Portrait Evaluation

I have decided to produce a self-portrait because I didn’t feel comfortable choosing one of my peer’s as I didn’t want them to be disappointed in the outcome. The artists I have looked at were; Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol & Henri Matisse. I looked at Picasso because he is a very good artist who uses cubism as his main movement. He also is a surrealism artist as well. The painting I have chosen to recreate for Andy Warhol is not a self-portrait but I was more looking at this as a face not just a self-portrait. Matisse’s work I have looked at is also not a self-portrait but I have looked at the simplicity of his work in this piece of art he has created in the honour of his wife. I also looked at 4 other non-famous were chosen from the list of winners from the National Portrait Gallery competition called BP PORTRAIT AWARD. The ones I have chosen are as follows; Stephen Shankland from 2004, Thomas Ganter from 2013, Victoria Russell from 2000 & Clive Smith from 1999. These artists appeal to me as their work is not photo realistic but realistic still. Their pieces of work are as inspiring as they capture real life situation like miracle children, homelessness, obesity & depression. The media’s I have used on my final piece are acrylic paints on white paper, acrylic paints on black paper, collage, felt pens, scrafitto, colour pencils and water colour paints. The drawing on black paper and not just white was also from the observational drawing projects. The black paper seeped through the acrylic paint on my final piece but the affect was good. My moodboards with samples of techniques on them turned out quite well I’d say. I think this as some of the images are really effective but some could be improved. The ones that I like are; scrafitto, danger, underwater, brick and also zig-zag. I like these because they have turned out like I wanted them to. The ones which could have gone better were; reflection, cube & pinched. These didn’t look like I took care in them but I tried my best. I think that the reflection image was too simple, the cube and the pinched image are not realistic at all. As for my final piece I have sectioned my image into 7 parts. Each one I used different media’s. For the bottom section I used water colour paints. I think that the outcome was good but I could have tried to stay in the lines better to make it neater. The second section up was filled in with coloured pencils. This section has a cartoony effect on it but still works with the rest of the image. The next section up from this was painted using acrylics paints on white paper. I tried to blend them together correctly but I believe that I failed at this as they are two totally unrelated colours which are not close with the colour on the photo I was working from at all. If I was to re-do this section I would have used a different media all together; maybe mono printing. The middle section of my self-portrait was created using the scrafitto technique. This technique was learnt from the observational drawing. This technique is when you fill in with block colours of oil pastels then you make a mixture of washing up liquid and black. After the mix is a smooth texture add a thin even layer of the mix over the oil pastels until all the colour has gone. Once dried, you are now able to scratch into the black paint to show the colour through the scratch lines. The fifth  section up was finished using coloured felt tips. This was to create a cartoony affect. This worked ok but could have been blended better using water. The second section down from the top was done using cut up M&S magazines. This worked very well in my opinion as I used the relevant colours as on the photo and u cut them to the shapes they needed to be. I like the collage technique but if I was to change one thing I did on this section it would be use different/ more relevant images rather than a food magazine. Finally the last section at the top of my piece was produced by gluing black paper on to my A2 cartridge paper and then painting on the top to finish off the piece of work. The effect it gave to the piece was very free-lance but the brush strokes are very visible and messy. I have done this on a purpose. This purpose was to imitate my hair and the way the sealing is blurred in the photo. In relevance to my skills improving; I think in some ways yes they have but there are still a few areas which could be improved. For example; my blending acrylic paint skills defiantly need to be developed. Also my cartoony technique could be improved. For this project I know I have had more time than other’s as I had to go on leave to have my son when the project was to be handed in, but in the time I have had this project back I think I have used my time wisely and effectively to generate all the worked needed to be handed to pass. So I will give myself thumbs up for time management as I have finished the projects within 3 weeks of receiving it back. For this time frame we were given I think that I have produced work which are to the best of my ability at the moment within this time frame, for both my final piece and also in both of my moodboards. I think this because they are to; in my opinion, a good standard considering I did most of my work at home. My overall thoughts for this project are that I felt I had no chance to pass this project when we first received it as I hate drawing faces, but now I love what I have produced. The fact is that I lacked confidence in this area of art but now my sureness has grown to the point where I can safely say I believe I have done a pretty good job considering the fact I had drawing faces.