Self Portrait Inspired by Matisse

This project was all about using the artist mark from the artist copy drawing project. I chose to draw myself in an upside down pose looking a bit confused. The upside down element represents my jittery, unusual side (along with my love for gymnastics) and the confused look represents how I like to figure things out as I go and learn along the way.

After giving my drawing an outline I did some practice with the artist mark on a face, something I did not have to draw on my copy drawing. I found this really difficult, especially trying to balance the simple and expressive artist mark with some resemblance to myself.

I practiced the mark a bit more and then continued on to my final drawing using vine charcoal, charcoal pencil, and white chalk.

This is my self portrait compared to my copy drawing. I think I could have improved on making the face more similar to my own, but overall I feel I captured the mark well in the rest of the drawing. I learned a lot about getting angles correct with this, as I had to redraw my head 6 times to get the perfect size, shape, proportions, and angle on it. On top of all that, I had to make it look realistic from upside down because that is how my drawing would be oriented. This was an extremely challenging project, but I learned a ton about different types of charcoal, applying proportion to my drawings, and persisting through problems.