Self Portrait
"Lily with a Gold Earring" |
OVERVIEW:
Title: "Lily with a Gold Earring" Dimensions: 3ft x 3ft Medium: Acrylic Paint Date: March 2024-April 2024 EXHIBITION TEXTWhile creating this self portrait, I knew it would be difficult because of the size of the painting. I used acrylic paint for this piece which I am experienced in so it made the process easier. Creating an image of myself was difficult, I wanted to fix all the imperfections on my face and readjust some of my features, but after doing so, I realized I didn't look like myself. While working on this painting, I learned to push aside the feeling of insecurity and welcome the exploration of who I am and how I look. I used "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" as my inspiration for this piece because I wanted to have nothing to hide behind.
|
INSPIRATION
JOHANNES VERMEER
Johannes Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" was made in 1665. The painting is in a baroque style, this is noticeable in the dark background and bright face. I chose this painting as my inspiration because I knew when planning for my self portrait that I wanted a painting that displayed my face and nothing more. In "Girl with a Pearl Earring", the figure is shown from the chest up but the face is the attention grabber. Vermeer also uses dull colors in the back then brings forward brighter colors in the face and adds highlights to the prominent facial features and the infamous earring. Painting in the baroque style means to have a heavy contrast between the background and the central figure. Vermeer does this perfectly by adding shadows surrounding the girls face. He also makes no attempt to cover the girls face at all, the figure stands confidently staring at the viewers. What I really enjoy about this painting is that there is a pronounced shadow across the girls face, this allows the viewers to easily see all facial features and admire the liveliness of the eyes and mouth.
PLANNING
I had to make my own canvas for this project so I started the process by stretching the cloth across my frame. After I had my cloth stretched out I used the Gesso to create a clean white surface and harden the cloth. I had to do three layers of Gesso to completely harden my canvas. I also had to make sure the canvas was not to tight that it would warp my canvas.
|
Once I completely had the canvas covered and I knew it wasn't too tight to warp, I put heavy objects on the corners of my canvas to prevent it from warping the canvas inwards. After the canvas had dried I realized it was slightly warped so I left it laying face up overnight which helped fix the warping on the back.
|
I used this brush to paint my canvas with Gesso. It was large enough to cover my canvas quickly however the bristles on the brush were slightly too rough which meant I had to be careful when brushing the canvas so as to not accidentally take the paint off.
|
PROCESS
The first thing I did was create an image of myself that had a black background. I used my Pics Art app to crop myself out of the original background and move me onto a dark background. I used the free crop tool to crop myself then saved it and moved a black background behind me. I was careful to leave the highlights on the edges of my face and hair so as to leave room between me and the new background. Once I had completed this, I moved on to projecting it on my canvas.
|
I used the Bigasuo projector to project my image onto my canvas. I set up a chair that was high enough to completely cover my canvas when the image was projecting. I had to place books under the canvas to raise it slightly since the image was so large and I needed to get my top half to be a little off to the side. I used my mechanical pencil to trace my face, hair, and shirt. I only traced the necessary elements, I chose not to trace the small details because I knew it would confuse me once it actually came time to paint. Once I had my face traced onto the canvas I lessened the darkness on the pencil lines by running a kneaded eraser across the darkest pencil lines, this technique is used before you paint because once there is paint over a pencil line it is almost impossible to get out.
|
This was my first stage, I started with the shirt I was wearing. I mixed together different types of grays and blues to create the shadows and highlights that made up my shirt, for this part I used three brushes, one was flat and larger, one was thin and had a slightly diagonal tip, and the last one was a slightly fanned brush. I mainly used the large brush to get the color on the canvas, then for the parts where there was a thin line or it got close to my face I used the small brush to fill in the rest of the color. What really worked for me when creating the shirt was to block in colors. So I would block in the shadows on the sleeves of my shirt then I would block in the next darkest color and so on.
|
I then started painting my face which was a range of peach colored skin tones. I had a lot of difficulty getting the correct color to match the different shades on my face. For my chin and jawline I had to use a much darker shade because that's where the heavy shadow was casting down onto my neck. I then worked my way up, I added highlights to my cheekbones and forehead and added a darker shadow to where my hair met my face. I had to go back several times and re-enter a color I missed, usually it was the slightly more red skin tone on my cheeks, I left myself looking a little pale when I completed my entire face so I attempted to go back and add a little more red. This was difficult, however, because the paint on my face had already started to dry which made it very difficult to mix in the red skin tones.
|
Once I was a little more confident in my skin tones I started working on my facial features. I knew I had to be careful on this part because my facial features are what make me recognizable. I started on the eyebrows and eyes. The eyebrows were not challenging, I made sure to keep up the photo reference of myself to get the exact eyebrow shape and painted that with two shades of brown. My eyes were a little more hard to do, I really struggled with giving them life since in my photo reference there is very little highlight on my eyes. I focused on keeping everything realistic looking. When I got to my nose I was worried, painting noses is not my strong suit and I didn't want this to be the thing that ruined my painting. I kept it really simple, I drew a line to define my nose from the rest of my face then filled in all the other highlights and shadows. Finally, I got to my lips which were harder than I thought to paint, once I was confident with my facial features I moved on to my hair, my neck, and the background.
|
My hair was pretty simple, I didn't want to draw too much attention to it so I only used three shades of brown. I had a hard time not creating weird paintbrush lines because I was using the same color brown for such a large area of my hair, I kept my brushstrokes going in one direction and tried to prevent the paint from building up along the edges of my brush. Once I was okay with the way my hair looked I moved on to the background, this part was easy since I just had to use black paint and paint the entire background. I used a very large brush for this part and a very small brush to get closer to my face and fill in all the gaps. |
EXPERIMENTATION
I experimented with techniques on the shirt. I had a hard time finding a technique that would make the shirt look realistic. But after I found the "blocking in" technique I experimented with where to put my heavy shadows and what to contrast those shadows with. I tried to not get caught up in the blending process too much and simply worried about keeping the paint in its own section. I also experimented with which colors made the shirt look blended when next to each other. Eventually, I had colors I liked placed next to each other and the shadows were realistic enough to look like I was wearing a shirt.
|
I experimented a lot with the skin tones on my chin and jawline. Because there had to be such a dark shadow on my neck I knew I would have to create a warm, dark skin tone to put on my chin and jawline. In the photo on the left I was experimenting with blending the darker skin tone with a much lighter skin tone and allowing the colors to meet in the middle and look natural. This took a lot of experimenting because at first it just looked like lines of skin across my face.z
|
Finally, I experimented with my ear and the blending with the rest of my face. I knew my ear needed to look slightly separate from the rest of my face because in my reference photo of myself there was a slight line contrasting my ear from the rest of my face. It took a lot of experimenting to get the right color to create this line with. Eventually, I was able to get a thin enough line that matched what I would be using in the rest of my ear but also give the ear a little more shadow since it was sitting slightly underneath my hair.
|
CRITIQUE
Compare: Firstly, the biggest similarity I notice is the positioning of my body and the positioning of "The Girl with the Pearl Earring". I took a lot of photos to get one that looked close to the positioning that Vermeer painted his figure in. The dark background also is very similar since this is what makes my body and face pop off the canvas. In both my painting and Vermeer's, the biggest similarities are the background, the slightly agape mouth, the use of an earring, and the baroque method used. My painting has shadows on my neck as well as my hairline and my clothes. In "Girl with a Pearl Earring", there are shadows mainly on the clothing and natural parts of the face like the nose and jawline. I attempted to recreate the positioning of the shadows and highlights however I also had to stay true to my photo reference and make the face I was painting look like my face. Finally, the emphasis on the earring is something I tried to recreate, I used a slightly gold color and added bright highlights to the entire earring, similar to the highlights on the Pearl earring in Vermeer's piece.
Contrast:
The main differences are in the hair, and the shadow on the face. Vermeer's painting includes a lot of shadow surrounding the face whereas my painting I neglected to add as much shadow, this partly had to do with the fact that in my photo reference of myself there was not an emphasis on shadow since I had a pretty bright light on my face when taking the picture. Another stark difference between my piece and Vermeer's is the hair in mine and the wrap in Vermeer's. The figure in Vermeer's painting has a wrap in her hair that has a very pretty blue in it. I did not have a wrap and I do not use a wrap in my hair so I knew my hair was going to be my natural hair tucked behind my ears. This difference created a difference in highlights and shadows since a lot of the shadow comes from the wrap in the Girl with the Pearl Earring's hair and there is a very large highlight on the blue color on the wrap. The difference between my skin tone and Vermeer's figure's skin tone is also very noticeable, my complexion is slightly darker and more warm than the figure in Vermeer's painting.
Contrast:
The main differences are in the hair, and the shadow on the face. Vermeer's painting includes a lot of shadow surrounding the face whereas my painting I neglected to add as much shadow, this partly had to do with the fact that in my photo reference of myself there was not an emphasis on shadow since I had a pretty bright light on my face when taking the picture. Another stark difference between my piece and Vermeer's is the hair in mine and the wrap in Vermeer's. The figure in Vermeer's painting has a wrap in her hair that has a very pretty blue in it. I did not have a wrap and I do not use a wrap in my hair so I knew my hair was going to be my natural hair tucked behind my ears. This difference created a difference in highlights and shadows since a lot of the shadow comes from the wrap in the Girl with the Pearl Earring's hair and there is a very large highlight on the blue color on the wrap. The difference between my skin tone and Vermeer's figure's skin tone is also very noticeable, my complexion is slightly darker and more warm than the figure in Vermeer's painting.
REFLECTION
This painting was one of the hardest paintings I have ever painted. I deeply struggled with self image on this piece. While creating my face I had to set aside the feeling of insecurity and doubt. Throughout the process of this painting I realized I focused very heavily on the flaws I noticed on my face and not enough on the parts of my face that make me unique. I struggled with matching my skin tone and staying true to the baroque style especially when attempting to create similar shadows to the ones in Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring". As the process went on I enjoyed separating myself from the painting and looking at all the pieces of the painting as separate portions. In stead of seeing myself in my painting I brought up my reference photo and focused only on that so as not to let my personal bias of what I thought I should look like get in the way. Overall, I learned the process it takes to paint a human face as well as the challenge that comes with painting your own face. I had to overcome doubt a lot and trust the process when laying down my skins undertones. The final product of my self portrait is not something I necessarily I like, but I can see the process when I look at it which is good for me.
ACT
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
-I liked the positioning of Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" as well as the shadows and highlights used in the Baroque style. I chose to display myself in a similar light, I left myself nothing to hide behind.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
-The website I used focused more on the facts of the painting like when it was made and what style its in.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
-I realized that during the Baroque period the bravery in the shadows was what started modern art, creating my painting in the Baroque style seemed the most similar to how modern day artists paint a human figure.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
-I focused on the composition of the painting as well as the void background. My research focuses on how our environments affect our identities, in this piece, I separated my face from my surroundings.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
-I made inferences that during the Baroque period women wore different clothing therefore I could not match my outfit to the figure in Vermeer's painting.
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
-I liked the positioning of Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring" as well as the shadows and highlights used in the Baroque style. I chose to display myself in a similar light, I left myself nothing to hide behind.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
-The website I used focused more on the facts of the painting like when it was made and what style its in.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
-I realized that during the Baroque period the bravery in the shadows was what started modern art, creating my painting in the Baroque style seemed the most similar to how modern day artists paint a human figure.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?.
-I focused on the composition of the painting as well as the void background. My research focuses on how our environments affect our identities, in this piece, I separated my face from my surroundings.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
-I made inferences that during the Baroque period women wore different clothing therefore I could not match my outfit to the figure in Vermeer's painting.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
https://www.mauritshuis.nl/en/our-collection/artworks/670-girl-with-a-pearl-earring/