Alina S. 24x20" Oil on canvas "Self-portrait"

For my final piece I chose to paint a self portrait. I drew inspiration from Expressionism, and attempted to distort reality for emotional effect. I was compelled to chose myself as a subject because I believe that a self portrait can be a very powerful tool for self expression. Everything from the color scheme, facial expression and paint handling represents the abstract ideas of the painter. When the painter is the model they inevitably project their own feelings and the way they perceive themselves on to the work in a very intimate way. My goal was to remain as uninhibited as possible and allow the painting to develop on its own. I wanted in the end for it to be able to stand alone and speak for itself.

I used many oil painting techniques and concepts to achieve a cohesive finished piece that was effective. I used compositional concepts to decide on the placement of the focal point. I used a classical portraiture approach. I used the concept of value to create form and achieve an anatomically correct representation of my face. I used colors for their inherent values to establish planes. I scumbled the colors together to get secondary planes between them. Contrasting warms and cools were used depending on the light to show shadow. Another technique was to build the value directly on the canvas as much as possible. Aside from secondary planes achieved through scumbling, many of the colors were mixed directly on the canvas to create chromatic neutrals or variations in color. I tried to keep the piece high in chroma in order to achieve vibrancy and have it be engaging to the viewer. I also made it a point to keep my brushed clean in order to maintain the integrity of the color and prevent it from getting muddled and muted. In terms of the paint handling, I tried to use varying amounts of linseed oil to thin out the paint. I tried to keep it thick and dominant in the eyes and face and thinner in the background and hair. The eyes were an important focal point because of their emotive qualities and the paint handling was intended for that. I used various painting techniques to achieve texture. I also tried to make the background be in harmony with the focal point. I matched many of the colors to lessen the separation, and also the value to ensure a smooth transition between foreground and background. Lastly, in order to make the piece highly expressive, I distorted some of the features to steer away from photo-realism. I kept it so that they are still very recognizable as a face and its features but details are merely suggested with spontaneous blocks of color. This is seen mainly in the hair.

Some new concepts revealed themselves to me during this process. One concept I learned was that I can allow myself the freedom to let a painting take shape on its own. I didn't begin with a concrete plan except for the color scheme and subject. The goal was not photo realism. I tried to keep true to the nature of painting as a medium and my own style of paint handling. In doing so, what emerged was true and honest self expression; a combination of my emotions while working on the piece, the imagery that resulted and my own personal method of handling the medium.

Another concept that I learned more about was color interaction. I used a lot of pure color and varied it according to the values to effectively roll the form and show dimension. For example lemon yellow or orange were used for high key values, and red, green blue or sienna were used for the low key values, respectively in descending order. I believe the color interaction, with its inherent value the variation between high and low key color hues, is what makes this a unified and balanced piece.

A third concept I discovered through this process was hue-to hue mixing of colors to create gradients in value. Until this concept I had not considered that complimentary colors could create chromatic neutrals and subsequently change the value of a color. I had always worked with achromatic black or white to make tints or shades. In moving away from this method I was able to keep the chroma of a color true but change the value. I was able to further explore and understand color theory.

While the piece has many strengths there are also things I feel could have been improved upon. I think with a better understanding of color theory I can do a lot more with color harmonies. I would like to be able to create illusion through the use of color and somewhat trick the eye. I think if I were to paint another self portrait I would change the way its cropped. I would use compositional techniques in an expressive way, such as making the face larger and more dominant within the space.