Week Fifteen- Art Gallery Visit #3: Self-Portraits Art Making/Material Exploration

Ham, Myung Su
Korean Museum

George Washington
Gilbert Stuart
The White House 1797

Yawning
Joseph Ducreaux
European Art and Design
The J. Paul Getty Museum
1783

Original Picture
Ralph Wilson Stadium
2013

    

Drawing

Reflection Journal

1.Why did you select the inspiration pieces? 


          I chose each of these inspiration pieces for a different reason. First, I picked the Self- Portrait by Ham, Myung Su because it is a modern painting from the year 2000 that shows a lot of color, which attracted me to the piece. Secondly, I chose George Washington, by Gilbert Stuart because it is a traditional self-portrait that helped me understand which features are important to drawing a self- portrait. Lastly, I chose Yawning by Joseph Ducreux because it is a funny spin on the self- portrait idea. When I first started thinking about this assignment I thought that all self-portraits were very serious, but after seeing that painting I realize that any action can be made in the artwork as long as it represents a human being.

2. Why did you select the media to create your self-portrait?

                 I chose to use pencil to create my self-portrait just because I think it is the easiest media for me to use and I am the most familiar with pencil. Pencil is the one instrument that you can erase when you make mistakes, and I knew this assignment would be difficult for me so I needed to make use I could fix my mistakes. 

      3. What challenges did you face in creating your self-portrait and how did you overcome them? 


          The demensions of the head were really difficult for me. The shapes of my eyes and the proportion of each eye were difficult for me to get right. Another area that was extremely difficult for me was the shading because I didn’t know where to shade exactly and if I was shading in the appropriate places. The facial structure in general was something that I really struggled with and took me a lot of time to get the way I wanted it.  

4.  How does this piece represent you?

          This drawing shows my happy personality.

5.  What elements and principles of art did you apply in this work? 


          This drawing shows the elements of balance because I had to make sure that the demensions of my head evenly. I also used the element of value in the shading because of the dark to light color pencil. I tried to use the principle of proportion when drawing my face so it looked realistic.  

6. Did you enjoy working on this project? 


          I did not like working on this project because I am not an artist so it was extremely difficult for me to do this assignment. I can be very creative but when it comes to drawing humans that is one thing that I am awful at. I think it takes a lot of time and practice to become good at self-portraits, and that is definitely something I lack.

7. Do you think of your final artwork?

          I think that my final product is much better than I expected it was going to be. I knew going into this assignment that drawing a self- portrait of myself was going to be extremely difficult, but overall I am pleased with my outcome.