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I cut out bits of magazine and arranged them in a self portrait to create my Identity Collage. I wanted to use a picture that represented my daily self instead of a professional one. I believe it was more realistic of me and my everyday look. A friend took the picture and I drew a rough sketch on paper.
I was nervous to begin so I started with my lips. Doing this project made me analyze my features and I noticed my smile is a bit crooked. I wanted to make it as realistic as possible so I used lips from a model and traced the exact shape of my lips. Next I began piecing together my glasses; I chose a color close to my real glasses. I was still nervous to begin on any big part of my portrait so I worked on my eyebrows next. I fill them in almost daily so I chose darker pieces of hair. Once I had a routine and felt more comfortable, I moved on to my face. I used the chunks of skin that had shadowing on the edges of my face because I enjoyed the contrast the they gave me. I chose to use bigger pieces on my portrait because it represents how I prefer my art to be imprecise. I’m willing to put in time to make it look good and am satisfied when it looks decent with less time used. I wish I would’ve started with my skin because working around my other features turned into a challenge. My favorite part to work on was my hair but it was challenging to find pieces for it. Most models and women in magazines have curly hair and mine is naturally straight. I enjoyed placing the darker pieces toward the back of my head and highlighting the front with lighter pieces. I think my hair looks the most realistic and love how it turned out. For my sweatshirt I chose to stick with the color green because it’s my favorite color and represents nature; another thing I’m passionate about. I used pictures from a calendar to create my background. All the places I chose: Japan, New York, Italy, Spain, and France, I have personally been to. My father was active in the military until I was 15 years old, so we traveled a lot and were constantly moving. On my artistic journey, I chose to change things along the way. I started with white and green strings on my hoodie but felt it clashed too much so changed it to match the orange color in my background. I also struggled to make my nose visible and stand out against my skin. I layered darker and lighter skin shades and added nostrils to make it more realistic. I believe self portraits can change how a person views you because art is very descriptive. You can't always capture life experiences in a photo but you can in portraits. I enjoyed creating something that represents my looks and personality and am proud of my result. |