Self Portrait
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Inspiration
My first inspiration for this piece was the artist Pablo Picasso. Picasso was born in Málaga, Spain, on October 25, 1881. He has been credited to be one of the founders and pioneers of the art style known as “cubism”. He was also very well known for his ability to switch his style, and reinvent himself in new ways. The style he was most known for though was cubism. Cubism is an art style where the objects within the image are broken apart and then reassembled in new and exciting abstract ways. It is an art style that highlights an object’s geometric form, and shows them from different and interesting viewpoints. The painting to the left is the one I used as inspiration for my piece. It is known as the Woman in Hat and Fur Collar (Marie-Therese Walter), and it was painted in 1937. The medium is oil on canvas, and the size of the canvas is almost 2ft by 2ft. It is currently on display in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, in Barcelona, though it was painted in Paris. This work is a painting of Picasso’s lover from 1927-1935 and the mother of his daughter.
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The second inspiration for my piece was an artwork from the artist known as Jean-Michel Basquiat. Basquiat was born in Brooklyn, New York on December 22, 1960. Later in 1968 around the age of 8 he was hit by a car, a traumatic incident which would later help him and serve as inspiration within his works; this is due to the fact that since he was bed ridden in the hospital as a way to pass the time his mother got him a copy of “Grey’s Anatomy”. In 1977 he had started his career in graffiti with a friend, they used the moniker SAMO. Basquiat later died on August 12, 1988. The work to the right is the artwork that I chose as inspiration for this piece. It is 6.7ft by 5.7ft, and it is painted using acrylics and crayons on canvas. It was created in the style of Neo-Expressionism. This artwork is one of which was inspired from the copy of Grey’s Anatomy from which he received from his mother.
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Planning
In this first planning page, I broke down what I saw and felt about the image since it was one of my inspirations. I broke down the colors I saw, the structure that the face took on, and even how it had looked unfinished. I noted that I would want to use lots of extravagant colors within my piece. I also noted that I wanted to do the linear hair and skeletal features as seen in inspiration’s artwork; these were two things that I executed upon and did incorporate into my piece in the end. I also made a note on the medium, and since I wanted to keep as true to the inspiration as possible I used pastels as well. I also worked into my piece the color red, but also variations of the color.
In my second planning page I broke down my second inspiration. I made notes on the background and how it was blended in certain areas, the use of skin tone colors on parts that represented the skin, the difference in the face between that and the cheeks, how the eyes were different shapes, and the use of shadows. These are also all things that I kept in mind and worked to incorporate into my piece, especially the skin tones and the cheeks. As I noted and as you can see when you look back between my piece and this one I drew the most inspiration from this piece and more so based my piece off of it.
In my final planning page for this project, I looked at and broke down the actual image mine that served as the jump off point for the painting. In it I noted all of my facial features, and also made notes as to which style should be used. I noted places of shadows, and places when colors can be blended in the background. The biggest note that I had made was to vary the shapes and show the difference between the two sides of my face. I didn’t want the eye bags to be the same shape, and same thing with my eyes and eyebrows. I decided that hair could and should be done in the style of Basquiat since I wanted to have more than just a few connections to that inspiration. Although my ear should be shown with multiple shapes similar to the style of Picasso because of the complexity of the ear.
Experimentation:
These four images to the right show me experimenting with colors in order to find the right ones to use for different situations. I would mix these colors and sometimes even mix them in with each other. The first photo in the top left was the first color I had mixed and it was the color I had used for the collar of the shirt, it is not pictured here, but once I finished with the blue of that lightness I added a little more blue to my palette to mix it with and then created the darker blue that was used for the rest of the shirt. The pink in the top right is the color I had used for the cheeks as well as the lips, this was a color I spent a lot of time working on to perfect in order to get it to be the best shade and show the color and redness within those areas of my face due to the lighting in the room at the time. The yellow in the lower right was a simple white and yellow mixture which gave me that, which I then used as the skin tone for most of the face. And the final color pictured, in the lower left, that I had mixed was this deep purple, the color was used to show the deepness and lack of sleep and overwhelming stress within my eyes and eye bags.
In this final image of experimentation I showcase how I experimented with the lines and geometrics of my face, deciding on the final product of which I would paint. I had experimented and played around with different shapes and different numbers of shapes to add to my face to bring it all together, this was one of the first rough drafts of such. As you can see by looking at this image compared to that of the final I changed many of the shapes and reworked it multiple times. At first I didn’t have any of the cheeks, there wasn’t a lot of depth to the ear, there were no eye bags, and multiple other things.
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Process:
In these first two images to the right and the left, you can see the first few steps that I took to complete this work. I started by laying out a boxing method so as to be able to better transfer the image and its details to the canvas, as seen in the image to the left. I then began playing around with shapes and fillers after setting down the outline. The image to the right shows the final part of that work.
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In the image above I started by making rough lines and black and adding color to the shirt. I did two different colors for the shirt to one show a contrast in the part of the shirt but to also show shadow. After I had finished with the color I used the black again to smooth out the lines better.
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In the Image below I Have done much more work from the last image, I have added color to the eyes, most of the face, the cheeks and lips, the chin and the nose, and also the neck. I have also added more black lines. Most of the colors used in this image are ones that I had to mix myself. For the big sections of paint I would use a bigger brush to get as much paint and cover as much surface as possible, and then get up close to the lines with a smaller brush.
In the image to the left I have for the most part finished. I am done adding color to the face, and now need to clean up the lines, and go over them all again with the black paint, I also need to add a background, and the elements of Basquiat’s style still.
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In these two images to the left and right, I have fully finished with the Picasso portion of the painting. One image shows the color blending similarly to how Picasso did in my inspiration painting. You can also see the use of black lines and the cleanliness of the line work similar to Picasso.
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The image to the right shows the final look at the painting before very final touches are added and we get the final product of the painting that we see towards the top of the page. In this image I worked to incorporate Basquiat’s style. I added an outline of an esophagus, I added teeth on the bottom row of the mouth, I added chin, mustache, eyebrow, and head hair, I re-outlined the the old outline in white pastels, and I added other doodles and drawings here and there where I saw fit for them.
Critique:
Similarities:
- one similarity between mine and Picasso's piece are that they both use the skin tones and other extravagant colors to show emotion and the features of the faces.
- Another similarity between my piece and Basquiat's is the use of bold colors; more specifically how those colors are used to make up for the lack of structure within the faces.
- The final similarity between all three pieces is their use of lines.
- one difference between mine and Picasso's piece is the use of different shapes, as well as the complexity of the two pieces.
- Another difference between my piece and Basquiat's is that my piece has a larger touch of cubism rather than the neo-expressionism within Basquiat's piece.
Reflection:
This was by far my most favorite piece to create, I loved the mixing of art styles as well as the piece overall. Picasso and Basquiat were my two inspirations for this piece. I think I did a really great job of connecting to Picasso, but I feel that I fell a little short with my connection to Basquiat.
The biggest challenge to me was finding a way to incorporate Basquiat’s style without ruining or drastically changing the Picasso style that I had to begin with. I feel that this piece tied together with my still life in charcoal, and my painting based on photography. I feel that it tied into these because I painted from a photo of myself and I painted what I had in front of me.
My favorite part of the piece was the mixing of art styles and seeing them come together in a way that worked. Although my least favorite part was the lack of the Neo expressionism, I feel that I could have added more to it with the acrylic crayons in the style of Basquiat. In the end, I hope that others see it as a well thought out and strong and intriguing work of art, I hope for it to make them question the way that they look at the things around them as well as themselves, not just physically but mentally as well.
The biggest challenge to me was finding a way to incorporate Basquiat’s style without ruining or drastically changing the Picasso style that I had to begin with. I feel that this piece tied together with my still life in charcoal, and my painting based on photography. I feel that it tied into these because I painted from a photo of myself and I painted what I had in front of me.
My favorite part of the piece was the mixing of art styles and seeing them come together in a way that worked. Although my least favorite part was the lack of the Neo expressionism, I feel that I could have added more to it with the acrylic crayons in the style of Basquiat. In the end, I hope that others see it as a well thought out and strong and intriguing work of art, I hope for it to make them question the way that they look at the things around them as well as themselves, not just physically but mentally as well.
ACT Connection:
1.) Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
- You can see a clear cause and effect relationship between my artwork and that of the inspirations through the use of color and line work alone. All three use colors and lines as a way to create form and show emotion within the art.
- My inspirations approach their artworks differently, one approaches everything by thinking about how it can be broken up and viewed differently from new angles, where as the other approaches it with past experiences in mind.
- When doing my research and actually painting it for myself, I found that things often turn out differently than how you might want or think them too. For example with my painting I had a completely different idea in my head as to how it would turn out, I will be honest I thought it would be much more intricate and use a lot more of Basquiat's style than it actually did, and thats because we tend to have this idea in our minds of something but it's not until the execution of it that you find out wether or not you did it how you wanted it.
- The central idea around my research was that art is up to how you interpret it, and there are many different ways of executing it. Art is an expression, and you should do with it how you please.
- While reading my research I found that you shouldn't just take things for what is shown, everything can be broken down, rearranged and looked at from a new angle.
Citations:
- Basquiat, Jean-Michel. “Skull, 1981 - Jean-Michel Basquiat.” Www.wikiart.org, 1 Jan. 1981, www.wikiart.org/en/jean-michel-basquiat/head.
- Emmerling, Leonhard. Basquiat. TASCHEN GmbH, 2020.
- “Pablo Picasso.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 28 Aug. 2019, www.biography.com/artist/pablo-picasso.
- “Woman in Hat and Fur Collar.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Jan. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woman_in_Hat_and_Fur_Collar.