Design Principles | Project 1 - Self Portrait

on

28/9/2021 - 12/10/2021 / Week 6-8
Shofwa Alyadiena / 0350019
Design Principles / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Self Portrait

 LECTURES 

 Week 6 


For this project we were given two weeks to complete. The topic is about self portraits. In the lecture video, from what I can understand, Ms. Jinchi explains that self portraits are purely a matter of self-expression, and doesn't actually need our face to be included in it if we don't want it to. Self portraits are often use as a method of self exploration to find out who we truly are, and share it visually.


I couldn't quite wrap my head around that, so to further understand what self portraits really are, I searched and watched the video (fig. 1.1) embedded below.


fig. 1.1 Self Portraits throughout time


From what I gather in all videos, self portraits can generally be made by three different perspectives, how we see ourselves, how our close ones sees us, and how the public sees us. 


 INSTRUCTIONS 


 Project 1 : Self Portrait 

 Visual Research 

Fig. 2.1 Geoff Farnsworth's Portraits of People 

Fig. 2.2 Self Portrait 08 by Cathy Stephens

Fig. 2.3 Tai-Shan Schierenberg Self Portrait as Proteus

I thought the idea of abstract self-portraits were most interesting. I wanted to make mine under that category, so I searched on Pinterest for examples and found a liking to the three above. Personally I believe that a clean and perfected self portrait is unrealistic; as there's always a uniqueness to an individual no matter how composed they are. 


 Exploration 

Going off of the examples above, I started making my own sketches. I wanted to make one based on how I see myself, so I thought about several ideas. I want to make a painting for it, so I had to see first how it looks like through a sketch.

Fig. 3.1 First Idea (3/10/2021)

My first idea was done by sketching from a photo I took of myself. The thought is to have bursts of color be where I feel my creativity is most dominant at. Naturally, I use my hands to make things, whether it's art or models. I do the same for the surrounding area for two reasons, one is to make the main element stand out and the other is because I believe my ideas come to me as if I absorb them from my environment.

Fig. 3.2 Second Idea (3/10/2021)

The second idea was done without references, so there is not much detail in the sketch. Originally I was inspired by the memories of my family telling me my eyes are big with even bigger eyebags. Then, I remember that recently it might've been worsening as I had less and less sleep each day. I felt like I had to insert how I'm (very) recently feeling, spending hours at a time in front of a screen and holding in stress that causes a hot feeling in my head. The limbs are slightly elongated to emphasize the idea of every other part of my body melting along with my head.

After receiving the feedback, I moved on to creating the design traditionally.

Fig. 3.3 Traditional Sketch (11/10/2021)

I searched for my watercolor papers as I was motivated to do this project by hand. I sketched how I felt was right and continued to line it with red colored pencils.

Fig. 3.4 Red and Blue (11/10/2021)

There were some unfortunate water spills, but regardless of it I've colored the main focus with red and blue, as an attempt in applying contrast.

Fig. 3.5 (14/10/2021)

I continued to color with orange for the skin and the explosion. At this point, I lost motivation to create the piece on paper, and decided to move back to digital.

Fig. 3.6 (14/10/2021)

I cropped the main parts out and placed it on the canvas, then proceeded to edit the saturation.

Fig. 3.7 (14/10/2021)

Once editing was completed, I covered everything with a digital pen and added a background as well as detail on the explosion to balance the lower half of the design. Instead of the red vs blue contrast, this time I went for muted vs saturated colors, while still using warm vs cool colors concept. I also gave myself a skirt instead to make the design accurate to real life as i prefere skirts over pants.

Fig. 3.8 (14/10/2021)

I realized it could use more detail in the backgrounds. The feeling I get that's similar to the self portrait is when I'm doing work at night in my bedroom, so the background I chose is just simple lining of the bedroom area.

Fig. 3.9 (14/10/2021)

In the process of that I realize that the 'thoughts' weren't clear enough so I figured that an explosion of color can fix that. I then continued shading until I was satisfied.


 Self Portrait Final Design 

 A. JPEG 
Fig. 4.1 Final JPG (14/10/2021)

The final adjustments were to add the proper lighting on the fingers and I've added some words onto the cloud of explosion as it's symbolizing my thoughts causing the entire thing to happen.
 B. PDF 

Fig. 4.2 Final PDF (14/10/2021)


 Feedbacks 

General Feedback

I wasn't here during the most part of the reviewing, however the general feedback that I've gathered is to make sure that ideas are expressed properly.


Specific Feedback

Specific feedback from the facilitator is to go with the second design. She also says that so my design matched the title, I should add more to the 'explosion' that shows it's happening from thoughts.


 Reflections 

As Ms. Jinchi expected, I was excited to work on this project. I love exploring the idea of the self more than anything and to create something based off of myself is a great opportunity. However, I realize I'm not one who enjoys explorations and loves sticking to one idea and growing it from there. It does close more possibilities and I'm working on being able to fully reach my potential through doing the exploration properly. Besides that, I found that I've applied some design principles without intention.


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