Essay: who am I?

Who am I?

Who am I? That is the questions artists have when they make self-portraits. By making self-portraits they want to show who they really are. Artists started to do this since the Renaissance. There are different ways to present who you really are.

You can show who you are by painting yourself like many artists did. For example Vincent Van Gogh did this several times. Every painter also has his own style to paint and this also tells a lot about the painter himself. The most distinctive quality of Van Gogh are: his brushwork, patches of colours side by side and the way he used complementary colours. The colours that are used tell also a lot about the feelings the painter wants to show in his self-portrait. If you use very cold colours like blue and green for example you give a very serious or depressive feeling. On the other hand if you use warm colours like orange and yellow for example you give a happy or confident feeling and if you use a colour like red you can give an angry impression but also a very warm, romantic feeling. So it also depends on the way you combine the colours.
Picasso also made portraits and self-portraits. These were totally different compared to Van Gogh because Picasso made portraits by showing different points of view in one portrait. So the results were sometimes very strange because you think you see the side view but than you also see the front view for example. Firstly you just see the portrait. But if you look more detailed to those paintings there is much more to discover. This tells a lot about people in different ways.

You don’t always have to paint or draw. You can also write a poem. With words and phrases you can tell a lot about people and about yourself. You can describe feelings, movements, emotions, things you do in you daily life. This also is a kind of self-portrait because you ask yourself the question: Who am I?
Not only by writing but also by using pictures you can tell things about yourself. A collage with pictures about what you like and what you do describes who you are. You can use pictures in a collage but you can also manipulate a picture of yourself on the computer. You need to find out in which way you can tell the most about yourself by just using that one picture. You can do many things with it like: using different contrasts and putting different accents in it. Every little detail gives information about yourself.

To conclude, you can tell a lot about yourself by making self-portraits in different ways. Many artist do this because they want to show who they really are and what is going on in themselves. It is all about: Who am I? There is always a lot to discover about yourself, by thinking about this question and showing ‘the answer’ in different ways with all kinds of details, you can tell much more about yourself than you ever could think of.

Claire Michieslen T3a                                                                   30/03/2012

photo

We had to tell something about ourselves with a picture and by putting different effects in it.

I had no idea how I could tell something about me in that kind of way.

I tried different things and I am quite happy about it.

I won't tell what the meanings are of what I did because you can think of many meanings and that is so nice about this assignment!

I am poem

You can show a lot about yourself by making a self-portrait but you can also write an I am poem. We did this but about Judith Leyster. Judith Leyster was a verry talented artist but she went through a lot in her life. We had to write a poem and on the rest of the paper we had to draw something about her. I am pleased with my work because I really didn't know what to draw. Finally I got some ideas. I drew an empty palette with two brushes. The empty palette can tell you a lot but it depends on wich way you look at it. I never did this before and I liked it. There are so many ways to tell or show something about yourself. I never thought of it in those ways.

Collage

Collage

Our last assignment was to make a self-portrait in the style of Van Gogh. This time we had to make a self-portrait again but not by painting yourselves but by using pictures. Pictures which present things you like and show you character. Those pictures we had to put in a collage. I am happy with my collage. It was a nice assignment to do but it is harder than I thought it was because you really had to thing who am I?

Letter to a friend about your self-portrait

Hi Sonja! 18/11/2011

How are you? Did you enjoyed you holiday a lot? I’m writing you to tell you about my self-portrait we made in the art classes. Your art skills are much better than mine but I’m just wondering what you think of my work. It was my first time I painted a self-portrait. I even never draw one before. So I was really wondering what would be the result.

The way we had to make our self-portrait was based on the work of Van Gogh. The way he painted his self-portrait. First we had to sketch ourselves. Than we could started to paint. I’ve made two painting. In the one I tried to give a happy expression and the other one a serious expression. The background of the drawing is really important to show your expression. So to give a happy expression I used the colours blue, yellow and green. You had to make sure you didn’t mix them to much because that is what Van Gogh did. In the other drawing with the serious expression I used dark blue, red and purple. I’m quite happy with my backgrounds. The reason why I wanted a happy expression and a serious expression was because that is who I am. Sometimes I’m very serious but I can also be very happy. After I finished my background I started with painting my face. The hardest thing was to show the expression on your face. For this I tried to use shadows but it was so hard. You can see it in my drawing that it went a bit wrong.

I like the one with the dark blue, red and purple background the most. Our cloths had to fit with or background. So you had to make sure you don’t have really happy cloths and a serious background. That is why I used the colours dark blue and dark green. It was hard to mix the same colour as your real hair because it is a bit impossible. I am pleased with my hair colour because it took a lot of time. The skin colour I have in the drawing is much better than in the other one. I don’t know what went wrong with my eyes and lips in the drawing where I was meant to be happy. They give a very serious expression. It is still a mystery to me why that one is so bad. I really don’t like it.

It was nice to do and I enjoyed it a lot. I hope you like my paintings. Please give me instruction how I can do it better next time. Did you made a self-portrait before?

I hope to hear you soon!
Yours,
Claire

Self-portrait

We had to make a self-portrait in Van Gogh style. I never did this before. The hardest thing for me were the shadows which make you portrait look more real. One painting of me is much better than the other one. I don’t know what went wrong but my eyes and lips are really bad at that painting with the green and yellow background. I did my best and I am quite happy with my paintings, especially the one with the blue, red and purple background.

Cathedral project

Cathedral project

We had to do this project in different steps. I am going to explain each step:

Step 1

Fist we all had to search for some information to design a cathedral. For example which tools they used or who worked on it or what kind of building style did they have and things like that.

Step 2

We had to make a list of the different parts of a cathedral. We indicated directly these parts on our map of the cathedral.

Step 3

Here we had to make a map of our cathedral with some ideas we had. You also had to make it clear by using some pictures. (I had to do this step)

Step 4

We had to finish every thing and think how long it will take to build the cathedral.

Step 5

We need to discus with al the other groups about what we finally has as our end result.

It was a nice project, but it took really long. It was like there was no end on this project. But when I looked back to what we did about this project, we learned a lot. It was nice to do but I am also really happy it is finished.