Self-Portrait Project
The second final project in my junior year drawing course was to draw a large portrait of myself with some meaningful emotion conveyed.
Self-Portrait Project
Why?
In the spring semester of my junior year, I took a drawing course. Our final consisted of two major projects. The first was the Mega-Object Project. The second was a self-portrait project. The purpose of the self-portrait was to not only capture our own physical likeness, but to capture our personalities as well.
My self-portrait depicts me laughing. In this drawing, I am truly happy. In real life, the truly happy me is trapped beneath the surface. Through most of middle school and high school, I struggled with my physical health. Cursed with both Celiac and Crohn's Diseases, most of these years of my life are a blur of exhaustion and pain. So far, my college years have now been a struggle with my mental health. I have been fighting anxiety and depression, and each day takes an effort just to get through. This self-portrait shows not the me that those around me have seen these past years, but the me that I know exists, hidden somewhere underneath all of the struggles. This is the me that most of my classmates and friends haven't met yet; i hope that they can all meet this me someday. The happy me. The satisfied me that I know I can someday become.
How?
My drawing was done in charcoal on 22" x 30" paper. I worked from a photograph. I finished the drawing with a spray-on final fixative. In all, the drawing took about 5 hours of work.