadows, deep red for the warmer areas and also violet for the darker shaded areas. All of which I could see within my skin.

Finally, I created two quick studies; one in charcoal and another in soft pastels to get a general feel of the subject matter, tones and hues to consider in my final piece.

Final Piece

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Once I had carried out my preparatory work, I then began to create my final piece. I applied the colours I had chosen for my base colours first in the general outlines of my face. I then began building my layers up through the different hues slowly but surely.

Around midway through my whole process, I decided to step back and re-evaluate the piece. I could see that I had accidentally worked some areas of the piece too much and lost the actual shape and likeness of my face generally, such as my forehead and cheeks and jaw line becoming too bulbous. I then worked over this to correct it before continuing on to include the finishing touches.

Reflection

Upon reflection, I am actually rather proud of the work I have created and the accuracy with which I have been able to achieve it due to the level of preparation I have included this time. I think this is definitely needed when creating my final pieces.

I feel I have followed my tutor’s advice regarding a limited palette well within this piece, however, I definitely feel the addition of the blue and red really do help draw the viewer’s eye in and suit the realistic detail within the piece. I feel if I had used flesh colours for these parts, the piece would have much less of an impact and appeal – similarly with regard to the pearl earring, which I feel I have been able to replicate rather well in a suggestive manner as opposed to too realistically.

I also feel that whilst I have created a rather realistic appearance within the shapes of the features etc, I think my suggestive and expressive approach to the paint application techniques have been really well executed in assisting in creating an interesting response for the viewer to appreciate. I do really enjoy this method and think I can really see my personal voice developing before my eyes when I create pieces in this way.