*temporary image*
Brain wash
3 ft. x 3 ft.
Oil paints on canvas
December 2016
Oil paints on canvas
December 2016
Exhibition text :
I focused on creating a self-portrait that has an obvious connection to an artist. The artist that I intended to use for my piece is Brandon Breaux. The piece I recreated was a potential mixtape cover for Chance the Rapper. This piece is meant to convey that even though I may be an introvert, my mind is never quiet.
I focused on creating a self-portrait that has an obvious connection to an artist. The artist that I intended to use for my piece is Brandon Breaux. The piece I recreated was a potential mixtape cover for Chance the Rapper. This piece is meant to convey that even though I may be an introvert, my mind is never quiet.
RESEARCH
For my self portrait I had many ideas and so many artists I wanted to use as my inspiration. Ultimately I chose Brandon Breaux as my inspiration. Brandon is a Chicago based artist and he the creative force behind some of the bigest hip-hop profile art. His latest projects include creating cover art for Chance the rapper. My self portrait was highly inspired by the third photo all the way to the right. I decided that I could easily tie in the surrealistic style of .. In additon I felt that I could incorperate the idea of pop art in my painting.
"Chance Page." Brandonbreaux.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Nov. 2016.
PROCESS
1.) Stretch Canvas
3 foot stretchers, a canvas roll, and a staple gun were used. I first put the 3 foot by 3 foot stretchers together and I used the staple gun to staple the corners together preventing the sqaure from falling apart. Then I cut a big piece of canvas and placed it over the sqaure I made with the stretchers. When stretching canvas it's important to pull the canvas tight but not so tight because the gesso we place on top shrinks the canvas.
Here I am using the staple gun
2.) Gesso
I then applied gesso over the whole surface. The gesso is used to prime the canvas, I applied three layers of gesso to insure a smooth surface.
4.) Transfer the image
5.) Painting
The painting part of the art piece was the most challenging. I was having trouble getting the right colors, One of the hardest challenges I had was creating the correct amount of paint that was necessary to cover what I had to paint. I planned on painting the background first and early on that so that the background had enough time to dry. Also creating a vibrant hue that would catch the attention of the viewer. The first step I had to take was to paint the hair, since it did it cover most of the canvas and because Black Ivory is the longest time for drying. One of the other challenges I had was creating the skin tone. My tones seemes to be very yellowish, and then they were a little to dark.
EXPERIMENTATION
For this process I experimented with the skin tones. I created swatches that gave me an idea of what the color looked liked. One think that I should've done different is trying the paint on the canvas because I noticed that once the paint dried, it became darker.
REFLECTION
Throughout the whole process of my self portrait, I had to face a lot of challenges. Yet I think I did a good job whle I was focusing on my overall goal. When people will look at my work I want them to just be able to look at it and think "oh thats awesome." I am a firm believer in meaningful pieces, but for my self portrait I waned to make a piece of art that was modern and "dope" Ithink that my reference to pop art is defenitely there. The vibrant colors just pop out. It is not the usual pop art you see on a regular basis, but people are able to identify the pop art movement I also think that the idea of surrealism pretty easy to see after going in depth. During the process I thought that I would have struggled with using oils but in reality I found it very easy. There were definitely pros and consto the paint taking longer to dry. I hated waiting for the paint to dry so I wouldn't smudge. But the wet paint helped with bledning and preserving the colors for later. After a while without really painting, I had a lot of trouble with the painting process, color that didnt apply well with the canvas. As I mixed my colors, it was really hard for me to predict the amount of color I would need, and I ended up not having enough, which changed the colors throughout. Yet overall I am satisfied with my final outcome, there is obvious things I could've done for it to look better, and if I had the opportunity to do it over again, I would definetly do it.