Self-Portrait
Exhibition Text
My self portrait, "Under The Sea" is a surreal painting that meant to represent myself in a whimsical, underwater setting. Inspired by the works of Sarah Joncas and Rafal Oblinksi, this piece is a strange, yet enchanting combination of surreal elements and elements of modern art nouveau that emphasizes the beauty of the female façade. The painting has an underwater theme as it involves sea creatures such as jellyfishes, a sea snake, and a coral reef. It has a black background to make the bright, colorful jellyfishes stand out. The black and white snake that wraps around my neck is what stands out of place in the painting as it uses dull shades compared to the rest of the objects in the painting. The snake is meant to represent fears and anxieties that coil around me and linger in my thoughts, almost suffocating me like a snake does to it's prey. The Jellyfish also represent an important aspect of my being that represents my creativity and spontaneous personality.
Meaning Behind The Piece:
The objects that are displayed in my painting help enhance the meaning behind my piece that pertains to the contents of my mind and being expressed. The ocean and coral reef in my dress are meant to represent my mind, my soul, and my overall being. The sea creatures are meant to be emerging from my dress that is the ocean.
Artistic Inspiration:
Rafal Olblinski
Rafal Oblinski is a Polish illustrator and painter that immigrated to the United States in 1981. He soon established himself as a prominent painter with an art style similar to that of Beelgian , surreal painter, Rene Margritte. Females are usually the subjects of his paintings and they usually have some strange and interesting elements in the dresses that they are painted wearing. The dresses are painted with details that contrast the rest of the painting and have some sort of separate dimension that contain objects that are protruding from the dress. This inspired me to add that same element to my painting, having jellyfishes in the background of my painting to appear as if they emerged from my dress.
Rafal Oblinski is a Polish illustrator and painter that immigrated to the United States in 1981. He soon established himself as a prominent painter with an art style similar to that of Beelgian , surreal painter, Rene Margritte. Females are usually the subjects of his paintings and they usually have some strange and interesting elements in the dresses that they are painted wearing. The dresses are painted with details that contrast the rest of the painting and have some sort of separate dimension that contain objects that are protruding from the dress. This inspired me to add that same element to my painting, having jellyfishes in the background of my painting to appear as if they emerged from my dress.
Sarah Joncas: Sarah Joncas is a Toronto based painter who specialized in painting female portraits placed in cartoon and film-noir atmosphere. Sarah Joncas was born in 1986 and developed an interest in visual arts at a young age, dedicating herself to drawing detailed images of lizards and dinosaurs. What interests me most about Sarah Joncas is how she decided to move away from working in animati9on to specialize in creating fine art.
Journal:
Planning Sketches:
Process:
Creating the Canvas: The first step to creating my self portrait was putting together a canvas. The materials that I required for building my canvas was: (list materials)
Blending Paint to create different hues: Various colors were used in the creation of my painting. Although my self portrait follows a distinct color scheme of mostly blue and other luminous colors such as purple, pink, yellow and white. I mimed primary colors to create skin tones, the colors of sea creatures, hair color, and other details that are displayed in my painting. The following combinations of colors were used to create hues for the corresponding objects.
Skin tone: white, brown, pink, orange
Hair color: blue, green, yellow
Dress/Coral Reef: blue, white, green
Mouth/Lip color: pink, purple, black
Jellyfishes:
Blending Paint to create different hues: Various colors were used in the creation of my painting. Although my self portrait follows a distinct color scheme of mostly blue and other luminous colors such as purple, pink, yellow and white. I mimed primary colors to create skin tones, the colors of sea creatures, hair color, and other details that are displayed in my painting. The following combinations of colors were used to create hues for the corresponding objects.
Skin tone: white, brown, pink, orange
Hair color: blue, green, yellow
Dress/Coral Reef: blue, white, green
Mouth/Lip color: pink, purple, black
Jellyfishes:
Experimentation:
I originally planned to use my natural hair color to paint my hair in my self portrait
Reflection:
Connecting to ACT:
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork
2.What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
3.What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
4.What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
5.What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
2.What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
3.What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
4.What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
5.What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Sources:
http://sarahjoncas.com/about_sarah/
http://thinkspacegallery.com/artists/sarah-joncas/
http://thinkspacegallery.com/artists/sarah-joncas/