Self Portrait
"Confusion"
91.44cm by 91.44cm Acrylic on Canvas December, 2016 Exhibition Text: “Confusion” This piece is a 3 ft by 3 ft acrylic painting of myself that is inspired by Little Girl With A Spray Of Flowers Pierre Auguste by Renoir and Point of Tranquility by Morris Louis. They were my inspiration because of the vibrant colors that they use in their paintings. “Confusion” was created to show how up front you can have a persona that people see as normal but behind the scenes your thoughts are pulling you in many different directions. |
Meaning
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Artist inspiration |
Planning
Process / Experimentation
There were any different steps that needs to be taken when it came to this painting. First off I needs to stretch the canvas. Then I had to put two coats of gesso on it. After that it was time to start painting. I knew that I was going to have a lot of colors because of my background so I wanted to have a base color that would make all the colors pop without overpowering them. So I picked a natural gray. Then the base color was on I could start creating my back ground. I wanted to use a variety of different colors so I had to experiment with mixing colors to see what new colors I could create. Then using a projector I projected an image of myself I used that projection to trace my face on the canvas. After that I mixed the flesh tone and started painting.
Reflection
Overall I'm not proud of the final outcome of “Confusion.” In the end I feel that I my final product looks rushed. I feel that I have a great background. I feel that I focused more on background more than my face. I had so issues when it can to mixing new colors to the background. I was trying to create the feeling of confusion when viewers look at this painting. I feel that I might have I achieved that feeling. When connecting to my artist inspiration I feel that I did not have a good connection to the artist that I used for the self portrait part. I do feel that the artist that I used as inspiration for my background is easily connected. When it can to blending the skin tones I had some problems trying to make it look as realist as my artist inspiration. If I could redo this project I would work harder when it can to the face and would pay closer attention to detail when it came to the highlights in the hair and face and in the hair.
Act Connection
- “Confusion” is similar to the artist inspirations through the look of the background and the style and techniques used to all the face to the background.
- My inspiration led me to create a self portrait that a background that has many different colors and a picture of myself that showcases similar techniques to Renoir.
- In my research I discovered that Renoir uses a lot of bright colors and has is own twist on impressionism. I also learned that Morris Louis also uses bright colors that he used and then adds a coat of thinner to make it look washed out.
- The central theme around my research was how the artists that inspired me made there work and how I could use that to create “confusion” and connect it the meaning.
- I inferred that I made while reading my research was that color plays a large role in the way the the artists paintings. That one artist uses small detailed brush strokes while the other just pours the paint on to the canvas. These inferences led me to do the same technique while painting my self portrait.