ASSIGNMENT THREE

For this assignment, I wanted to create something quite stylised instead of accurate, and so I chose to paint another self portrait. This being so I referred back to my preparatory work from the exercise, and chose a slightly different pose, which would give me more of my face to paint, and I also chose a pose that showed shadows, but in the opposite way to my last self portrait. Also, I wanted to see whether I could convey strong contrasting shadows and highlights with the technique of tenebrism. I also wanted to experiment with richer colours, unlike my first self portrait, and see what sort of a finish I could produce.

Once I had chosen my composition and sketched the facial features out, then proceeded to swatch some colours of acrylic that I might be interested in using, and then I went straight onto painting my self portrait, not really knowing what the outcome would be like. Below, is my assignment for the third part of the course. To be perfectly honest, I never pictured this style to be the final product and I never thought that I would paint anything in this style, but I am pleased with it. With the handling of the paint, the portrait has a smooth finish and crisp lines where wanted in order to give impact and the colour choices work well together to create a rich and colourful portrait. This portrait is different from the previous exercised and conveys a distinctive style but also portrays a likeness to myself, without looking to different.

When talking to my tutor, we discussed the difference between assignments and exercises and the need to show how your skills have developed through out the part of the course, and with this piece I hadn’t really paid attention to the handling of the colour and the transition of tone and colour. When comparing with my other self portrait, I felt that this piece was not better as an assignment piece as it was stylized and perhaps to drastic in areas. With this in mind I set about to erase the harshness of the portrait and produce something like the previous self portrait. Again, I used gel retarder to help with the blending of the medium and softened each transition to portray youthful skin. I have  not yet corrected the hair, but I believe that the skin had largely improved the portrait, conveying control with the handling of the paint and more understanding in how to use the medium.