Assignment 2: Self Portrait Based on an Art Movement

For our next assignment, we were asked to make another self portrait, but this time based on an art movement of our choice, and write up about it a little.

For this assignment, I chose Pop Art as the art movement that I liked. This piece was created using an actual picture of myself, and some photoediting in Photoshop.

                                                  

(via theartstory.org)

First of all, Pop Art is an art movement that started in the early 1960s. Pop Art focuses on celebrating commonplace objects and people in everyday life.

                                     

Roy Lichtenstein's work

Campbell's Soup Cans, by Andy Warhol

Marilyn Monroe, by Andy Warhol

I wanted to incorporate this painting of flowers by Andy Warhol into my piece.

Researching on colour schemes, taking note of the use of bright and vibrant colours

 Deciding colour schemes with the help of colourschemedesigner.com

I chose Pop Art as the art movement that I liked mainly because of the visual aspect of it. I've always liked Andy Warhol's art, his "Marilyn Monroe" piece in particular, and I wanted to see what it would be like if I were to recreate a piece of work using that as inspiration.

The most difficult part of this assignment for me was deciding which colours to use. I experimented with many different colour schemes before choosing this one. If you noticed, the top left square has the same colours as the bottom right square, only that the placement of colours are different. Same goes for the top right and bottom left square too.

I think Pop Art expresses a bit about the type of design I like too, which is "simple but effective". The 1960s in general is a great source of inspiration for me. Also, bright colours are something I'm not used to, but wish to incorporate in my work. Colours and colour schemes have always been a struggle for me, so this assignment made me learn a bit more about different colour schemes, such as complimentaries, triads, tetrads, and analogous. This self portrait represents the many facets of me and my strive to go out of my comfort zone to learn more.

Assignment 1: Self Portrait

Hello! So here I am with my self-portrait!

The first thing that came to mind when thinking of things that represented me was a computer, since I spend so much time on it. In this piece, I tried to "capture" myself within the computer! It is supposed to represent my own self "reflected" onto the computer screen. It's not very clear here, but the more white parts of the picture are actually holes cut out in the paper!

Almost ironic how I used paper, a traditional means for art, to portray myself in a digital world. I tried to capture the surrealism by cutting the holes in the paper, so that you can put your hand through the "screen". It is an almost literal representation that just because I may seem trapped in certain situations, does not mean I can't reach out and discover new things on the other side. Or maybe that's just supposed to be an unfunny pun, of which I am now known to be infamous for. (heh)

I feel that my self-portrait really represents me because since I spend so much time in the digital world - be it interacting with friends on social media, reading up on things through online articles, or even drawing digitally with my graphics tablet - the computer has almost become a part of me, and a part of my identity. It also shows my vulnerability, my weakness of depending too much on technology.

The interpretation of this piece can go either way. What I think is constant though, is that despite the medium; computer or paper, I am still me. Aina is still Aina.