Inspiration
I began my research looking for an artist and art movement I identified with. I wanted my self portrait to reflect myself. To do that I needed inspiration that reflected me too. I wanted to focus on African American, female, artists who dealt with similar issues that I do and focus on. Faith Ringgold was a African American, female, civil rights era artist who dealt with issues of racism and feminism. Her work focused on issues that still are previlent today such as the racial divide in the United States and the continuous supression of women and African Americans.
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Planning
I knew how to sketch my face so my planning focused on the background of my piece. In my sketches I played around with how I would divide my piece as well as what words would fill the background. I tried dividing the piece 2 different ways. The first was was simple dividing the piece in half horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. My second idea was to divide the piece into 4 squares then divide each of those horizontally, vertically and diagonally. The second idea was an attempt to recreate the way Faith Ringgold divided her "Mahila We Love You" quilt but it felt to busy and crowded for my idea. I also created a mind map of the most basic societal standard descriptions of me and my personality. I began with four descriptions and added any others that popped into my head from there.
Process
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I built the 3 foot by 3 foot frame, stretched the canvas, and gessoed it. Next I took a photo of myself, printed it, and cut it down to an 8 by 8 inch square. I divided the picture into 0.5 inch squares. I then divided my canvas into 2 inch squares to mirror the picture to use the grid method. I sketched my face following the grid and used a older picture to draw the hair (I recently cut it). I mixed my skin tone using yellow, white, red and blue. I painted my face with a base coat of the pre- mixed skin tone. Next I mixed the skin tone with white and added in the highlights. I then mixed it with brown and added in the shadows. I blended the areas together and with the base tone. Next I mixed blue and red to make a purple/magenta and painted the entire background. I mixed brown, red and yellow to paint the hair. I then divided the background by splitting the canvas in half horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. I split the sections using painters tape and painted every other section of the canvas with the purple/magenta mixed with black. Next I painted the shoulder area with the same method as the face. Finally alternating between the light and dark purple, I filled in the background with the words I chose from my mind map.
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Experimentation
Experimentation mainly took place while mixing the skin tone. I only had primary colors and white to work with so getting the perfect match was difficult. I began with mixing red, yellow and white. I initially added far to much red for my undertones which are naturally yellow. From there I continued to add yellow until I felt the undertones matched. I added more white and a hint of blue. I still felt it was to orange for my skin tone so I added more yellow. From there I went to mix a large batch but I couldn't mix the same color again. My final solution was just to add yellow to the canvas to begin which worked well. My second experiment was with the background. I began with a blank purple background but it lacked movement and interest. Upon further research I found Ringgold's lettering art so I decided to incorperate that into my background. Before I started to use the painters tape to get clean lines, I tried to paint a straight line by hand. I couldn't. Which led me to the painters tape.
Compare and Contrast
Reflection
Looking at my piece upon completion it felt static. There are minimal dynamic aspects to it and it leaves the piece flat and without movement and flow. If I were to recreate this piece I would begin with a different portrait angle. I would've prefered to see the angle from the side or below to create better rhythm and movement. I wouldn't change the idea of the background but I would've used a greater variety of colors to create better contrast and give the piece more interest. The overall portrait turned out well on a purely technical level. The background lines are clean and the blending is smooth. On a less technical level the piece fails to spark my interest. Its not very dynamic and boring.
ACT Questions
min
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Artists in the feminist movement all had different things to say with the same underlying thought of critical change through bringing harsh issues to light. The feminist movement was more than a collective of women coming together to create an art platform. During the feminist movement women's art reflected key cultural issues. They shined light on topics like body acceptance and women's rights
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Faith Ringgold was a highly influential African American, Civil Rights Era, feminist artist. She showed the importance of recognizing African American women as a part of the feminist movement and that all women of any cultural/ ethnic background should be included within the fight for feminist rights.
what was the central theme of idea around your inspirational
The central theme around my research was African American feminist art. I wanted to find an African American artist because I couldn't think of one art class where I was exposed to an influential African American artist. I also wanted to focus around feminist art because I wanted to represent the importance of feminism to me.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Artists in the feminist movement all had different things to say with the same underlying thought of critical change through bringing harsh issues to light. The feminist movement was more than a collective of women coming together to create an art platform. During the feminist movement women's art reflected key cultural issues. They shined light on topics like body acceptance and women's rights.
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Artists in the feminist movement all had different things to say with the same underlying thought of critical change through bringing harsh issues to light. The feminist movement was more than a collective of women coming together to create an art platform. During the feminist movement women's art reflected key cultural issues. They shined light on topics like body acceptance and women's rights
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Faith Ringgold was a highly influential African American, Civil Rights Era, feminist artist. She showed the importance of recognizing African American women as a part of the feminist movement and that all women of any cultural/ ethnic background should be included within the fight for feminist rights.
what was the central theme of idea around your inspirational
The central theme around my research was African American feminist art. I wanted to find an African American artist because I couldn't think of one art class where I was exposed to an influential African American artist. I also wanted to focus around feminist art because I wanted to represent the importance of feminism to me.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Artists in the feminist movement all had different things to say with the same underlying thought of critical change through bringing harsh issues to light. The feminist movement was more than a collective of women coming together to create an art platform. During the feminist movement women's art reflected key cultural issues. They shined light on topics like body acceptance and women's rights.