Self Portrait
A Final Glance Inwardsacrylic paint on canvas
91cm x. 91cm December 2020 Exhibition TextA Final Glance Inwards is a self portrait completed in December of 2020, and it is the last project of my high school career. I wanted Inwards to represent a final landmark of how far I've come, not only as an artist, but as an individual as well. It is inspired by the expressionist artist Egon Schiele, as well as the contemporary Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara. This painting is meant to represent my personal growth over the past four years and how my experiences as a young woman has shaped my identity.
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Process
Inspiration
Egon Schiele was an Austrian expressionist artist, who got his start as a mentee of Gustav Klimt. Klimt introduced a young Schiele to the work of many artists popular at the time, that he had previously not had time to learn of because of his home town's isolation from the art movements going on in other European countries. In 1909, when Schiele was nineteen years old, he left the academy he was enrolled in to protest its rigid learning curriculum and resistance to "forward thinking artistic practices". The portrait that I am drawing inspiration from is one of the most celebrated portraits in Schiele's body of work, painted while he was in the middle of multiple exhibitions. At the time of the painting's original display, it was paired with a portrait of his then lover; sadly, this painting was later stolen by the Nazis and only just returned in 2010. The painting has wonderful texture, with a slightly distorted figure. However, the painting still features Schiele's physical imperfections, such as some facial scars, and I plan on maintaining a similar level of realistic detail in my own portrait (that is, not creating an idealistic version of myself).
My second inspiration for my self portrait is Yoshimoto Nara, a Japanese contemporary artist who's work mainly falls under the "super flat" movement in Japan. Many of Nara's paintings are portraits of children, expressing their feelings and beliefs. When one is young, they experience everything for the first time; depending on the situation, the reaction differs, but they are all filled with a passion that fades with age. Nara's portrait Cosmic from 2007 is a great example of this theme in Nara's work, and is a portrait of a young girl. She is seen looking straight ahead, and slightly upwards, implying that the person she is looking at is bigger (older?) than her. Her eyes are enlarged and filled with orbs of color and light (possibly what the title is referencing) and showcase the child's innocence. The color palette of Cosmic is built up from layers and layers of muted tones, and this is something I want to implement into my piece as well. In order to achieve this, I will follow a similar technique of layering different warm, tranquil hues on top of one another until I am satisfied with the look. |
Planning Sketches
For my first sketch, I focused on emulating the style of Nara Yoshimoto. I often attempt to draw in the style of one of my inspirations in the process of these projects, because it enables me to put myself into the position of that artist and try a new technique that I may not be used to in my past projects or personal work. This first sketch features my versions of two of Nara's paintings, as well as a first experiment of how I would implement this style into my portrait, with an image of me with enlarged eyes and other dramatized features.
My second sketch in a rough idea of what I wanted my final portrait to look like, featuring a sketch of me with my hand over my chest, as well as an outline of where I wanted my pears to be. Alongside this sketch of my portrait are some notes I made for myself while I wanna completing this sketch; mainly speaking about the emotions I wanted the piece to convey, compositional changes to make in later sketches (and the final), and color choices. |
Process
Experimentation
For this painting, my experimentation focused on the realistic depiction of pears in my piece and the way in which I would paint them onto my canvas. In order to truly learn my approach in my final piece, I did a study of pears in the same medium being used for the final portrait: acrylic paint and extender on a primed canvas. The canvas used for this study was 4 in x 4in, and features a plain pink background; this was done in order for me to focus on the high level of detail I wanted to put into the depiction of pears. During this process of experimentation, I had no real pears on hand, and so I looked up a photograph that I could model my painting after. During this stage, I was unsure whether I would be showcasing whole pears or the fruit cut in half, and so my study features the front half of a pear and the other half, showcasing its insides. Pears in art are often shown to represent strong emotions, and in the end I decided to paint the cut open half of a pear in order to symbolize the "exposure" of these strong emotions; the purpose of the portrait was to show how far I have come in the past four years and the significance behind that journey, so the open pears seemed more fitting.
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Process
The first step I this process was to create a rough outline of where I wanted everything to go on my canvas. I first started with a sketch of the pear halves, but I didn't go into detail where the seeds would go because I knew it would be covered by layers of paint later on. I also sketch out the figure of myself, which was a bit challenging because I was looking at myself in a mirror and then drawing out my likeness little by little. Similar to that of both Schiele and Nara's portraits, I didn't want the clothes I was wearing to have too many details, because in this piece I was focusing more on the expression of my face and the depiction of the pears.
The second step was to create a wash for the canvas, and apply it all over. For this, I created two washes. One was for the main background and where the sketches of the pears were, and the second was where my figure was. I wanted to have warm undertones in the portrait, so the first wash was a orange-ish light wash and the one of my figure is a paler yellow color. When mixing the hue for these washes, I made sure they were watered down enough so I could still see my pencil marks. After this, I began to put actual paint onto the canvas. I started with the background color, which was a cream with warm undertones, and the pears. To follow Nara's painting technique, the pears were built up with multiple layers of acrylic paint that had been mixed with extender, so that it would dry slower and be easier to blend. While doing the background, I wanted to build up paint in a similar way to Schiele's , so I went back after the first layer had dried and used a palette knife to create some more texture. I made sure to leave some space around where I wanted my figure was placed, because I didn't want to have to go over a bunch of paint when filling in the sketch of myself. |
Compare and Contrast
Compare:
- The depiction of fruit in each piece is similar. In my piece, the depiction of pears represents strong emotions, due to personal progress, and the fact that they are cut in half is meant to symbolize the "exposure" of these strong feelings. In Schiele's piece, the addition of gooseberries (physalis) is a symbol for dreams; at the time of the showing of this painting, when it was shown with a portrait of Schiele's lover at the time, the gooseberries could have represented his dreams for their future relationship and success of his painting career.
- The composition of each portrait is similar as well. Both figures are painted on the right side of the canvas, with generally cool toned color palette. Then there is a depiction of fruit on the left side of the canvas in order to create an asymmetrical balance in the painting.
Contrast:
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- The depiction of fruit in each piece is similar. In my piece, the depiction of pears represents strong emotions, due to personal progress, and the fact that they are cut in half is meant to symbolize the "exposure" of these strong feelings. In Schiele's piece, the addition of gooseberries (physalis) is a symbol for dreams; at the time of the showing of this painting, when it was shown with a portrait of Schiele's lover at the time, the gooseberries could have represented his dreams for their future relationship and success of his painting career.
- The composition of each portrait is similar as well. Both figures are painted on the right side of the canvas, with generally cool toned color palette. Then there is a depiction of fruit on the left side of the canvas in order to create an asymmetrical balance in the painting.
Contrast:
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Reflection
I am extremely satisfied with this piece. A Final Glance is my largest painting to date and it was incredibly fun to work on. In the past I haven't been too fond of painting, because I thought I did not have enough of a technical skill developed in order to succeed; however, in this process, I was determined to keep an open mind and to remember the things I learned while painting in my art history class (as a sophomore). Besides the physical process of painting this portrait, I also really enjoyed the research aspect of it as well. Especially within the last year or so, when I look for sources of inspiration, I strive to find someone who I have never heard of so that I can learn more about their technique and life and how that inspired their body of work. One of my favorite art movements is the super flat movement in Japan, and the contemporary art of Nara Yoshimoto is a perfect combination of super flat's exaggerated and stylized depictions of people, and the metaphors behind each work that are seen as extremely important in the art world. I think that the combination of being inspired by Egon Schiele, and Nara Yoshimoto, is a perfect representation of what I have learned as an art student over the past four years at Reagan; a combination of both traditional and forward thinking art, a mix chosen by me to represent the diverse knowledge I know hold and a representation of how much more accessible art is nowadays. There was generally no struggle with this piece and it was likely one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had for a piece this year!
ACT Questions
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon you art work:
My piece is similar to the portrait done by Egon Schiele in the way that it mimics the asymmetrical balance and the symbolism of fruit in the piece.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Nara Yoshimoto created soft, matte tones in his portraits by applying layers of muted colors on top of one another on his canvas.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I can infer that Schiele's relationship and success of putting on shows at the time of the completion of his 1912 self portrait influenced the depiction of gooseberries, which symbolize dreams.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My research was focused on finding artists who use certain techniques in their self portraits, as well as different approaches to expressing emotions through portraits.
5. What references did you make while reading your research?
I can infer that Nara Yoshimoto's work is heavily influenced by both the cultures in the west, like in the US, and in the east (Japan).
My piece is similar to the portrait done by Egon Schiele in the way that it mimics the asymmetrical balance and the symbolism of fruit in the piece.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Nara Yoshimoto created soft, matte tones in his portraits by applying layers of muted colors on top of one another on his canvas.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I can infer that Schiele's relationship and success of putting on shows at the time of the completion of his 1912 self portrait influenced the depiction of gooseberries, which symbolize dreams.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My research was focused on finding artists who use certain techniques in their self portraits, as well as different approaches to expressing emotions through portraits.
5. What references did you make while reading your research?
I can infer that Nara Yoshimoto's work is heavily influenced by both the cultures in the west, like in the US, and in the east (Japan).
Bibliography
- https://www.egon-schiele.com/self-portrait-with-physalis.jsp
- https://taguchiartcollection.jp/en/works/tac73/
- https://www.markmitchellpaintings.com/blog/the-symbolism-of-fruit-in-art/
- https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/yoshitomo-nara/
- https://taguchiartcollection.jp/en/works/tac73/
- https://www.markmitchellpaintings.com/blog/the-symbolism-of-fruit-in-art/
- https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/yoshitomo-nara/