Self Portrait | Project Two
Blooming From My Head
Canvas, Acrylic Paints 36in by 36in April 2021 Blooming From My Head is a self portrait heavily referencing to Marco Mazzoni's Goneril, but focuses on the details such as the flowers that represent here dark thoughts and the growth development someone may go through all within their head, but this is shown visually as it's coming out in a more nature themed way. It can be seen from it more realistic look and focus to details such as the colors being very vibrant and bold at the top and transitioning from warm set of colors to cool colors. |
Inspiration - Marco Mazzoni
When working previously on Project One, I wanted to find an inspiration for that last project, but instead I found Marco Mazzoni, and I knew I wanted to use his work as an inspiration for my next project, which happened to be this one. He makes these realistic drawings in color pencil and uses several flowers and normally when making them of people, if by any chance he uses a creature with it, he always uses a flying one that connects him with freedom. I decided to use that type of symbolization but this time with the flowers. |
Planning
I started off by using an app on my phone called Grid Maker for Drawing, I inserted the first image and used compare drawings, where it would make it slightly transparent on paper and decided to hover the phone over it and using the camera, I placed it where I wanted to put my face and with that I took a screen capture of the image in order to have a visual of it that I wouldn't need to worry of it moving around. After drawing the base of my face, I did the same thing but with the actual image of reference for the hummingbirds to be able to place them exactly where the original image has them on the person.
Using the same process as the face and hummingbirds, I did that with the flowers and the images shown above are examples of how I did it specifically with the begonias because they were the first ones I started placing in that order shown just above this.
Here is shown the process from sketching out the face and giving it some shading to see how it would look to make it not so round, and then giving it the hummingbirds. Next up is the begonias being added one by one. Also when doing the flowers, I made them slightly bunched up in order to not give it such a distant view between each other and have it more realistic looking group together. The last image is the final results and seeing how it'll look like in the end once I sketch it out on the canvas itself. Also at the bottom of the sketch I take note of which flower are used and where they are located on the sketch and what do they represent.
Process
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Given from the detail sketch, I placed it on the grid maker app and the original plan was to use a three by three grid but I wanted to get it more accurate. I had already made the face in the bigger grid but made each square into sixteenths split evenly, so in total I had 144 squares. I slowly made my way through the portrait doing each square until finishing the flowers. |
After sketching it out I then started painting the black background. It was a little bit challenging To get the corner areas that were close to the leaves and flowers. Not only that, but I also painted the edges of the canvas black in the areas that wouldn't have the flower or leaf out the image. Giving the bold background would then balance out with the detailed flowers so it can be something monotone to the vibrant colors that would be added later on. |
Starting off with the yellow flower, I did begonias to represent dark thoughts. The begonias are the warm colors that will be the first painted in representing a fiery feeling I have towards those feelings. I started the yellow flower by painting it the whole base yellow but still having the sketch marks showing in order to know where each petal ends and starts. Mixing orange and yellow together, I was able to get a darker yellow shade that would be the bottom of the petal and slowly blend it in to keep the bright yellow tips. |
Next off was the rose like begonia. The original plan was to paint it a bold, bright red but I did not have the color I was aiming for. I then went with a semi dark red that looks like a dark pink in the picture. The colors I blended with this begonia was dark red with white. When blending them in the middle, it had turned pink in those areas. It came out very nicely with a smooth ombre of each petal using a nice pink and highlights of white on some petals. |
Next up was the orange flower that I tired blending with a yellow so I wanted to go with the same method as the yellow flower, by painting the base of the flower all orange and then layering on the shades onto it. That didn't go as how I planned for it to go, so instead I did each petal individually by trying to add some yellow but it just made it into a light orange. Since the image itself was also orange, it was very dark and it was only orange, which is why I added tints of yellows at the tips to the petals facing upwards such as the middle one that stands out the most. |
After finishing with the begonias, I continued then with the delphiniums. The next three flowers shown in the process will be the delphiniums that are cool colors because it represents more of a relaxed state without stress, which connect to the feelings with the flower, which are growth and development. I wanted to continue with the white, so I did the mix of blue and white, by doing the same technique as the red one above it by doing the bottoms of the petals and layering on blue and until getting to the tips and leaving it to just white to have a whole scale of blue in each petal. |
The same goes with the purple delphinium, I did the blend of white and purple, by using the darker part of purple as the bottom, and white as the tips in order to go along with the pattern of ombre as the other flowers, This one was quicker to get and it was smaller as well much as the next delphinium which represent the hidden growth and development I am obtaining slowly unlike the begonias, who are more exposed and with warm color hues that show intensity. These delphiniums on the other hand, are smaller, hidden, and cool hue colors that can be seen more as a calm state of intervention at the moment. |
The final flower I worked on was the green/teal delphinium, I decided to go with a greenish with blue color that blended to a light green. This one I was very happy with, but I realized the colors of the hummingbirds might camouflage to the delphinium. This one had more in common with the orange and yellow begonias because the blending of colors wasn't just one color plus white, I decided to do it like so there would be three with the combinations of two colors and three with the combination of one color plus white. |
Next up was the hummingbirds. I had attempted three times to get the body color to a more desirable color I wanted. I realized I would have to do a combination of more than just one color which I did shown in the next photo set below. The wings were originally going to be purple with some light shading but I didn't like the hue used and so I decided to use a more darker color. |
In this gallery of photos, it shows the hummingbirds on the last color chosen which was a mix of three shades of greens and with a redish tone to the wings with some brown on the red to make it that color and making a darker shade of it for the back wings. At the end some purple was added because of a photo I referenced at some point and it showed having a purple spot on it. |
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The final area was the skin, which was a little challenging in the beginning but adding brown and white together I was able to get the different shadings and I would check if they matched my skin tone by putting a spot on my hand and then continuing on. I would use the darker tone for the shading on the ends of the nose and black for the nostrils since that is how it looked on the photo I used for my face. I then did the neck with the darker shade because the lighting of the photo made a shadow area on the majority of my neck but didn't reach my collarbone exactly. I also used in on the edges of my face in order to make it darker there just like the photo used for this portrait. |
After finishing up with the skin, I then went with the lips. In the photo I had worn red lipstick to match the lips of the woman in Goneril who also has a red tint to her lips. Using the red paint that I had used for the begonia but this time without mixing it with anything else, I painted the lips with it in order to get the bold color. After words I painted a black thin line on top of the bottom lip that was the bottom point of the dark areas of the mouth. |
After putting the black line, I lightly sketched out the teeth to look as it did on the photo and the way I gave it the light line of separating them without putting a black line on each one, I used a light grey as the line to separate them from each other and then lightly painted over that line with white in order not have it as much, but still be noticeable. After finishing that, the white areas on the side of face were filled with black and made a couple leaves on the purple flower to give its missing detail. Then afterwards I painted the purple patches on some of the hummingbirds correctly. I also painted the blank area white where the eyes goes and used the same light grey from the teeth but this time from the outline of the glasses. |
Compare and Contrast
Reflection
Seeing as painting has always been my weakest point in art, I was very proud of myself how it overall came out to look, specifically the flowers. Its shading and blending points on it were fun to do and being able to see it come together, representing something more personal to me than any other project I've done so far, really is something I'm happy about. During the time I focused on the flower, I realized I had made it into a rainbow set of colors but not only that, the warm and cool color sets were divided up by the type of flower they were too. When I was looking into the flowers more, I knew I wanted them to symbolize more than how it looks, since each flower has its own meaning, I searched up what the begonias and delphiniums represent and brought them together in order to make Blooming From My Head.
ACT Questions
1. Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork.
Blooming From My Head and Goneril, have a direct effect on it since the main difference is the type of flower used but beside that the hummingbirds are in the same placement and the face may be different but it still has the same pose.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Marco Mazzoni is very inspired by other cultures and folktales of creatures, so he turns that into the women in his drawings and using flying creatures in order to show a way of flight and freedom to escape.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Some tales aren't as mentioned as much and Marco Mazzoni shows them in such a beautiful way in many of his color pencil drawings.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I turned it into a way to represent the dark times I had gone through and also showing the growth and development I am making within myself slowly and hidden. Without saying this, it wouldn't be known, but now mentioning it, it gives a more personal insider as to how one has bloomed flowers of negativity but can be slowly blooming some of strength and growth.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Something so beautiful can be made from other tales that aren't heard of much, but still exist and sometimes without even knowing it, we can be seeing something about it, but unless told directly where it's from, we may not even know where it came from.
Blooming From My Head and Goneril, have a direct effect on it since the main difference is the type of flower used but beside that the hummingbirds are in the same placement and the face may be different but it still has the same pose.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Marco Mazzoni is very inspired by other cultures and folktales of creatures, so he turns that into the women in his drawings and using flying creatures in order to show a way of flight and freedom to escape.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Some tales aren't as mentioned as much and Marco Mazzoni shows them in such a beautiful way in many of his color pencil drawings.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
I turned it into a way to represent the dark times I had gone through and also showing the growth and development I am making within myself slowly and hidden. Without saying this, it wouldn't be known, but now mentioning it, it gives a more personal insider as to how one has bloomed flowers of negativity but can be slowly blooming some of strength and growth.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Something so beautiful can be made from other tales that aren't heard of much, but still exist and sometimes without even knowing it, we can be seeing something about it, but unless told directly where it's from, we may not even know where it came from.
Bibliography
Marco Mazzoni, marcomazzoni.tumblr.com/page/45.