SELF PORTRAIT
Planning
For the planning I really didn't want to think about too many ideas. I decided to focus on one Idea and plan for that inspiration.When I chose to do Odilon Redon's crying spider, I had to start by griding a 20 x 20 centimeter photo of Redon's crying spider. This was to get the placement of the legs and to get the placement of the face. After this I put a scan of the grid, and put it in Photoshop. After Placing a cut out version of my face on to the Grid I made of the spider body, I printed it.
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ProcessThe process of making my self portrait started with making my canvas which wasn't that difficult. First I aligned the stretchers in the correct position then stapled them together. Next I rolled out a piece of canvas and cut according to the size of the stretchers. Then I stapled the canvas to the back of the stretchers making sure that it twas fairly firm. After the canvas is ready I needed to put on a large coat of gesso. However I realized I would want to have a second coat to cover the canvas fully. Now I was ready to put on the base coat. I made An olive colored paint for the base, which wasn't exactly what I wanted but it did end up working in the end. One mistake that I made was including the ear in the cutting of the face, However it was a big deal because it didn't affect the rest of the legs, and I simply didn't trace it onto the canvas. After using a straight piece of cardboard to grid the canvas (11.5 X 11.5 centimeter boxes) I began to draw on the features. It took longer than expected because the canvas was so large, and I had to go over areas multiple times making sure the perspective was correct.
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To begin the painting, I created a color that would be used for most of the painting. This cream like skin tone, was not only in the face but in the background as well. I wanted to just focus on the background first, and I did for some of it. And the painting wasn't harshly affected, but if I had just completely done the background first it would have saved me a lot of time. Once i put the base color down I used a towel to make the line effect in Redon's work. I was really successful at emulating the line patterns in his work by using the towel, with black ink on it. After finishing the background, painting the body was a simple matter of filling in with black paint. the legs, were much more difficult. The required more precision to paint and I had to take my time. The faces was the last part, and the most important part. I used black for all the shading, and added various amounts of water to create a thinner or thicker color. after taking to time to shade I looked over my work and corrected any errors with some highlights to base color.
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Inspiration
My inspiration is Odilon Redon's crying spider. A large reason in my choosing of this inspiration was because It wouldn't be hard to make into my self portrait. I just need to put my face in the place of the spiders. I really wanted to capture the creepiness of this painting in my self portrait. This painting is so unique, there really aren't many well known paintings that are similar.
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Reflection
What I felt I Did WellThe best part of my piece I feel was my ability to properly paint the proportions correctly. In the final product there is a very distinct connection between Redon's piece and mine, and my face is not lost. I also felt that I the background really came together and comes close to Redon's background as well.
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What I could Have Improved OnWhen painting I should have started with a better wash color. unfortunately I created a color that had too green of a tint, and that did fit with what the base color of Redon's piece. Another mistake that I made was not finishing the entire background first. This affected how the spider limbs fit into my painting. I think that I should have put more time into the background of the painting. I definitively was happy with the background, but If I had added more color streaks it would have enhanced the look.
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