Art For Art's Sake

Selfies have taken over the world. We've become Selfie-obsessed. A glance through Twitter or Instagram and you can see that everybody is doing it. From Kim Kadashian's backside to Obama and Cameron at Mandela's funeral: the obsession with not just taking pictures of ourselves, but putting them out there for others to see and judge, has become a worldwide phenomenon. In 2013 "selfie" was the Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year. But is this such a 21st Century craze? Haven't people be doing this for generations? Ok, so during the Renaissance they didn't have mobile phones and the Twittersphere but there was a clear fashion for artists to paint self-portraits. As mirrors became more prevalent so, it would appear, did human vanity and our need to capture our image for others to admire. 

Which leads me very nicely on to my next challenge: Do a self-portrait. To be honest with you I'm not really sure why I put this one on the list. I think I thought it would be good to have an "art" one on there to ensure some diverse tasks but why I chose a self-portrait and not a landscape I have no idea. Maybe I'm just as selfie-obsessed as celebrities.

Now I should state for the record here that I have never been much of an artist. Granted I did come third in my 3rd year art exam when I drew a log metamorphosing into a toilet roll (log>bog roll) but that was as much about other people not preparing as my capabilities. I didn't do GCSE art, I've never taken art classes yet I've always believed I could be ok if I applied myself and had good tuition. Thankfully for me that's exactly what happened on this challenge. Step forward my long time pal, and art teacher extraordinaire, Maddy Burt. 

Maddy very kindly offered to teach me how I could achieve my self portrait and even provided all the equipment too. Unlike me Maddy is an amazing artist - check out her work here: http://www.madeleineburt.com/ she'd asked me to send her a high res. photo of myself and we then did a bit of simple photoshop wizardry with it. By putting a simple artistic filter on the photo we turned the photo on the left into the image on the right. This was printed out to exactly the right size to fit.

As you can see, I was very excited!
The next stage was prepping. Maddy had covered a piece of wood with calico (which is a finer version of canvas). We then placed carbon paper, upside down, on the frame which we taped to the back. On top of this we taped the picture.

 







The next step was to trace, with a biro, over all the lines in the picture.

Once this is complete and you've removed the picture and the carbon paper, you are left with the outline of all the colour blocks so now the fun can really begin as it's time to paint! Maddy showed me how to make a wet palette using a tray, dampened kitchen roll and greaseproof paper which not only keeps the paint moist but means that if you need to pause you can cover them, pop them in the fridge and continue later without having wasted your paints. 

So armed with my new brushes and palette I got to work.

Using the picture for reference I began painting the colour blocks in. Really quickly you can see the painting develop. It's a bit like paint by numbers and anyone with the ability to paint inside a line can achieve results. What's more if you make a mistake or decide you don't like a colour you can simply paint over it and try again.

And before you know it, you've achieved what you never thought was possible - A pretty darn good self-portrait of yourself!

I don't know about you but I think that's pretty awesome though I say so myself - considering it involved very little skill or experience I think this is amazing - you should have a go yourself!

The picture has now been framed (Maddy even provided that - she's that brilliant!) and hung up on my wall. 

 So next time you think about taking a selfie why not take it one step further and create your own self-portrait instead? If I can do it - anyone can! Now what shall I paint next?