2. Portrait Painting: Initial source
When visiting the National Portrait Gallery, I started at the top with the Tudors and wondered around. I
didn’t choose the one I thought I would look best but the one that inspired me the most. As I
wondered throughout the gallery, I kept with this approach while picking one portrait from each floor.
The composition of Queen Elizabeth shows her central in the frame, taking up the majority of the space. This
makes it more intense emphasizing her authority the colours are primarily gold's and blacks. This suggests
wealth as a propaganda to re-ensure England’s economy status in the 1500’s. The median used seems to be
oiled bases to portray the Queen in a realistic view. The interpretation on the Queen’s portrait shows many
symbolic jesters, such as the excessive amount of pearls representing the virginity. This emphasizes and
strengthens her position of the virgin Queen. Also her face has been painted a un realist white, while not
letting the arts develop in her reign. She portrayed her self with the “mask of youth” to reinsure the aging
queen with out a successor is still young.
The composition of this piece shows the man central in the frame.
However, as the shoulders are half drawn so it makes all the weight
anchor to his head, instead of being evenly distributed. The mark making
shows brush marks that build up his face while his shoulders are roughly
marked out. With the man gazing in the distance, the childish feel of the
shoulders suggest that the mans memory has reached a more simpler
time. The medium of oils that have been used to exploit the work by the
textures by a dry brush and layering up the face with marks. The artist
has interpretive the figure of a military chief officer in WW2 to be
presented with authority, while also suggesting isolation and loneliness.
3. This piece really attracted me to it, with the old man looking into the gallery with lost
eyes is portrayed to me a sad emotion. The man is standing central in the frame that
gives him authority but is all nearly lost by the isolated emotion to be presented. The
map behind gives the man a place and a personal reference, however it is to broad to
directly indicate any location to place him. All these factors suggest that he is suffering
with Alzheimer's which makes you feel sorry for this piece and brings a connection to it.
The sense of the map behind also gives the audience a lost sense as they don’t know
where the man is meant to be in London, as much as the man himself does. The smart
clothes indicate that he was once an important figure which the man is still believing in.
The artist has used watercolors that give a delicate sense to the piece to correspond
with the delicate subject and atmosphere.
This piece is of the artists son looking over
the banister that was quickly jotted down.
The empty space around the boy isolates
him, especially with the clothing fading off
the page. This gives it a sense of freedom
but also loneness. The obvious vertical
pencil marks drag the piece downward
which emphasizes the boys authority as he
looms over. The composition places the
subject to the right of the frame which
makes the overall look unbalanced. The
diagonal line follows the rule of the golden
triangle. This makes it aesthetically
pleasing and draws the attention to the
boys face. This causes the piece to be
more unsettling. The mark making
becomes more obvious on the clothing
while the face is more delicate and
realistic.
4. Portrait Painting
o The drawings I sketched allowed me to develop my ideas as I could experiment with angles,
compositions and facial expressions without having to commit to painting all of them. This
allowed me to correct sections, abandon pieces or merge two together.
o After drawing the average head and shoulder angles, I quickly realized that the angle portrays
much more than I thought. I did compositions of me looming over, however I didn’t think that it
really portrayed my personality. This lead me the evolve the angle to be in line with me on an
equal line and also from above me.
o As well as sketching ideas before painting on the canvas my final outcome, I also painted a
selection of compositions. This allowed me to explore with the medium but also the colours.
The painting of an equal level to me I thought I would go on to paint on my canvas. However, it
was at this point that I started to question it more that lead me in changing my decision. Even
still, the composition I chose I still altered a bit after experimenting it through painting it
o The acrylic paint is bold and good to layer and go over to create highlights and shadows to
create more depth. This medium stayed the same through out. The final composition I zoomed
out to capture the whole body, changed some of the colours to make it brighter and made
sure I was smiling more.
5. Portrait Painting:
Final Outcome
o The process of developing a final piece I did showed me that the initial ideas are the first sketches for a reason. As once
you come up with the initial compositions, there is so much to question before the final outcome such as the colour,
altering the angle, medium, canvas size.
o I have learnt by looking at artists portraits in the galleries through the eras, seeing the self portraits of my peers and
completing it myself, that your personality is reflected in the visual language. By the composition, colours, scale etc, it all
represents something about yourself. Throughout the development of the portraits, you need to almost control the
information that is portrayed to make sure it is correct (so I would do a dark, intense, sad portrait) but also how you
want to be seen.
o The final outcome of my piece I feel is soft, with a light pink background.
Also, it has an element of being chilled and not too in your face due to my
position being laid back and not zoomed in. The angle is from above which
suggests that I am not dominate, but laid back, but still optimistic as I am
looking up at the angle of the painting.
6. Reflecting On Year 1
o Looking back across the year from last September, I feel that the equivalence
project allowed me to do and experiment with what ever I wanted which set me up
for the year of experimenting. The projects allowed me to to develop a broader
range of skilled in different forms of art, such as print making, model making, fine
art and graphics. This has also importantly allowed me to have an opinion on the
different mediums for me to like or dislike something, or merge one medium when
using another.
o My understanding has developed for me to realize the difficulties of each medium
and art genre for me to start watching out for and developing the next time I use
it.
o My strengths have become more clear throughout the year, directing me in to what
form of art I will develop with. I seem to practically work fast while still showing all
my working outs in my sketchbook, communication my mistakes and successes in
my book. My favorite sections of art and design this year were graphics and
printmaking which I feel will take me on to illustration. In this I will use printmaking
to support my ideas.
o In the second year, I know I need to work on my written analysis and question to
ideas. Also my sculptures I need to take more care and development in. Also, I
need to make sure that I include a broad range of pieces to add to my portfolio.
7. Plan For The Future
o Over the year, I have developed my own personal ideas of what I like and dislike. I know now that
my strengths are not in model making but more in the 2D arts of illustration. Without the
experimenting, successes and mistakes I have made through the first year, I would not be able to
eliminate the art medium. At the start of the year, I thought I would fall in to graphics and fashion,
however, now I have evolved my ideas and understanding.
o My current progression aim is to go on to working in children’s illustrations. However, I am keeping
an open mind for any medium in art for me to fall into instead or merge with illustration. I see
myself taking this progression route as I love telling a story through characters and colours.
However, my next year of education, I wish to do a foundation for me to continue experimenting.
o The qualities of a good illustrator is to be able to transmit messages across to the target audience.
The skills you would need would be pencil work but also on a computer such as Photoshop. Also
life drawing is a valuable skill that would be used.
o In the 2nd year I need to work on creating mock up children's book to the best of my ability, this will
give me a feel of telling a story and making sure that the words correspond with the text. Also, I
need to develop my understanding of Photoshop.
