SELF PORTRAIT
Daisy Pulido
Acrylic Paint on Canvas
3 ft x 3 ft
December 04, 2016
Acrylic Paint on Canvas
3 ft x 3 ft
December 04, 2016
Exhibition Text:
I focused on creating a self-portrait that has an obvious connection to an artist. My artist inspiration was André Derain and Francoise Nelly. I tried to recreate André Derain’s Self-portrait of Henri Matisse to convey a small part of my life. It was fun trying out a new painting technique, as I’ve never painted in the fauvism art style before. The use of bright colors suits my self-portrait and reflects on who I am. There’s never a moment where I’m dull and boring. I make the most out of live and live it to the fullest.
PLANNING
Artist Inspiration
I chose André Derain’s Self-portrait of Henri Matisse as my main inspiration for my self-portrait. I learned that under Matisse’s influence, Derain began using strong, non-naturalistic colours and applied them in small separate brushstrokes, to convey the sensations of light and shade. I loved the bright colors Derain used and how he expertly used warm and cool colors to add highlights and shadows. Francoise Nelly's Amelie was like a more modern version of Fauvism. What especially came to my attention was that her portraits closely resembled pop art. The eyes for example, are really defined and features bold colors. They're also heavily outlined with black, giving it a more cartoonish characteristic. I loved it because I'm not really good at creating life-like portraits, so this simple style quickly became appeasing to me.
Planning Sketches
- In the first sketch, I was going to paint myself purely in Roy Lichtenstein's pop art style. I planned on using bright and bold colors and have all my colors contrast. The background would be pretty simple and I would have this sort of glow behind me. I still intended to somehow use fauvism technques into this sketch.
- The second sketch would be a profile of my face and would be done in the Art Nouveau style. I wanted an intricate design for the background, much like how Mucha does them, and have flower ornaments on each corner of my canvas. In this sketch, I would strive for a more realistic -looking self-portrait.
- In my third sketch, I wanted to make a paraody of Edvard Munch's Scream. I would pretty much redo his whole painting, but rather than adding the screaming man, I would replace it. This idea came to me when I stressed over the many exams I had to take under such little time. It clearly represents the typical emotions of a full IB student.
PROCESS
Experimentation
For experimentation, I definitely practiced blending colors and making specific colors in general a lot. There where times where I couldn't make a specific color or the colors I used were highly contrasting against each other rather than blending in smoothly. It was frustrating at times. The lips were what gave me the most difficulties. The colors there harder to blend. In the end, I figured fauvism was about radical usage of color so I let it be. Throughout my experimentation, I learned what colors look best when next to another certain color and regained some lost knowledge on warm and cool colors.
After gessoing my canvas, I painted my background a sort of pinkish-red in order to have my final result show clean craftsmanship rather than painting the background after painting myself. This is the finished result once the paint dried. I made sure to paint the edges as well. I then used a projector to sketch myself onto my canvas. I went over my final sketch, trying to have stronger and bolder lines in order for me to see them better. I started going over the eyes and made the glasses using black acrylic paint. Using multiple shades of brown and yellow, I filled in the irises and pupils of my eyes. I then painted the remaning parts of the eyes white and adjusted the eye liner and glasses. I then filled up the eye sections within the glasses using multiple colors. For the left eye, I used shades of red, purple, pink, and orange. For the right eye, I used shades of blue, green, white, and yellow. (As shown on the left) I then colored the nostrils a dark blue and used yellow to highlight the nose. At this point, I decided to split the face in half using color. The left side would be dominated by warm colors and the right side by cool colors. Using multiple shades of red and pink, I painted in the lips. I used yellow for the shine and shades of blue to outline the lips. I colored in the whole left side of the face using warm colors and used wine red for the shading and for filling in the eyebrows. I colored in the whole right side of the face using cool colors and used lavender for shading. Hues of yellow, orange, and white were used for highlights on the face. I then outlined the left side of the face with light blue and the right side of the face with purple. Using multiple shades of yellow, brown, pink, and white, I painted in hair strands of my bangs that are currently blonde. I then colored in the left side of my hair using various shades of brown, orange, yellow, grey, red, and white. Using the same techniques as the ones used for the face, I colored in the rest of the hair and adjusted them as I saw fit. I then colored in the neck and shoulders yusing the same techniques as the face. Lastly, I reoutlined the face, eyes, eyebrows, and glasses and fixed other small issues. |
REFLECTION
I am personally very proud of myself for the work I’ve put forth because it’s something I can personally connect to and was fun to create. I feel like I created something unique by combining pop art with the fauvism art movement. My self- portrait doesn’t really have a meaning but my color usage does.Since one of Fauvism major components was its radical goal of separating color from its descriptive, representational purpose, I used both warm and cool colors. In doing so, I allowed the colors to project a mood and establish a structure within the work of art without having to be true to the natural world. I mean, when have you ever seen a blue-faced person in real life? My artwork’s saturated colors draw attention to the flatness of the canvas. My goal throughout this project was to give the immediate visual impression of the work to appear strong and unified. One thing I loved about Fauvism was that it valued individual expression. This was a good thing for me when it came to painting myself. I believe that I overcame all my obstacles when it came to blending and creating clean craftsmanship and I am thoroughly happy with the results. I separated color from its descriptive, representational purpose and allowed it to exist on the canvas as an independent element, just like many Fauvism artists do. I used color to project a mood and establish a structure within the work of art without having to be true to the natural world. I mean, when have you ever seen a blue-faced person in real life? Fauvism allowed me to fully express myself and 'go wild' with the color usage. The saturated colors I used draw attention to the inherent flatness of the canvas or paper. My overall goal throughout this project was to have my audience's immediate visual impression of the work to be strong and unified. What I especially liked about Fauvism was that it valued individual expression. Fauvists believed that an artist's direct experience of his subjects, his emotional response to nature, and his intuition were all more important than academic theory or elevated subject matter. Overall, I'm thoroughly content with the results of this project. I successfully overcame many obstacles, such as blending colors so that they don't appear solid and bold and throw off the entire composition of my work.
Compare and Contrast
Similarities:
- Derain and I both have the face divided by colors
- Nielly and I both have a sense of pop art in our final pieces
- We all have an organzied chaos of colors
- Nielly and I pay close attention to detail and on highlights and shadows, whereas Derain just focuses on using shadows to define the face and slapping on random colors. There rarely is shine in Derain's portrait.
- We all have a different dominating colors in our portraits
- Our subjects
- The style
- Technique of applying highlights and shadows
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
My Self-Portrait was inspired by Andre Derain and Francoise Nielly's fauvism artwork. Combining pop art with fauvism was an idea that came to me when I came across Nielly’s beautiful portraits and Derain's color usage heavily appealed to me. I loved how he used color to create shadows and highlights on his subjects.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
For Francoise Nielly’s official website, she simply gives brief information about herself and has her artwork cited and even provides her contact information. In Andre Derain’s informational website, the author gives a brief analysis of his Matisse portrait and gives out important information such as the medium used and the date it was created.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
For my research about Fauvism, I learned that fauvists firmly believed in an individual’s way of expressing himself. I concluded that Fauvism was about emphasizing the expressive potential of color, and employing it arbitrarily, not based on an object’s natural appearance.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My self-portrait doesn’t really have a central idea.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I was able to infer that Andre Derain’s work that featured vivid, unnatural colors led the critics to derisively dub their works as les Fauves, or "the wild beasts", marking the start of the Fauvist movement. His paintings that described the beauty of nature and individuals enjoying that nature differed significantly from those by the Impressionists before him who tried to depict modern life more realistically. His focus is more on the beauty of what is described on the canvas, regardless of specifics.
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
My Self-Portrait was inspired by Andre Derain and Francoise Nielly's fauvism artwork. Combining pop art with fauvism was an idea that came to me when I came across Nielly’s beautiful portraits and Derain's color usage heavily appealed to me. I loved how he used color to create shadows and highlights on his subjects.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
For Francoise Nielly’s official website, she simply gives brief information about herself and has her artwork cited and even provides her contact information. In Andre Derain’s informational website, the author gives a brief analysis of his Matisse portrait and gives out important information such as the medium used and the date it was created.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
For my research about Fauvism, I learned that fauvists firmly believed in an individual’s way of expressing himself. I concluded that Fauvism was about emphasizing the expressive potential of color, and employing it arbitrarily, not based on an object’s natural appearance.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My self-portrait doesn’t really have a central idea.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I was able to infer that Andre Derain’s work that featured vivid, unnatural colors led the critics to derisively dub their works as les Fauves, or "the wild beasts", marking the start of the Fauvist movement. His paintings that described the beauty of nature and individuals enjoying that nature differed significantly from those by the Impressionists before him who tried to depict modern life more realistically. His focus is more on the beauty of what is described on the canvas, regardless of specifics.
Bibliography
- "Henri Matisse, André Derain 1905 | Tate." Tate. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.
- Nielly, Francoise. "Françoise Nielly." Françoise Nielly - Artiste :: Galerie. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Nov. 2016.