Self Portrait

In this portrait, I chose to recreate an image I sent to a friend as a joke using watercolors. It is an image of me holding glasses in front of my face so that way my mouth looks bigger. I chose a bright yellow background because that is my favorite color and if I am choosing to display myself I want to be surrounded by things that I love. This work represents me as a person in the sense that I am very goofy and a lot of the things I like to do are pointless. However, I love to be creative and bright. I chose to use watercolors because of their ability to be layered. This way it was easy for me to maintain a vibrancy throughout the entire piece. The point was not to create clear precise lines with the paint. I wanted the paint to flow as freely as my thoughts. I then used a very thin, felt-tipped, black marker to outline my teeth and the glasses. This brought just a little more depth to the piece solely for aesthetic.

In order to complete this piece I first had to find a picture to replicate. My friend had made the suggestion to use the last photo I sent to someone. So I drew a sketch of the image in my sketchbook. I then grabbed thicker final papers because I wished to use paint, and I transferred my final design to the paper. I then began to work with the watercolors. I first painted my hair using a brown paint and a yellow color. The yellow mixed with a light brown for depth and then a thin brush with dark brown to add waves and layers to my hair. I then used a flesh tone to evenly shade my skin. Pink for lips, green for the eyes, black for the glasses and finally, bright yellow for the background.

I cannot say that a specific artist inspired this piece, but I will link an artist that I really enjoy which will definitely be influencing my future pieces. I enjoy Eugenia’s style so much and I hope to learn how to create art like her. https://www.flickr.com/photos/eugenia_loli/ . The specific technique required to complete her artwork is the eye for matching photographs together that typically aren’t supposed to go together. The key is to match the style of both images through manipulation to make it appear as if they are supposed to be together even if they clearly are not supposed to be. I am most proud of this work because of my quick ability to learn how to navigate the watercolor paints. The skill I learned through the completion of this project was that the paint to water ratio needs to be more water than paint. This high concentration of water allows for more layering and depth in the work. If I could change one thing, it would have to be the paper we paint on. I wish it was thicker.