Self-Portrait Project

Narrative Self-Portrait Exercise (Raster)

Objective: To develop a strong narrative through a self-portrait.

Exercise: Utilize Photoshop to foster a representative image of oneself; this can be interpreted either traditionally or metaphorically. Upload image to blog as a 72dpi web-image 4inches x 4 inches. Also, please elaborate upon image with a one-paragraph contextualization of the piece.

Discussion:
A self-portrait is a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by the artist.

A self-portrait may be a portrait of the artist, or a portrait included in a larger work, including a group portrait. Many painters are said to have included depictions of specific individuals, including themselves, in painting figures in religious or other types of composition not intended to depict the actual persons as themselves. Often these are just faces in a crowd, often at the corner of the work, but a particular hybrid genre developed where historical scenes were depicted using a number of actual persons as models, often including the artist, giving the work a double function as portrait and history painting.

The self-portraits of many Contemporary artists and Modernists often are characterized by a strong sense of narrative, often but not strictly limited to vignettes from the artists life-story. Sometimes the narrative resembles fantasy, roleplaying and fiction. Besides Diego Velázquez, (in his painting Las Meninas), Rembrandt Van Rijn, Jan de Bray, Gustave Courbet, Vincent van Gogh, and Paul Gauguin other artists whose self-portraits reveal complex narratives include Pierre Bonnard, Marc Chagall, Lucien Freud, Arshile Gorky, Alice Neel, Pablo Picasso, Lucas Samaras, Jenny Saville, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol and Gilbert and George.

References:
1.Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-portrait)
2.National Portrait Gallery - Official web site (http://www.npg.si.edu/)
3.The Narrative Self-Portrait (http://userpages.umbc.edu/~ivy/selfportrait/narrat.html)