Design Principles - Project 1: Self-Portrait

7/5/2021 - 21/5/2021 / Week 6 - Week 8

Lui Hsiao Hui (Tressa) / 0342003
Design Principles / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Project 1: Self-Portrait

LECTURES

Week 6: Friday 7/5/2021

Self: Your basic personality or nature, especially considered in terms of what you are really like as a person (Collins, 2020). A person's essential being distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action.

Self-portrait: A self-representation in a form of a drawing/painting/sculpture/design. A visual depiction of the self.

Fig. 1.1 Self

A diagram to give an idea of what we could focus our self-portrait on.

Week 7: Tuesday 11/5/2021

Notes:

- That would that prominent style be (self-portrait).

- Representation and symbolism.

- Introspection: Asking yourself questions, reflecting on decisions made.

- Apply different compositional elements - arrangements, etc.

- Make the materials connected to yourself (favourite materials).

- Map out your character, use different ways to get ideas.

- Portray yourself as the creator of the genre, not with the genre.

- Design without context is a weak design.

Fig. 1.2 Self-portrait demonstration by Dr. Charles

Dr. Charles used tea to paint a quick self-portrait. He also showed a masking technique - using tape for masking and forming the shape of the face, which creates emphasis on some areas (harsh lines, etc). While creating a self-portrait he mentioned painting with emotion, and that we could listen to music to let it carry our art.

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Create your own A4 self-portrait, apply design principles knowledge.

- Write a 150-200 words rationale for your final idea.

2. Upload both designs in PDF file in your blog.

3. Send your blog link here.

4. Your blog must be in your actual name for easy identification. Make sure it has:

a) Visual research

b) Idea exploration

c) Feedback from lecturer

d) Final design outcome (pictures must be neatly cropped and must not be shadowy/blur)

e) Brief reflection for the week

Materials: Any medium. Digital is allowed.

Contemplate your life experiences, which includes your culture, your family, your friends, your school days, your favourite hangouts, your favourite music, food, musician, etc. Observe your surroundings, people, vehicles, buildings, plants, signages, nature, and activities. Record these in sketches, photography, and/or video recording. Study all the visuals that you had collected. Select visuals that you find relevant and interesting to you, which you can translate into a design work to create a portrait of yourself. Remember to apply design principles in your work.

VISUAL RESEARCH

Fig. 2.1 How artists explore identity

This video shows 3 different self-portrait works by different artists. Each of them used a different approach to identity - how they saw themselves and how others saw them.

Fig. 2.2 Self-portrait with Cropped Hair by Frida Kahlo, 1938

HOW SHE SAW HERSELF

- She paints/makes her own reality.

- Her art always a response to life.

- Artistic process as a form of outlet.

Fig. 2.3 Runaways by Glenn Ligon, 1993

HOW OTHERS SAW HIM

- Created a self-portrait based on how others viewed him (an interesting concept).

- Incorporated real-life issues and history in his self-portrait.

- His identity shaped by the past.

Fig. 2.4 Gold Marilyn Monroe by Andy Warhol, 1962

HOW OTHERS SAW HER

- Her identity shaped by the public. Everyone was trying to tell her story - their own version of how they saw her. ("It's what they think you are.")

- Warhol created a portrait of her in a way that shows a reproduction of a reproduction, signifying what is truly real, and how the story has been retold in many different ways.

PROGRESS AND IDEA EXPLORATION

Fig. 3.1 Who am I?

Before starting my self-portrait I gathered a little bit of information about myself based on the questions (Fig. 1.1) from the lecture video. I found that the way others view me is quite different for the personality part. I decided to center my self-portrait based on how I see myself since I know myself the best.

Fig. 3.2 Sketches, Week 7 (11/5/2021)

2 selves: 2 versions of myself standing facing each other, hands on each others' shoulders - sort of like a yin and yang concept. The background would be a void, representing the mind and the struggle within oneself being infinite.

Throne + skulls: Metaphor for self-image/how I view myself. Concept: Power/control over alter egos.

Familiars + skulls: Similar to the throne sketch, but my cats are incorporated into this one.

For my self-portrait, I wanted the style to be dark, almost villain-like because I like the concept. I planned on mixing traditional and digital art because traditional art is my favourite. I also love the freedom of digital art especially since I'm able to use vibrant and specific colours, which is tough to achieve in traditional art. More explanation about the concept below the final outcome (Fig. 6.1).

Fig. 4.1 Base drawing, Week 7 (11/5/2021)

I decided to go with the third sketch. The cats will be added digitally. Base drawing done with pencil and brush pen, my favourite mediums. After that, I painted over it digitally in Photoshop (see Fig. 5.1). I drew myself based on my own reference photo of myself in this pose.

Symbols

Fig. 4.2 Skulls

The abstract skulls represent the many versions of myself, voices (overthinking) and anxiety.

Fig. 4.3 "Tress"

The name I identify as. It is also a way of hiding my signature in my self-portrait.

Inspiration/Style Idea

Fig. 4.4 "We're here" - Abstract skulls, 8/5/2021

Abstract art I drew with a brush pen when I felt terrible. This piece is about alter egos/the many variations of a person, which is what I wanted to include in my self-portrait, hence the incorporated abstract skulls in Fig. 4.1.

Fig. 4.5 "Mono" - Self-portrait, 9/5/2021

A quick pencil self-portrait which was also drawn when I wasn't feeling right. I really like this sketchy/rough style because it looks very expressive, and I think it expresses me as a person and my emotions well. So in my actual self-portrait, I drew it in this rough style.

Fig. 5.1 Self-portrait progress, Week 7-8 (11-19/5/2021)

Fig. 5.1 shows my self-portrait progress from base drawing to digital painting in Photoshop. Initially, I wanted to keep my self-portrait monochrome with red being the accent colour because I really like the black & white contrasted look. Red and black are my favourite colour combination so of course, I had to incorporate them into my portrait. I decided to change the background to royal blue because it is also one of my favourite colours and it opposes red, creating an interesting look. Besides that, I used the pencil brush tool so it would look cohesive to the traditional style. It is also drawn intentionally messy because I wanted it to be very expressive and portray the chaos within oneself.

Dr. Charles mentioned that we could let music influence us when creating our self-portrait. While creating my self-portrait I listened to music that was the vibe I was going for my portrait to help me get into the mood. Click here to view playlist. Listen at your own risk. :)

Fig. 5.2 WIP in Photoshop

At first, I wanted to draw all 3 of my cats based on the sketch. However, it would mean that I couldn't add the swords in the foreground, so I only drew one of my cats. I used the 'displace' distortion to create the rough effect. As the final step, I used the curves tonal adjustments to tweak the colours slightly, bringing the whole artwork together.

Fig. 5.3 Rule of thirds

I used the rule of thirds for the arrangement and positioning of all subjects. The swords act as a foreground frame.

Final Self-Portrait

Fig. 6.1 "All of Us", Week 8 (19/5/2021)

Mediums: Pencil and brush pen (traditional) + digital painting.

Approach: How I see myself.

Concept

My self-portrait titled "All of Us", is a depiction of my relationship with myself, my struggles with my mind and the way I view myself. I wanted to express and portray something dark because it's the style I most like and find very impactful. I also find comfort in expressing myself in this way. The title indicates the many versions of myself and how together they form one person.

The concept/story behind this piece is me taking control over all versions of myself and my overwhelming thoughts like a commander, hence the fantasy elements: sword, cloak, skulls and the hand on the table where cracks are spreading. The swords are stabbed into the table, symbolising control and my dominant personality traits (blunt and stubborn). There is a lot to do with control because it is something I struggle with - I always want things a certain way, which is very destructive at times. Furthermore, I went with a dark fantasy concept because it represents my imagination, how I think too much and also my love for the fantasy genre. I often wonder what I would be like as a character in a story, so this is my depiction. Finally, I included my cat as my familiar in my self-portrait.

Design elements and principles present

- Contrast: In colour and subjects.

- Emphasis: Central focus on the main figure (me). The light gray is only in the center so it stands out.

- Proportion/scale: Proportion of the swords compared to other subjects, creating a sense of depth and distance.

- Balance: Symmetry in asymmetry, central.

- Harmony and unity: Colours, contrast and style go together, everything is cohesive.

- Texture: Rough paper texture, grain. To create visual interest, also adding to the dark and psychedelic glitchy look.

- Space: Negative space (black edges) as framing.

- Line: Sword outlines and background details acting as leading lines that point viewers to look at the center (focal point).

Symbols

- Red, black and royal blue: Favourite colours, dark concept, aggression (red and black), emotions.

- Sword: Control, fantasy (favourite genre in film and books).

- Ghost cat: My cat, also representing a 'familiar'.

- Cloak: Power, status, commander.

- Shadow hands: Uniting with alter egos, control.

- Cracks on the table: Power, influence.

- Abstract skulls: Alter egos/different selves, voices (intrusive thoughts), also a metaphor for a commander's predecessors (following their footsteps/listening to those intrusive thoughts).

Alternate Angle/Crop

Fig. 6.2 "All of Us" - alternate crop

Details

Fig. 6.3 Self-portrait close up

Fig. 6.4 Texture details

Fig. 6.5 Ghost Cat

Fig. 6.6 Skulls

PDF FILE

Fig. 7 Project 1: Self-Portrait - PDF, Week 8 (19/5/2021)

FEEDBACK

The black and white version is very strong. Good use of the subliminals in the background (hidden symbols) and exploring with an alternate crop. Overall good work and the final outcome turned out really well.

REFLECTION

Creating a self-portrait is my favourite type of artwork to create. However, I found it a little tough to explain my self-portrait because I often let the artwork speak for itself. It also does feel somewhat odd and uncomfortable to create a self-portrait for a project because of how personal it is to me, but nonetheless, I still enjoyed it. It was a good practice in coming up with self-portrait ideas and symbols, learning more about ourselves, and finding ways to portray and express ourselves. I learned about art and identity and also incorporating design principles into creating an effective self-portrait. I really appreciate the freedom we got for this project - to use whatever materials we wanted.