DESIGN PRINCIPLES / PROJECT 1 - SELF PORTRAIT
WEEK 5 - WEEK 7
Hussain Waheedh
Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
0344802
Design Principles GCD60804AC182
Dr. Charles Group - Section 1
WEEK 6 LECTURE: SELF PORTRAIT
On this week's pre-recorded lecture by Dr.Jinchi, we were taught in detail about the a Self portrait.
Self: A person's basic personality or nature (considered in terms of what you are as a person)
Figure 1.1 Self
Figure 1.2 Gustav Corbet
Figure 1.3 Muid Latif
Figure 1.4 Flora Morsi
INSTRUCTIONS: Project 1 - SELF PORTRAIT
For my project 1, I did some online research to understand self portraits as an art form and the works of legendary artists such as Van Gogh and Frida Kahlo.
Figure 1.0.0 Self portrait by Frida
=> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NICodKeadp0 - How artists explore identity
I also did some visual idea exploration on pinterest to get ideas on the styles and methods.
Figure 1.0.1 Self portraits by various artists from pinterest
I found some coffee paintings as well and wanted to try coffee as my medium for my portrait since coffee has been a huge part of my everyday life lately. And also, I love the process of mixing coffee with water to produce different ranges of shade.
Figure 1.0.2 Coffee artwork from Pinterest
After getting some ideas, I looked for photos of mine that somehow defines who I am and also would look interesting on canvas. Here is the photo I chose. I took the photo a few months back in a dark road with an orange light bulb some distance away that created a nice looking tone of highlights and shadows on a side of my face.
Figure 1.1.0 Reference photo
Figure 1.1.1 Mapping face structure
The first layer was the lightest shade for the highlighted part of my face.
Figure 1.1.2 Painting highlights
After painting the highlights, I painted the shadows by referring to the initial map.
Figure 1.1.3 painting shadows and background
I didn't want to confine the artwork to a full page so I did it in a circular composition for the background on the centre of the canvas. Here is how the final painting looks like:
FINAL SUBMISSION:
Figure 1.2.0 Final Submission
RATIONALE: For my self portrait I wanted to experiment with coffee paint since it was something I've wanted to try and haven't got good results in the past. What I like about coffee paint is how to mix water and coffee to create different tones of light and shadows to create the looks of a figure ground and get experimental with it. I chose a photo of mine that had very minor lighting and a dark background that had few overall shades of light so I could use the figure ground technique as a way of making the face stand out of the painting. I chose coffee because it's been a while I had been pretty addicted to coffee and I cannot end a single day without a few so coffee describes a part of my life now.
FEEDBACK: Dr.Charles seemed very impressed with my work and progress and said it was a really good job and that I've come a long way. He said it was a great experimentation and great figure ground techniques. He also said that I could perfect coffee painting using finer brushes and practice.
REFLECTION: I have always wanted to paint portraits but I've never been able to get myself to try. It had a lot to do with my bad painting skills. This exercise was a bit challenging due to such reasons but now that I am learning more about painting every week, I felt comfortable enough to give it a try and I feel very good about the result. Using coffee as the ink turned out to be very decent and aesthetic as well.
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