Chuck Close Portrait: Exploring The Self

Without a doubt, there is no topic that I am better acquainted with than myself. However, despite my seemingly extensive and comprehensive database about me, it was surprisingly difficult for me to create pieces about myself. I don’t normally explore the self in my art, as I don’t find myself particularly inspiring. I believe fantasy, political ideals or modern issues are much more interesting to create art about than what I like to do for fun or my personality. However, the theme did help me to focus on the execution of each piece. Since I had a basic idea to work with already, I could narrow down my ideas from a smaller list instead of infinitely working to come up with the best piece like I normally do. I always seemed to have some sort
People have always been my favorite subject, and I would draw them all day long if I was permitted. However, I quickly realized that I was not a huge fan of making self portraits. It wasn’t because I had trouble with shading, value or drawing faces, it was more of an issue that I had to draw myself. Taking pictures of myself is one of my least favorite things to do, so this project just seemed to be a cumulation of this But in the end, I did complete the art assignment, so I managed to overcome those challenges. I suppose at some point I dissociated myself with the picture, and permitted myself to approach this portrait in the same way I would any other portrait. It did help that I created this piece block by block, since I didn’t allow myself to see the entire picture of myself until I was working on the final hard shadows and the most dramatic lighting points. But, that did create a problem in it of itself, since I always seemed to smudge my hard shadows away and blend my highlights unintentionally. It was an uphill battle that I tripped many times on the way up, but I do feel good that I was finally able to complete
Exploring my identity through artwork as helped me strengthen some of my existing characteristics that I tend to use (political statements, birds and freedom) while helping me realize some of my others (how literature has affected me, my relationship with color, active imagination). This has really opened my eyes, and will help me in my art making process in the future by showing me that there is really no topic that I’m afraid of exploring, since in some simple or abstract way, I can find interest in it. There is no need for me to be scared of topics that I haven’t explored yet, and no reason for me to retreat back into the familiar. Art’s definition is the lack of concreteness and innovation, so you can interpret any topic in whatever what you choose. I believe that my art in the future will have much more diversity to it, as I now know that it’s alright not to know what to do, since amazing things can come out of