This work comes from my time studying Fine Art at High School. It involved researching Artists and their techniques so that we as students could develop our own final piece, a self portrait, using what we had learned to inform our choices.
The work began with a return to a familiar technique for me, cross hatching. Using a black fine liner pen I captured the face of actor Peter Dinklage.
My study then focused on a specific artist, who formed the majority of my research, Luke Dixon. The Graphic Artist's style stood out to me, as it achieved realistic images whilst still pertaining an almost abstract style in its line work and colour. The first piece of experimentation came in the form of a copy of his portrait of actor Aaron Paul. I then decided to continue the practice of this style by copying his portrait of another actor, Steve Buscemi. This piece allowed me to discover that I liked the contrast of block colour backgrounds with the black pen portrait, generating my idea to use this technique in my final piece.
Next came experimenting with self portraiture as well as the use of colour in said portraits.
I also experimented with pencil, the product of which I was happy with at the time. However, I found it to be uninteresting stylistically and thus disregarded it as a medium I would utilise.
With my ideas cemented by my experimentation I created my self portrait final piece, depicted below with my primary source.
Going into this unit I had an appreciation for portraiture but it was never something I intended to explore. Yet once I had explored it I found it to be one of my favourite forms of art and one I still enjoy utilising today. Whilst I am happy with my older work I am naturally inclined to say I would do certain things differently now, chiefly in terms of materials. This is something I am still developing but I would like to demonstrate a broader range of mediums, styles, techniques and compositions in my future works, breaking away from the crosshatching pen technique.
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