Self Portrait
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Title: Under pressure
Medium: Adobe Photoshop
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For this assignment we had to
create a self-portrait of ourselves with a concept of something we are feeling
or experiencing at this point in time. My concept behind my self-portrait is
feeling the pressure of having all this stuff to do and having no time to do
it. The idea I started with was feeling the pressure of always being the leader
in the sense that I was expected to do well at school. For me right now I’m
always feeling the pressure of making decisions and especially now when I’m at
the end of grade 10 and I need to decide what I’m going to do after high
school, and honestly I really have no idea what I want to do.
My portrait is very simple yet
complex at the same time. The idea of me being inside the hourglass seems
almost like a dream or a fantasy. First I'll start with the picture of myself,
well first off I know I look really sad but I'm trying to show how all this
work is piling up on me yet I'm almost able to handle it, but I'm on the edge.
I am supposed to look calm. As you work your way out you can see that the sand
covers my feet and sand is piling on top of the textbook on my head. The idea
is that everything is swarming me but I have a barrier to stop it; which
represents the textbook. The hourglass is a representation of time, I didn't
want to use a clock because that was very generic. I almost thought about
incorporating a scale they used in the past to weigh gold and money. But I feel
I was able to use the hourglass effectively in the self-portrait. My background
is very simple but I think it goes well with the entire piece of art. I am
overall pleased with my final self-portrait.
The art style I choose was
surrealism, I found it difficult to find an art style to go with my concept
previously stated above. I immediately had an idea for a concept but was unsure
about what art sly would best represent it. I worked backwards and had my idea
and concept ready before the art style, which, I don’t think helped, but I feel
surrealism is effective in my piece. Surrealism is defined as a fantasy or
dream-like state, which you are almost transported. You are given the thought
that this would never happen but maybe it could? You aren’t sure. Having me in
the hourglass makes you believe that this would ever happen yet maybe it could?
Although the portrait is not comparable to Salvador Dali or Joan Miro in the
idea that the whole portrait is surrealism, I feel the focus was put on me
inside the hourglass and that clearly represents surrealism.
I am very happy with my final
product. I am not technical inclined in the least and just the idea that I was
able to make the portrait look realistic pleases me. When I first thought of ideas
even the one I choose I always swayed when I thought about how I was going to
create it in the program. I would say all my planning helped in the execution
of photography and the computer work. I am most happy with how the hourglass
turned out, I had to shoot twice but I think trying it a second time really
helped with the photography. The one thing I would change is the art style I
chose because I really found it hard to use surrealism because it is unlike
other art styles such as, impressionism or art deco. I do feel surrealism was
successful in my work but trying something different may have been better. I
also like the simplicity of the piece but I would have liked to have more
content in the piece. For example the background could have scenery or multiple
objects.
One of the challenges I found was
the photography. When I did my first round of photography I wasn't fully
prepared for the photo shoot which did not help and that is why I think I was
not happy with how the photos had turned out. Also I used the green screen the
first time and it didn't work the way I wanted it to. The way I fixed this was
with a clear head and a better plan. I went back through my plans and made the
details more concrete and re-shot the photos. I tried the photography in a new
location to also see if that would help and it did. I am very pleased with how
all my photography turned out.
Overall I enjoyed this assignment and felt it really challenged me.
