Basic Drawing
Amy O’Neill (inst.)
12.21.2004
"Self-Portrait Revelation”

Project Objectives:
This project was the final exam for basic drawing.  The objective of this project was to demonstrate our understanding of the drawing principles learned throughout the semester.  We were expected to spend at least ten hours on this drawing.  We were allowed to work with any medium that we utilized throughout the semester.  The subject matter and design was up to our discretion as long as it fell under one of the provided project descriptions.  No photographic sources were allowed as we were to work only from life.  This project asked us to show our  technical ability at executing a self-portrait with meaningful content.

Project Description:
We were provided with three different project descriptions that we could choose from for this project.  Our choices were between two different types of self-portraits and a landscape drawing.  I chose to do the self-portrait: revelation project.  For this project the goal was to convey something about you through the drawing that the viewer wouldn’t know.

Description of Solution:
With this self-portrait I wanted to show the two different sides of my personality.  On the left I show my timid, serious, questioning and intellectual side.  I felt that the emptiness of an organizational line drawing would be best to convey a feeling of shyness.  My pose is also intended to clue the viewer into this side of my personality with my head resting on my hand, facing down with a wondering look on my face. 

In contrast, on the right I show my laid back, confident, outgoing, sarcastic and fun side.  I felt a full value drawing would give this side more depth and feeling and convey a sense of confidence in comparison to the line drawing.  Once again my pose is an integral part of the drawing in that it shows a more relaxed and fun side of myself.  My facial expression is intended to show a sense of sarcasm and possibly even arrogance. 

Considering that we read from left to right I chose to put the line drawing on the left because I feel that is the side of me that most people see first.  It is also the side of me that I dislike the most.  This is another reason why I chose the empty, unfinished look of an organizational line drawing.  I want this side to appear to be a work in progress.  The drawing on the right is the side of my personality that I wish was more evident to people.  It is the person that I want everyone to know yet few do.  For this reason I chose to make it a full value drawing so that it would stand out from the other side of the drawing.  I chose to overlap the two drawings in the middle because together they make up my complete self.