SELF PORTRAIT Assignment H.F.4.10     Directions: Draw a self portrait from life. This should be from life, using a mirror, not a photograph. (The way Norman Rockwell is doing it in this painting.) It can be a linear drawing. . .                     . . .like the example by Sunnie Bybee on the left, or it can be tonal. . .                               . . .like this Kathe Kollwitz self portrait. If you decide to do a tonal drawing, be sure to set up your lighting in an interesting way, allowing you to divide the drawing into shapes of shadow and light.                       When you are finished, email me a scan or photograph. COMPLETED ASSIGNMENTS:     Jennifer Paget - 6.18.2009 Jennifer, this is very well drawn. I like how your darkest darks are in the eyes, anchoring the whole drawing with a strong focal point. Also, it looks just like you, which is always a bonus when you're doing a self-portrait:) I have two main concerns with this portrait: 1. It looks like it was too easy for you. Not that every piece of art should be a struggle, but sometimes the struggle gives the artwork breath and life, much like the breathing line we did in section one. I'd love to see a variety of marks in this self-portrait. A teacher of mine would actually go back and erase parts of his finished drawing and then draw them back in again. This would create a variety of marks and bring the image alive. 2. Another teacher of mine once said, you can have people walk past your artwork and they will either say "That's a nice study," or they will say "That's a great work of art." The second option is attained with great compositional choices. That doesn't mean you have to necessarily fill in the entire rectangle with values and/or colors, but you might want to either play around with drawing some background, or cropping the image in an interesting way.     Belinda Bringhurst - 2.27.2009 Belinda, I love this drawing! I hope you don't mind if I quote you here: "This is supposed to be a self portrait. I asked my kids this morning 'who is this?' and they couldn't tell me. Even my husband said the same thing so I will try again. I think I was drawing what I wish I looked like." Some of the best self portraits in the history of art were not photo-representational. Stylization and idealization have always been an important part of making art. In fact, Picasso once said (and I'm paraphrasing something I think I once read but I've had a hard time tracking it down) that many art students try to distort and abstract in an effort to "find a style", when style is really the result of you doing your best to "get it right." Your drawing has a strong graphic quality. I love the searching lines that you've left on the page for the viewer to see. They add softness and depth. Your picture reminds me a little bit of the work of famous artist Kathe Kollwitz, though not so dark.