Works Cited

Dasha Shkurpela.” Dasha Shkurpela. 18 Sep 2009

http://www.dashashkurpela.com/mbr_bio.php

Hughes, Arthur. A Long Engagement. 1854. Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, United

Kingdom. 16 Sep 2009 http://www.bmagic.org.uk/objects/1902P13

“Meryt Harding.” Meryt Harding. 16 Sep 2009 http://merytharding.com/wp/artist-info/

Mixed Media with Photography. circul8. 16 Sep, 2009 http://www.popul8.com.au/blog/wp-

content/uploads/image/2140358695_73e043f572_o.jpg

Sudra, Anna. Art lecture. International School of Ulaanbaatar. Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. 8

September 2009.

“The Long Engagement' 1854-9 by A Hughes.” Alien Adventure. 18 Sep

http://www.schoolsliaison.org.uk/aliens/access/signsSym/hughes.htm

http://wbnm.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/09/01/dans_self_portrait.jpg

http://www.dashashkurpela.com/gallery/7165/

http://stason.org/articles/wellbeing/reiki/symbols/ChoKuRei_reversed.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXoIDLfd0ILcdpHijpZSehEcBu41qBw0QkQGw37V4CF_6ytlIR-sLfGYrvM1ETorSpzWL2JRVU5rW7mxkY-bwRXux_SEMZKGA_O7a09gKyHJc9_OR5Tk9c2g5OSuQFL6JCxDJrzUByrBg/s320/Symbol+Osram+NE+Nsoromma.gif

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/6356807/2/istockphoto_6356807-drama-mask.jpg

http://mooreslore.corante.com/archives/images/iPod.gif

http://69.13.97.211/t-shirt-designs/prodimages/smiley%20buck%20tooth.jpg

Design Brief/ Design Specification

I have so many ideas how I could express it through my portrait, such as the person looking at us will be the person I’m right now (mostly, I am happy and outgoing) and the mirror-reflection could be the other hidden personality of me, which is very insecure and shy. Moreover, it might as well as resemble the old me and the new me, but I will include more about it in Criterion B.

Design Specification:

• Technology (the photo should have altered using technology)
• Photo of self, no one else’s
• Express self/two personalities (mirror-reflection dark, mysterious + original me bright, happy colors and tones)
• Mirrored reflection, because I want to include my two different personalities
• Should be recognizable
• Inspire me
• Interesting to look at

Design Brief:

In order to know whether I'm following my design specification or not and whether the design I'm planning to do is correct, I have to test my design in a way so that it can show me where I am wrong, where I have to improve etc.

My plan of how to test is by putting my portrait somewhere in the school, asking people to write down their opinion on an extra sheet of paper next to the artwork, about what they can tell about the artist of that particular artwork and what makes them think the way they are thinking (eventually, afterwards, I would ask them who they think is the artist). I won't tell them my name, so that when they are done with commenting, I will compare it with my own comments and the result can tell us whether my artwork is expressing myself enough to let people to know who I really am. I as well as could give them a small survey that includes questions like “Was the artwork done neatly and clean so that you could get the whole idea of the portrait” or “What parts made you think more and why?”

What to include in my artwork?

In my self-portrait I would like to include things I like, my hobbies etc, but on the other hand my personality is the centre of the whole work, meaning that I will include more symbols resembling my personality rather than the things I like to do or enjoy.

1. Things I like to do:

· Being creative

· Draw

· Dance

· Care/help people

· listen to music

· relax and think about anything

1. Traits I would like to include:

· Person 1:

(a) Happy

(b) Enthusiastic

(c) Outgoing

(d) Caring

· Person 2:

(a) Reserved

(b) Relaxed

(c) Cool (not cool ‘cool’, but the impression I make on people might be cool and reserved)

(d) Insecure

(e) Shy

So all these sum up to two different people, which looks like this:

1) Person 1:

· Happy

· Outgoing

· Enthusiastic

· Caring

· Help people

· Being creative

· Draw

· Dance

2) Person 2:

· listen to music

· relax and think about anything

· Reserved

· Relaxed

· Cool

· Insecure

· Shy

Finding out my personality...

Like I mentioned before, I would like to include two personalities of me in my final piece and I did some tests on to find out more about my personality. Of course, I am the one who knows the best about me, but I just wanted to see if there is a trait I might have not thought would be there, a trait I did not realize. I included some test results and most of them tended to say that I am caring, supportive and trust-worthy, so I think I can include it in my final piece as well, but I haven’t thought about it yet how to do it.

Editing Pictures

On September the 8^th, the day when we started our project, we all went out of our school building, taking pictures of ourselves in any position with any background that could express us in some ways I wanted myself to be taken with my mirror-reflection, because although it might sound strange, I have two persons inside me. Only few of us actually used the pictures that were taken at that time, because the rest of the classes were feeling more comfortable to take a good picture at their homes that could reach their expectations. I also took my picture at home, simply because I felt confident enough to get good pictures that
could express my ideas better than taken at school.

These are the pictures I took in my bathroom (^_^) and the homework the teacher gave us was to edit our pictures with online editors:

• Picnik.com Phixr.com
  
• Flauntr.com Photohop
  
• Fotoflexr.com
  
• Splashup
  

I used picnic.com and faluntr.com and I really liked it, because it was very easy to use, but also had a variety of fixing tools and effects.

Anyways, then afterwards trying again and again, I finally could take a good picture. This picture reaches every requirement on the design specification list and it is a picture that satisfies my expectations. My expectations were that the picture should express me in a way I want it to have and help me to get some ideas for my final artwork.

After finishing takng photos, I went on picnik.com to fix my final picture. I used two different effects, which you can see below:

I liked the first one better because it really looked as if I have a twin and that means that I can show my ideas better, which is my goal of this project. Although the other one had a nice effect, it bothered me that it could not really show my emotions on the picture. I really tried hard to have the look of some kind of strength, mixed up with care and loyalty, because I think that these traits are a part of my personality. Yet, I think that it didn’t work out that well, but at least the first picture can show more emotion than the other one. I don’t know whether it is because of the effects or of something else, but I think that the second picture has a blank expression and that it has nothing to ‘tell’.

The third design you cant even tell that it is me! So it didnt meet the requirements on design specification!

This picture gave me an idea of having the two “Me’s” to be totally opposite of each other. While I paint the ‘original me’ in a bright colors and decorate it with lots of different materials, I can have the mirror-reflection plain and not eye-catching. I as well as could make the mirror-reflection unfinished by painting or using other material so that it would look as if ‘the other me’ is disappearing or a much better idea, being unfinished, just like a puzzle that it is not put together yet.

The effects I used for each website:

· Soften

· Cotrast (flauntr.com)

· cross process

· holga-ish

· ortontish

· Focal zoom

· I changed the temperature into cooler tone, because in my opinion that makes pictures look cool and interesting rather than warm and open toned photos.

· Contrast (picnik.com)

Here you can see the pictures I took at school and I edited them as well. All of them were edited on picnik.com:

1. Highlights and shadows (I use this technique, because it makes the person in the picture to stand out of the background more and it looks more professional as well. If I make high shadow, small errors like on the face

will be ‘hidden’) I did not choose this design, because first of all it looks plain and not interesting. It looks like as if I only changed the color a little bit stronger, which does not make any difference besides making the picture more colorful. Second, the reflection of me is not coming out of the background that well, whereas in the design specification it says that the picture itself should be recognizable and clear. In addition it does not help me with my ideas for my artwork at all, where I wanted something exotic so that it could give me good inspirations. So, I think I should not use this design.

Colors (I changed the saturation of the picture into colder tone and I made the temperature high creating a nice mixture of black and white picture with some mixture of different colors)

This design was ok, because it did not have something unique as well as, where I could get inspired. Maybe the color could kind of express me, because I am the kind of person who is reserved and the brownish tone represents those kinds of traits? The mirror-reflection still is not clear enough to be ‘another me’. In design specification it says that it should represent me in some ways and that it should be first of all clear and recognizable.

Holga-ish (It turned into black and white)

For me this design is just an other version of picture 3, just used different effects, because first of all I kind of don’t like black and white effects, because for me those techniques are kind of plain and commonly used and I needed something that could INSPIRE ME and this picture could not give me what “I was asking for”. It didn’t have anything to tell about me to the others.

Film grain and Posterize (I took the original picture again and used those techniques. It looks very good with the mirror-reflection, it almost looks like as if I am there with someone else he he)

I really like this one, because it is first of all unique and interesting to look at, but also everything on the picture is clear. This picture really shows the contrast between me and the reflection: My face is bright and white, whereas the reflection itself is dark, which I can use to express myself. Somehow it did not match the image I had in my mind, which was that the photo should be easy enough to trace on the paper and decorate etc, but this picture

Soften (I took the original picture and softened it. It makes a very soft look and very ‘innocent’, which I like a lot! Then I used Invert technique and it also looks very cool! It gives me the look as if someone is watching me…creepy...)

This one was the best design of the photo I had taken at school! It is very interesting and mysterious to look at ^^ I wanted to take this picture as my final one, but before I made those edition on this picture, I already took pictures (see top)of me and I edited them, so I was able to choose my final one. This picture is very unique in a way and it as well as inspires me to include quotes and sayings in my artwork.

I added some real cool quotes in it, some are personal and some are quotes I got from some websites http://kermitqueen2005.tripod.com/id18.html http://www.healthyyounaturally.com/edu/deep_and_meaningful_quotes.htm

Circle splash

This is cool a cool effect and nice colors though it failed expressing my two personalities. Like I mentioned in the previous entries, I wanted to show the opposite personalities of me and this picture, unfortunately, does not. First, the mirror-reflection should have been dark and mysterious, but here it is not and you even cannot recognize the reflection at all! However, this photo actually inspired me to paint ‘original me’ with the color tone this picture has.

I thought that the design specification is going to be about what materials we should use and how it should represent me, but I didn’t know that the picture we have edited will be actual design of the whole project. However, I think it does not matter whether changing the design specification or not, because each of them are somehow related to the designs of edited pictures.

Could symbols express me as well?

Symbols are another way to communicate with others. They are often used to describe something with few words or even without any words. I would like to include some symbols that could represent my personality, such as calmness etc. Because artworks don’t usually include words, symbols are there to back up the artists’ idea and opinion.

A good example of an artwork with symbols in it is “The Long Engagement” by A Hughes. It tells a story of a young lady and a cleric who have been fallen in love with each other for a very long time, but can’t be together of some social reasons or money etc. The name of the girl Amy is carved in a tree and because they have been meeting in the woods secretly for a very long time, ivy has grown over the top of it. The purple color of her dress might mean sorrow; the ivy I the hope and the dog might resemble faithfulness or protection. So, as you can see here there are many symbols in the painting, bringing up the idea of the love they have, yet the pain they have to go through.

I researched some symbols that might represent some of personality traits and here they are (most of them resemble strength, care and harmony):

Japanese Kanji "Harmony"

Sei Hei Ka "Mind be Still" aka "Harmony'

What materials and colors could help me to represent my ideas better?

To express myself better, I should use many different materials, such as cloth, paint or even food. I am the type of person who is usually calm and reserved, but sometimes when I am happy, I usually get hyper and crazy, so to express craziness I could use colorful glitters or abstract shapes .

So for example, if I like reading magazines, which I do a lot, I could get magazines pages, tear them into small pieces and glue them on the background.

I submitted a question on answer.yahoo.com asking “What materials could represent you” and people who have answered my question were saying that a recycling paper could represent them, because they care about the planet and environment. Some people were saying that Thunder could be used to express them, because they change their mind very quickly like thunder and maybe because they are very dominant and ‘aggressive’. It was very good to ask people about their opinion, because it gave me many good ideas and inspirations.

Dasha Shkurpela

”Self Portrait, 2006” acrylic, ink and watercolor on paper

The next artist I am going to introduce is a Kyrgyz artist Dasha Shkurpela who is specialized on mixed media sculptures and paintings. What made me get interested in his artworks is that one of this self-portrait has a similar meaning as my artwork. As you can see his painting he included his mirror-image and himself as well (his hand actually), which might mean that he has two personalities as well. He did not include a description of his artwork, but although it might have different meaning, I can get some idea from his work, such as making my mirror-image’s face dark and unrecognizable to make my idea clearer.

What are some artists creating mixed media self-portraits?

There are many mixed media artists who do self-portraits, such as Meryt Harding and Dasha Shkurpela, who are both well-known with their unique style.

Meryt Harding was born in England and after she graduated high school, she went traveling all around the world for three years. After completing her studies as a nurse, she went traveling again in South Africa. Later on she moved to America, where she spent her the most time of her life there and she studied Visual Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design and the Academy of Fine Arts in New Orleans.

She is a well-known mixed-media artist nationally and once, she said that her traveling around the world has inspired her so much that she had to carry around a camera, a diary and a sketch book all the time to record her thoughts and experiences. One of the countries that influenced her was Africa: She was very fascinated by the culture, people and even the food they were eating so that she made them a part of her art and life. She as well as was inspired by Hurricane Katrina, where she used collages to show the destruction in a better way.

Through her, I also got inspired to look at different cultures and put in my artworks. I could include my culture in my self-portrait as well, showing that I’m from Mongolia and that I love it very much. I could include other countries’ cultures, too, such as Japanese culture, which fascinates me and it’s a place I would love to visit someday! Maybe I should include the significance of both cultures in my self-portrait, but I will include more information about it in Criterion B.

Why do people create Mixed-Media artworks?

There are many reasons answering this question, but the most important one is that artists use mixed media to express themselves in an unusual and creative way to show the world who they actually are. Some artists want to get rid of their thoughts or bad experiences, so they as well as include it in their portraits. Instead of using only one media, such as acrylics and oil pastels, they use ANY type of materials to reveal a short view into their world.

Investigation

We started a new project in our technology class, which we have to create a self-portrait and design it with different kinds of materials to express yourself through your work. The materials could be anything you want to, such as if you like to read books, you could tear out book pages or magazines articles and stick it at the background. These kinds of small things can express you and you might find yourself new during the project, because this project is all about expressing feelings and emotions that you never have known and it is a good practice to discover yourself ^^

In our art class we as well as talked about portraits and why it was important. In my opinion, a self-portrait is a window to your soul, where it expresses your inner world. In the past portraits were used to ‘capture a photo’ of that person, but nowadays it is a tool to show the world about yourself. Some people might had a total different view of you, not knowing who you really are and by doing this project, it might also have some benefits for you to tell the world that you are not the person they were thinking of. For example, if you were a quite and shy girl in the school and you turned into a crazy and outgoing person at home or at places where no one will see you, then you could decorate your portrait with colorful shapes and materials that could as well as indicate that you have a hidden personality. Hence, it will change the way the others were thinking of you.

I think our project will relate to Human Ingenuity, simply because we are creating something by ourselves, but as well as it might relate to Health & Social Education as well. The mixed media self-portraits have to show some ideas about our personality and like I said previously, we could communicate with the others through this portrait and telling them who we really are.