In-class exercise: Portrait

some takeaways:

Sketching a portrait was more intimate than I thought ; it was different from the usual live drawing sessions where I had to focus more on the model’s dynamic postures rather than their faces, and it definitely got a little awkward (perhaps because my ‘model’ was also drawing my face, so we were just… stealing glances at each other.)

Looking back at my illustration, I think I would have preferred to use a wider range of line weight as well as stylise certain facial features to make it look less realistic.

 

 

Assignment 1: Ideation and Initial Sketches

 

some things about myself I decided to focus on:

• forgetful; just really terrible memory
• the first one is due to my head being a jumbled mess
• i always look calm; people say this often but sometimes i might just be internally dying
• some things i hold dear: my succulent (Charles), my tiny cactus (Mei), my ex-pet (Skink)

 

Initial sketches; throwing random ideas out to portray both my forgetfulness and the juxtaposition between a calm exterior and messy interior. Eventually I went with the one on the most right, where it shows a messy scribble around my head to represent the many things I think about. I also decided to use subdued colours for my face, and bright, noisy colours for the scribbles to show the contrast between what is expressed on my face and what actually goes on in my mind.

Final composition; sketched a small thumbnail of my desired composition to visualise better. Decided to draw myself looking down instead of up; I found it to represent myself better because I tend to look at the ground (whether it be when I am walking or thinking).

 

Assignment 1: Reference Artists

 

Gabriel Picolo

 

Brilliant use of subdued colours with minimal bright accents; clean lines and smooth gradated colours

 

Carlos Villarreal Kwasek

Absolutely beautiful colour palette; subtle use of texture (not too overwhelming but still gives a nice effect)

 

Kathrin Honesta

This series in particular inspired me to use similar techniques for the colourful scribbles (will try to use acrylic paint instead)