The Ideal Self Portrait

For my final school project we had to compose two self portraits. An Ideal and Unideal self portrait of your own interpretation. For my “Ideal Self-Portrait” I pulled my inspiration from Albrecht Dürers Self Portrait at Age 28. Dürers self-portrait is most prominent because of its resemblance to many earlier representations of Christ. It has notable similarities with the conventions of religious paintings. It’s symmetry, dark tones and how the artist depicts himself as directly confronting the viewer and raises his hand to the middle of his chest as an act of blessing. A truly “Ideal” image.

I tried to emulate every piece of religious conventions in which Dürer used on himself. I used the symmetry, dark tones and kept the straight forward on look and blessing hand. I added a cross with a ring on a chain in my hand which was gifted from a estranged lover. The time spent was a blessing, forever in my heart.

With my self portrait I went as far as even getting the lighting on the same side of the face as other earlier Christian works. I really wanted to exude the divine aspect and take note on the things that Dürer applied to his paining to my drawing.

When it comes to the hands specifically I had a lot of trouble. I tried to see them in value instead of line to get better proportions. Removing my tattoos from my face and hand to add to that divine and untouched appeal.

I am beyond proud in how I got the detail in the face and eyes and around the lips. Even the face hair is on point and gave challenges in itself.

With the hair I chose to see it in value instead of line like I did the hands. Using the white of the paper to get the highlighted dreads and then going back with a white charcoal to get the highlighted parts of the white. Trying to only get the silhouettes of the dreads in the darkest of shadow so it reads as a full head of hair to the human eye.

Lips have became one of my favorite things to draw on the human body. Seeing them in value and shading them in instead of drawing them in has become so much fun for me. Also seeing the finish product of the lips are very releasing.

I love the shading on this entire piece. I really put in the work to get a variety of value, trying to catch shadows in shadows and some of the most small shifts in darkness and in light. It really comes through in how the shadows of the hair on the face layover the faces structure giving it more volume.

Here you can see where I laid down the values of the drawing. Mostly to get proportions right and the distance between things. It’s a huge help in selecting the area in which the light is coming from and really helps you compose a piece in total. Giving you a very broad view of your possible value scale. I also tone my paper making that the middle value and the white of the paper the highest leaving me only to darken what needs to be darker.

In all I am extremely proud of myself. This is one piece that I will forever cherish and adore. This Portrait will be sent to my older sister in Germany. It is a 8 hour piece constructed of mostly value in the use of charcoal on Bristol paper. Below is the “Unideal Self Portrait”, I went for a more impressionist out look on it inspired by Paul Cézannes Self Portrait in front of Olive Wall Paper. Maybe I’ll go into detail on this later.

UPDATE THE PAINTING IS IN NUREMBERG, GERMANY IN AN UNDISCLOSED LOCATION.