1 Self Portrait
For this part of my assignment I wanted firstly to explore how and why women artists made self-portraits, and found a very interesting introductory video by Maria Morata of the documentary ‘Exposed: Self-portraits of women’ for the German feminist magazine imagofeminae.
In the documentary Morata interviewed several contemporary women artists on the subject, including Tracey Emin, but unfortunately apart from some short press releases I could not find the actual interviews.
In the introductory video however, Morata makes the interesting comment that “when a woman makes a self-portrait she is taking the power to create her own image, and becomes master of her own image - there is a kind of freedom for the woman”.
She explores women artists as subjects, and makes a point about a woman artist that - when a woman makes a self-portrait she asks herself “How I am? [sic]” “How do I want to show myself?” “Who am I in the context?” “What are the things that existentially challenge my life?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Moj2IZS3xKo&list=PLrLSMsXqZoM-O5FoRCyN6zEFc3Pn45CT1&index=4
I found Morata’s questions very stimulating, and can really relate to them. I asked those questions of myself, and my answers were that I wanted be honest in my self-portraits and show a side of me that may not be perceived. I’m normally a happy, smiley person, but just like everyone else, I sometimes feel serious, reflective or sad, and that’s the side of my personality that people around me don’t see very often though it is there sometimes in day-to-day life.
For Project 6 of Exercise 2 I wanted to do something different, and before I decided on the composition I did several experimental self-portraits, most of them just sketches - in the morning or late in the evening when my make-up was not as fresh as in the morning – mostly of me looking straight into a mirror.
a) A 25-minute sketch in fine pen and ink using hatching technique, on A4 cartridge paper of me looking at a magnifying mirror.
I did this in the morning when I was about to put my make-up on, a close-up image looking into a c. 20cm high oval magnifying mirror. I found it quite difficult to do it because I had to look away to draw and then try to get back to the same facial angle, so some of the features are a bit twisted.
b) My second was a 30-minute sketch in willow charcoal on A4 cartridge paper, and this time I used two mirrors, so I could sketch the image reflected in the second mirror. Once again it was difficult to get back exactly to the same position each time, but I think it’s not too distorted and I’m pleased with the result - looking serious but serene.
c) My third attempt was another two close-ups, as I liked the idea of my first sketch, but this time I used technology to help me, experimenting with ‘selfies’ using the Photo Booth application on my MacBook until I got one I liked, from which I did two quick A5 cartridge sketches, one in pen and ink and the other in willow charcoal. There are of course limitations when you paint from photos, especially when it’s a low resolution one produced on Photo Booth, as you don’t see the detail you get when done from life, and the shadows tend to merge. To overcome this I referred periodically to my image in a mirror set at a similar angle.
d) As a further experiment based on the Photo Booth photo I did a third sketch in black Indian ink applied with a garden twig, on A3 textured cartridge paper, and with the added feature of a diamond-pattern which I created by pressing a patterned board to which I had applied blue pastel. Although it was difficult to control the twig to make precise marks, I quite like the result of black ink over the light blue pattern, and this gave me the idea of using a limited pallet for my final piece.
e) I based my final piece on the photo of the three previous sketches using soft pastel in a limited sepia palette on light brown 65cm x 40cm pastel paper and used a grid to help with the proportions.
I like the result, and think this is a good likeness, particularly of the eyes, which I think show the intensity of my concentration.
There is also an interesting visual effect which I like very much, arising from the fact that I happened to have a second mirror behind me. The result of this is that though the curtains and the lamp appear behind me in the image, this is a mirror-to-mirror reflection, and they actually were in front of me. I think this coincidence gives an additional sense of depth to the composition.
2) Reclining Model
Updated 08.04.2018
After submitting Assignment 4 I looked back at my submission pieces, especially the Reclining figure, and although I liked it at the time of submission I now feel it was too simple and too conventional so I decided to try to improve it.
As I said previously in my research on portraits, I like very much the work of Gildo Medina because he uses watercolour on top of his incredibly well executed but conventional pencil drawings to add interest to them. I decided therefore to try again using his technique.
As I was using pastel paper I did some experiments to see how the paper would behave with watercolour, and experimented also with colours to decide my colour palette. I then chose the parts I thought would benefit from colour, and thought about the colours I should use, and after several trials colouring different parts in different colours using the Colour Effects Appon my IPhone I settled on the following:
a. The cushion in cold purple tone and the Ipad in a warm yellow, to complement the colour of the cushion
b. The shirt in light blue, which was the actual colour of the shirt
c. The picture on the wall in orange
d. The carpet in dark red, which was the actual colour of the carpet in my living room
e. The plant in green and the plant pot in dark red with a tint of purple - as I thought that would create a connection between the colour of the pillow and the colour of the carpet
I then prepared my palette of watercolour washes and set the piece in an upright position so the watercolour would drip, giving me the effect I wanted, and sharpened up the coloured areas with colour pastel stick and pencil. My intention was to have more than one drip of each colour, which worked in my experiments on paper, though they were on a much smaller scale.
Unfortunately, when I tried the technique on my actual piece the drips were considerably narrower than I expected. I decide therefore not to pursue it rather than risk spoiling the piece, and I’ll experiment more with the technique in future.
Overall I like this drawing and think it’s more interesting than the original. Even though the drips look a bit random and too small to make a strong impact I think they make the piece less predictable, an idea I like very much.
Original Submission
For this assignment I asked my husband to be my model, and sketched him from different angles as he read a magazine reclining comfortably on the sofa as he often does. The two first were done in 2B pencil on A3 cartridge paper from different positions seated level with him, but the proportions are not quite right.
The third was done in willow charcoal on A4 cartridge paper, from a lower position sitting on the floor to his right, which was a more interesting angle, and I closed the curtains behind me so the natural light from his left gave some interesting shadows.
This third one was altogether more interesting so I chose it for the piece, which I did in willow charcoal, and I included part of the sofa with his iPad at his side to give a sense of depth. I used the negative space and the shadows to get the proportions as accurate as possible, and enjoyed the exercise very much - I think is fairly successful, and the figure really does look like my husband.
3) Seated model
I chose to do a self-portrait for this, the decision based on a composition I really enjoyed when doing foreshortening sketches through mirrors, and also on my research of portraits, self-portraits and figures, several of which employed mirrors framing subjects. I also like the idea of including items situated behind me, which I think gives an interesting sense of space and position.
I drew sketches in different positions in my workroom – some in 2B pencil on A5 cartridge paper, others in willow charcoal on mixed media paper.
I did several sketches of different parts of my body, including my leg and my head, to get used to the shapes, some of which I coloured to experiment with tone, and when I chose my final pose I took a photo in the mirror from which I did a large-scale drawing.
I used cream-coloured A1 mount board as my support because I wanted to work on a smooth and shiny surface, and used a mixture of line and colour tone, checking the photo against the images in the mirror of myself and the objects around me, applying tone and colour to all except my bare skin, where I used line and hatching.
For my medium I experiment with small pieces of mount board, trying several mediums to identify what worked best with the surface - charcoal, pastel, oil pastel, watercolour, gouache, acrylic ink and Indian ink, and in the end decided on a combination of Indian Ink and gouache which I thought worked best with the support, using masking fluid to keep the highlights clean.
I am happy with the composition for my final piece though the Indian ink did not work well with the mount board - it was difficult to get small details because the ink ran too much - I will however try a smooth, shiny support for drawings again in future.
Assessment Criteria
Demonstration of technical and visual skill, material, observational skills, visual awareness, design and compositional skill.
I believe my technical and visual skills really have improved. My drawing are more consistently accurate and I am becoming faster, so I have more time to think about what works and what doesn’t, and what I would like to see in them.
In terms of visual awareness, design and compositional skills, I feel that I’ve developed quite a lot through paying more attention to the works I see in exhibitions and galleries, trying to identify the compositions that work well.
I’m also using my sketchbooks more often to experiment with compositions and materials to see what works best, and believe I’m becoming more confident in finding what I need to do to make my work better.
Quality of the outcome- content, application of knowledge, presentation, of work in a coherent manner, discernment, conceptualisation of thoughts, communication of ideas.
I feel that the exercises I did at the beginning of this Part 4 were not very good, however I enrolled in a life drawing class at my local Adult Learning Centre, and I think my later figure-drawing work is more accurate and shows a better quality of outcome. I also feel that I’m becoming more articulate in expressing my thoughts and communicating my ideas, though I do still have difficulty.
Demonstration of creativity- imagination, experimentation, invention, development of a personal voice.
I believe my work is starting to show more creativity and imagination as a result of experimenting with materials and trying to see beyond the subject. I’m also trying to be more honest in my work - I like unusual objects and subjects (unusual to me, anyway) and am trying not to think so much of whether others like my work, concentrating on things that I find challenging and that I myself like.
I still need to do more experimental work. I tend to experiment when I have a particular result that I want to achieve, rather than just experimenting for it’s own sake, but have however been forcing myself to experiment more and hopefully this will become more natural for me.
Experimenting with technology for compositions does however come natural to me, as I trained as an engineer and worked in IT for many years. I have a very close relationship with technology - my laptop, Ipad and camera all play an important role in my work, and I can identify completely with Kaupely’s comments in his book Experimental Drawing that artists are more and more embracing the fact that we have modern technology and tools that we can use in our work.
Context reflection-research, critical thinking
I feel my research skills are improving and that I am becoming more thorough in reviewing the work of other artists when researching and visiting galleries, which I enjoy very much. I do use the OCA briefings from my tutor, and what is making a big impact on my way of thinking is that, as suggested by my tutor I am reading Aesthetics by Charles Taliaferro, a beginners guide which I found fascinating. This is helping me to identify and clarify my ideas and the way I look at beauty and art, and I think this is showing in my online blog.