Process
For this assignment, I pushed myself out of my comfort zone. Not only did I use materials that I found pretty challenging, but I also had to create a recognizable self-portrait. I found this assignment very challenging, mainly because it was all in black and white. I think it is a successful piece, and I really enjoy the image's composition.
Materials
For this assignment, I used mixed media. The majority of the piece is done in India Ink; however, for the hair, I used a mixture of compressed, pencil, and vine charcoal, and I used a mechanical pencil for some of the shading. I had some issues with the charcoal because it is not a material that I enjoy using; however, it was the best option for this piece. I started this project by organizing my thoughts in my sketch. I then printed off the picture of myself that I wanted to use for this assignment. I transferred the image to my paper and then sketched over the transferred image. I then used India Ink for most of the piece and other materials for the details.
Struggles
My biggest struggle with pieces is pushing colors to the extremes and using saturation. I tend to stay in the middle values without pushing them to either extreme. I could not really do that in this image because of how intense the local values are. I had two other struggles with this image as well. I struggled with the background of this image purely because of how many bricks there were! I also struggled with the hair on my self-portrait. I used both charcoal and ink for the hair. This combination gave the hair texture. However, I believe I need to do some small studies on hair to improve my upcoming projects.
Reference Photos
Sketchbook
Process Photos
Final
Comments