Design Principle - Project 1

16/5/2022 - 27/5/2022 - Week 7 - Week 9
Lee Yan Xu 0347696
Design Principle / Bachelor of Design in Creative Media

Project 1 - Self-portrait

---

LECTURE

Self-Portrait -  Everyone has their own understanding of themselves. Self- Portrait is about how well you know yourself, what your understanding of yourself is again, how you see yourself, what you are and who you are.

Fig 1, How well do you know yourself

Fig 2, Knowing Yourself, Knowing Others

---

Instructions

Also with :

- Recap of the lecture

- Visual research

- Idea exploration 

- Feedback

- Final outcome

- Reflection

Visual Research

Vincent Van Gogh

You're probably picturing him with a large white bandage around his right ear. Self-Portrait with Bandage is the source of this classic mental image of the suffering Post-Impressionist master (1889). Van Gogh's painting of the redhead was almost entirely painted with his signature throbbing brushstrokes and saturated swirls. However, following the ear-cutting event in December 1888, Van Gogh only painted two self-portraits revealing his damaged side, which was actually the left side of his face because he was working from a mirror reflection. Van Gogh ceased painting self-portraits the next year, and he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1890. His Self-portrait Without a Beard in 1889 was likely his last painting.

Fig 3, Self-portrait, 1889, Musee d'Orsay, Paris 

Fig 4, Self-portrait without beard, 1889

Pablo Picasso

Over a 70-year career, Pablo Picasso has been known for his experimentation and reinvention. From his romanticized self-portraits at the age of 15 to his incomplete self-portraits at the age of 90. Indeed, his early Self-Portrait (1896) resembles Delacroix or Turner's work more than the style we associate with Picasso. The youthful Picasso's imagination bloomed with the beginning of his Blue Period in 1901. Scholars have connected his 1907 self-portrait to the angular face featured in another of his works from that year, the famed Maiden of Avignon. Few Picasso self-portraits are known to have been created after 1907, but in the summer of 1972, the artist produced six representations of himself in crayon and pencil. One of these is undoubtedly the most genuine: in Self-Portrait Facing Death, the indestructible Picasso portrays himself as tired and fragile, a dying artist.

Fig 5, Self-portrait, Late 1901, Tate Modern, On loan

Albrecht Dürer

He was a master painter in the German Renaissance and his first paintings appeared when he was only 13 years old. He completed his formal art training at the age of 22 and then completed his Portrait of the Artist Holding a Thistle in 1493. At the age of 28 (1500), he even completed the most famous work of his life.

Fig 6, Albrecht Dürer, Self-potrait, 1500, Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Exploration

I heard a lot of people always say that every single person is different. But for me, I still think that I am a very normal person in this world. I do not think that I am that special.

Fig 7, Exploration 

This is my idea about my emotion

Fig 8, Exploration 

I get some idea from the glitch TV

Fig 8, Exploration 

This is a simple sketch of my face

Fig 9, Exploration 

The first try to put the glitch into my face sketch

Fig 10, Exploration 

Fig 11, Final outcome

Explanation

My final outcome is made up of many rectangles, some squares, and colours. Every single element there has its own meaning.

Rectangle and square

I am inspired by a designer who said everything is made up of shape and I quite agree with what he said. So, I am using these shapes to make my face.

Cyan

Good and nice memories in my mind

Brown

Bad memories which I do not want to think about.

Orange

this is my sanity which would tell me what was right and what was wrong so that I wouldn't make the same mistakes I had let slip before.

Red

This colour can be explained by my temperament and my passion for life.

Blue

A side of me that doesn't want to be seen by others. It can be a bad habit or some other bad thing. 

Black

The darker side. It can also be described as bad habits or bad temper.

Violet

this is my sad emotion. I do not like to show it on my face but sometimes is still hard to be hidden.

Yellow

As you can see there is a yellow colour at the top right. It is one of my eyes which Holds out hope for the future.

Grey

Disillusionment and anxiety about the future.

Background

The reason that I chose a very dark background is that I am trying to cover my bad habits and bad temper as you can see it is a little bit harder to see the black colour in my final outcome.

Fig 12, Final outcome (PDF)

---

Feedback

I was stuck on the first step because my drawing skills were poor, and then I realized that I was wrong from the start, and Dr. Jinchi said we could create the work with our own understanding.

Reflection

I found that I had no idea or concept of this project at all as I was still very new to myself at the beginning. But once I started to explore myself in earnest, I began to understand more and more about my own thoughts, emotions, and needs. I was very happy with this project because it gave me a new understanding of myself and a glimpse of myself that I don't normally see.