Transfered sketch onto canvas

I have now transfered my sketch onto the canvas, using the graphite paper method. I am actually not very happy with the outcome, because it does not really look like me. I should have used another picture to draw, which would make it much easier for me. I have also started to paint the skin, and I will try to fix my painting as I go along. This makes it easier for me, because I have done it before and it has worked. Just crossing my fingres that it will work!

When I am finished with painting my face and body, I will focus on the background where I will add my culture and tradition like Frida Kahlo does in her paintings. The "om" sign will definitely go on there, and maybe a lot of colours which can represent the indian festival "holi".
- Anisha 

Frida Kahlo's Self Portrait

I decided to research the artist Frida Kahlo, as I found her self portrait very interesting and very neat. It has some characteristics that makes it look like Frida, such as the eyebrows and possibly her mouth, which looks the same as on the image below. Her expression is also the same on many of her paintings, and is what signifies her.

She uses a lot of traditional and cultural features in her paintings, which is what I definitely want for my painting, as my culture and tradition means a lot to me. She also painted mostly painted Mexican art and culture, realism, symbolism and surrealism.

On this painting, she has carefully painted all the details of what represents her, such as the leaves, stick jewelry around her neck and the animals - all symbols of nature. I have noticed that she has a strong connection with leaves especially, as I have seen three other self portraits of her with leaves in the background.

She has used different green colours on the leaves, and she has included shading which makes the whole painting slightly realistic, but still we can see that it is a painting. Overall, it is very neat and is a fantastic self portrait, in my opinion.

What I like about it, is the way she has placed herself in the middle, with things that represents her, around and on her. That is something I would want for my own portrait, but not so much. I like it simple. Also how she has made the whole painting complete.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo
- Anisha

Almost finished with the sketch :)

I have now done most of what I wanted to do with my sketch, and I feel that I am ready to print it onto the other A3 canvas. The only thing left, is to adjust the mouth because it is a little close to the nose, and also it is very small. I have decided to have my face and body straight, instead of to the side, because I feel that it can be a lot better and neater if it is straight. What I can do, is to rotate the sketch so that it looks like the face and body is straight, and then transfer it onto that thing.
Here is the picture of my latest sketch:

Started drawing!

I have now started drawing my face, and I am actually finished with it. The only feature I need to redo, is the nose as I feel it is too big. Maybe I have a big nose already, so it is supposed to be like that. What I want to do next, hopefully before the next lesson, is to finish the drawing completely, by also adding the body, and the background so that I am able to transfer it onto the one I will paint. This is what I want the outcome to look like (or not completely like this, but the idea) :





















And here is what my work is currently at. I think it actually looks a lot like me, Im surprised :)






Also, as Frida Kahlo did, I want to include some sort of necklace around my neck with a feature that describes me. Maybe an elephant, because I like elephants, or the Om sign as a part of my culture. If I have a necklace with the Om sign, I want to change the right half of the background to something else. Maybe I decide to make the whole background colourful and add small musical notes on it. This is something to decide afterwards.







- Anisha

Sketches

Here are some pictures of my sketches.. Not really neat, and some of them really ugly actually, but they are sketches after all:

 

- Anisha

Today's lesson

I have now done several sketches of how I want my painting to look like, and I have also finished doing the gridlines on my A3 paper. This below is the picture I decided to paint, but I have only put gridlines 1 cm squared accoss the face, as that is what I want to concentrate on. I can include the hair and possibly my body after a while.




Around my face I will paint the things that I like and what is really me, but that will be decided when the face is finished. As the painting Frida Kahlo painted of herself, I would like to include a necklace of something that I like, for eg. an elephant.

- Anisha

Symbolic Self Portrait - First Unit in Grade 10

Today, we started on a new unit called Symbolic Self-Portrait with the unit question: Who am I?
In this unit we have to create a painting of ourselves, expressing who we are, or how we see ourselves using symbols. This unit can be related to two earlier units; the "icon" unit, as we are trying to create an image of a real person, and the "key to painting" unit, as we will apply paint to our creation.
We started to look through artists and their symbolic self portraits to get some inspiration, as well as portraits from pervious students at IST. In addition to this, we started to write down ideas of our own painting.

Who am I?

I asked my classmates for ideas. What is really me? I made a list in my book and started to do sketches from this.
- Indian
- Singing
- Braid
- Flowery patterns (Always wear them)
- Big hair
- Nails
- Defining eyebrows
- Indian Goddess ( aww :D)
- Happy
- Elephant (I love elephants)

I have not yet found my final idea, but I would love to include things like elephant, flowery patterns and something with singing, as I know that this is me.

- Anisha