Personal Engagement

I really liked this project, because it was a chance for me to be creative and to show others a little bit about my inner world. I sometimes have the feeling that other people misunderstand me. So through this project, I wanted to show those people that I have this type of personality, and that I am still growing as a person and that they should take me as I am and try to understand my complicated characteristic. Therefore, I was very motivated and put a lot effort into this project. I was as well as very enthusiastic to use materials that were a little bit of risk taking, such as the bright colors and glitters.

According to the Criterion F, I think that I was respectful and hopefully not harmful to others, because I was not a distraction to them or did something that might have limited their potential of getting the best out of themselves. For example, during art class, when I had to share paint with other fellow mates, it was not a problem for me to use the paint for my own purpose although s/he needed it before me etc.

Overall, I think that I worked hard and positive during the project and that I was on my own and didn’t need that much of great help of others.

Evaluation

This year’s first project, which was Portraiture Technology, was a great opportunity for me to try out new things, but most importantly discover myself!
Because my test was very poor, I could not get good feed backs on my work and therefore could not find out whether it was effective by representing me. However, I am very satisfied with my work overall throughout this project.

For Criterion A, we were supposed to research on mixed media artists and I found great examples such as Meryt Harding or Dasha Shkurpela, who had created an artwork that might have a similar meaning to my art piece. I came up with different research questions and I think I did good finding the answers, such as when the question was about why artist do use different Medias, I answered in following:
“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.”
I also did researches on what materials or colors could help me to represent myself more, which was a great help for me, because I did not have that much experience on how materials could represent you. Later on I did some reliable tests on the internet to find out my personality type and the results encouraged me more to take risk and use different materials so that it can represent me in an effective way. One of the results showed that I am hyper and happy person, so it inspired me to use bright tones without any doubt, especially glitters, to really give the impression of craziness and hyper!

In Criterion B, I don’t think that I did that well, because I had some troubles understanding the concept of this part of the Design Cycle for this project, which was to create designs of your picture; however, I understood to sketch designs of your artwork. My design specification was wrong as well, so after I got more understanding, I changed my design specification and it was not that much of a big deal.
Although my design test was very effective at the beginning, which was 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 (afterwards, I eventually 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.
On the other hand, because we had to make the test during the class time, I could not perform my test, because there were some difficulties to just go to a class and ask the teacher to answer/ comment on my artwork. I believe that it was my fault being irresponsible for not testing the whole product in an effective way, because if I already had started with asking people to comment on the artwork etc, then I would have been able to ask other people rather than just my class mates. I think that it will make a great difference and greater result when asking different people with different point of views.
So, for the next time I really would like to start testing earlier, based on the project itself; if the project is similar to this one, where you have to ask people’s opinion, then it is better to start off earlier rather than waiting till the very last day.
I had troubles with altering my pictures and the different effects; although I altered lots of pictures, I actually did not use any of its designs! I chose a design that I had the right position and the right ‘look’ on the face, however I did not actually focus on the whole effect of the picture. I used picnik.com because it was very easy to understand and to use, but as well as it had lots of cool effects, where you could mix them up and create even nicer ones! However, I did not use the original effect of the altered picture; therefore I think that I did not do well on it.
I think that I should listen to the teacher carefully and don’t get confused later on, because I believe that this Criterion was poor because I did not listen to the teacher!
Next time, I should try out new effects on my picture and as well as try other websites to figure out how it works. They might have better design qualities than the one I used? Most importantly, I should listen to the teacher.

Criterion D was fun for me, because I knew what I had to do and time passed by so fast that I could not even notice it.^^ I used good materials that could represent me, such as the candy wrapper or the glitter, which indicates that I like candies and that I am a crazy person. During the process, I kind of felt that I was revealing too much information about me, however I continued with my work because it was too late to start a new one etc. However, I am very pleased that my artwork turned out to be very good, because at the beginning I was thinking that it would look weird that the grey face is contrasting to the brighter colors. But it looked good and it as well as brought my ideas very effectively!
For me presentation, I think I included my process and the materials I used, which was a part of the assignment. However, because I was nervous, I forgot a big part of my speech later on and I was very worried about whether I revealed too much information to the kids. It was very hard for me to tell the others about my true-self, because I was scared they would understand the whole thing wrongly. During my presentation, I can ‘remember’ that I talked calm and organized about the whole process, but I still think that I should improve on my public speaking skills. I need to speak louder and use effective vocabularies to back up my ideas, because it seemed to me that some kids were still confused…

In overall, I really enjoyed this project and I can say that it was the best one so far, because it is very interesting to find out about yourself and think of materials that could represent you. I learned that even though eyes can be the window to ones soul, materials I used for my artwork can be a window as well…

Create

PROCESS

Ok, I am back with my process of my artwork! Unfortunately, I could not take the picture of the very first draft of my portrait and I am almost finished with one side, so as you can see above this is my artwork at the moment.

I used black and white acrylics to paint my face in grayish tone (grey represents sadness and insecurity for me). Also, I tore out magazine pages with grey to black tones in order to cut it into small pieces and stick them on the background and some on the t-shirt. Then I sorted them form dark to light tone, so that it would be easier for me afterwards to put them on the background to make it more real and natural. With putting those small pieces I want to show that I am not complete or that I am still growing (same as a puzzle: you are not finished yet, still searching for the right piece and place it in the right place as well). I used black and grey poster color for the hair; I actually did not know what the difference between poster color and acrylic was, but later on I found out that poster colors are actually thicker and easier to spread on a bigger area than the acrylic ones do.

When I asked Ms. Sudra if there were any improvements, she told me that my face kind of looked ghostly and that I should add more grey to make it look a bit real and even. She as well as told me to include more darker tones on the face to make good shadowing. So, I mixed up black and white acrylic to get the same tone I had before, but it was really difficult to do that because the color of my face was kind of grayish blue and I just could not get the color! After thinking through very hard, I added a little bit of blue in my mixture of black and white and you know what? It did work out well!

‘Eyes are the window to ones soul’, so based on this phrase I wanted to show myself through the eyes as well. I am actually a calm person like water, but whenever I’m angry I really get out of control! So, my eyes are supposed to represent this trait.

The shirt was painted with acrylics as well and to resemble that I like listening to music, I included some music notes on my shirt ^^ I wanted to include some symbols, but then I thought there would be too much things on that side, because the mirror-reflection should represent ‘unhappiness’ and If there are lots of things, it will look chaotic and distracting.

Painting the hand was a big mess! First of all, because I could not get the right tone as same as the face, the hand got darker and if you looked at the painting from a far distance you would see the big, dark hand in the middle of the picture. Because the hand is in the center of the whole picture it should be ‘unrecognizable’, otherwise it will take the whole light out of the picture. I found a solution which was to let it dry and paint over it with a lighter tone. However, there were the fingers which made it very difficult for me to outline and make it recognizable. I used a lot of paint for the hand, but finally the end result was not that bad! =D

In addition, I think that I got the tones of the face and the hand pretty good, because when I added more shadows on the face, the dark tones of the hand got balanced and it did not look that bad as before.
Ms. Sudra provided us with paints and other materials, which made it for us easier to carry out with our project without worrying about to bring art materials to school!

~HAPPY~

Now, I got to paint the ‘happy side’ of my portrait. Ok, what represents happiness? Bright colors, such as red, orange and yellow would make a good combination for the background or even rainbow colors! Lots of glitter and small jewelries could give the happy and hyper mood; I have not thought about it yet, but just some brainstorming ideas.
I decided to paint my t-shirt in purple, because from what I researched purple color stands for creativity, but as well as self-confidence (traits that I want to include). I mixed up pink and blue colors together to get a really nice purple and added some black to the color for shadowing darker parts. Because I didn’t use that much water, the paper didn’t shrivel and the color came out of the background more, which looked very nice!

The problem I had with the ‘happy side’ was the face; I wanted to paint the face in a bright yellow mixed with a little bit of orange, but unfortunately I added too much water so that the color was not thick enough to cover some black spots on the face that was caused by painting the ‘unhappy face’ with dark tones. The image of the ‘happy face’ is strong, but if the face was pale and not standing out, it would just ruin the whole idea. So, what I did to solve the problem was this:

I let the color dry, and then I added another layer of the paint except that it was thicker and stronger. It actually worked pretty well, but the dark spots were still on the face. I added more dark tones on the face to make some outline of the nose, mouth etc.

Another problem I had was the nose, because it was very hard for me to outline it; it was very difficult to even recognize whether it was a nose or not! I carried on with painting my hair while letting the face dry to go over the nose again. My idea was to color my hair in a bright red, meaning craziness and strong expression; I added darker tones around the hair root to make it look more realistic. I think that it worked pretty well! ^^ I as well as added some red flowers just for decoration (I got those flowers from my sisters necklace *lol*)
· I painted over the nose again, added shadows and lighter tones and it looks good.


The eyes were playing an important role, because it should give a strong and sharp look making the image even more to stand out, colorful etc. Green would make a great combination with the red hair and yellow skin; it will give the impression of strong and power! I mixed up dark green with light blue creating a really nice light bluish green and when I painted the eyes with that color, I added white spots on the pupil to make it look a little bit real.

I got a good idea to cover my nails with bright blue glitter and once it was finished it looked very nice! Glitter should stand for happiness, a material that expresses chaotic and crazy person =D First, I got liquid glue and spread it around the certain area with a brush. Then I covered the area with glitter and I turned the artwork upside down to remove the rest of the glitter that were not glued on the area.



I don’t have any idea what color the lips should be! If it would be too bright it will take the whole tone of the face making it dark which I don’t want it to happen! I think I should use dark reddish tones so that it kind of matches with the whole background.


The background includes some symbols with a meaning of out-going and happiness, but as well as some glitter, textiles and magazine cut-outs. I would like to combine the small magazine cut-outs included in the background of the ‘unhappy side’ with the ones of the ‘happy side’; I want to say that those two personalities are creating me when they are combining with each other.

The other materials, such as the glitters or candy wrap paper should somehow represent happiness. At the bottom of the background I drew symbols I had researched before and they mean harmony and strength (power). Symbols are good way to express yourself ^^




Overall, I really liked this project and in my opinion it was the best one I have ever done before, because first of all it gives us the chance to express us in a creative way using different materials and secondly, through the project you as well as could include technology within to create a self-portrait.


I think that different effect we have used to edit our picture gave people lots of good ideas and inspiration to create their artworks differently. Before in the class we were supposed to draw a self-portrait very creatively and most of the students did not know how to do it, because they might needed some ideas and they just needed an ‘a little kick’ to open up their creative thoughts. The ‘little kick’ was the technology, which was editing your picture that you had taken before.

By using and trying out lots of editing techniques could inspire me, because each time I edited the same picture with a different effect, I got a new idea to bring up my idea better, such as when I applied the ‘Inverse’ effect on one of my pictures I took at home, the black and white tones mixed up very nicely, so that it gave me the look of someone invisible is watching me. I could relate that imagination with my idea and I got the idea to express myself by saying that the ‘invisible person’ is a person inside me that watches and analyzes every step I make. For instance, when I am talking to someone I don’t know or don’t trust that much I should think before I talk, so that can represented through that ‘invisible person’.

Like mentioned before in the process, the hardest part was to get exact tones for the face and the hand, because whenever I ran out of color it was hard for me to get similar tones as the original ones, but with practicing and trying out I think that I could handle to get the tones right. Painting the t-shirt or the hair was easy for me because I like painting bigger areas and it is easy for me to apply any tones on it without worrying about whether the tone will balance out the other tones etc. The red hair was my favorite part to paint, because it was so much fun for me to get different tones of red and ‘play with it’ to get a nice red colored hair! =D

From this project I learned about myself a lot. Not simply about my traits, but when and where I work more and fully apply myself to the work. I think that I can work at school more concentrated, because when I am at home, I easily get distracted by other things such as eating or talking on the phone etc, but at school you have to do it until the lesson finishes, so I learned that I need some kind of a pressure to get things done, such as time limit etc. I as well as learned how to correct errors that occurs during the process; depending on the error itself, you should use different methods. For my case, I had to let the whole thing dry and paint over it again to make the color stronger.


I am actually satisfied with my final artwork, because it could express my ideas very well and clear. For my design specification for technology class my very first expectation was that the work should represent me very well and thoroughly, so the final work met the requirement! Everyone’s artwork is unique and beautiful, for example Ha Young’s idea of using noodles as her hair is amazing or Khulan’s style of drawing and including pictures of the things she likes is something that I would not have came up with! The thing that was unique about my artwork was that I revealed a little more about myself by including two personalities and expressed them clear. I think that it is the strength of my artwork.

My artwork as well had weakness and those were that the background of the ‘happy-side’ is not organized well and there are too many different colors at the same time. Although it was supposed to be chaotic etc, there were just too much at the same time (look at the bottom of the background of the ‘happy-side’). I as well should have worked neat, because some paints got smudged on some areas and it was impossible to cover it up and apply other colors.

If I had the chance to do the project again, which I would love to do it, I would be more careful with choosing colors, because once you have put it on the paper, it won’t just disappear. Next time I would as well as work neat, because when I was painting the face of the ‘unhappy-side’ I did not realize that it has splattered some drop on the face of the ‘happy-side’ and it was impossible to cover it later on and it has left some dark spots on the face. In addition I would ask the teacher when the whole project will be due so that I can manage my time and plan, because I did not know when the final work was due so I took a lot of time on something that could be finished in an hour! Maybe I did not listen to the teacher.


It was very comforting for me getting feedbacks from my fellow classmates, because they told me that my work looked very nice, which game me confidence, but they as well as told me where to improve on etc. I really appreciate that I have such nice classmates!