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Self Portrait 4 me's

Published:
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Description

4 self portraits in one.
First mocked up via photoshop and then painted from that.

Painted in acrylics (watered down) water colours, ink, fine liner, chalk.

This painting has a lot of symbolism that was a bugger to come up with the ideas for.

The far left me is symbolic of my darker nature - I have an interest in more darker arts but mainly I have a self-destructive nature (that I keep hidden most of the time) The birds are also a symbol of that.
The far right me is symbolic of my lighter nature - The side of me that loves bright colours and music etc.
The middle two are sort of inbetweens. The 'crying' one is more towards my self-destructive behaviour and the side on laughing one is more towards my bubbly nature.
The key in the heart was a king of shit symbol of the fact that although I keep sides of me hidden there is a way to unlock it.

There are a lot deeper explanations for everything in the painting but it's just too much of a hassle to sit here and list them so above is just the jists.
Image size
3816x2592px 2.46 MB
Make
Traveler
Model
DC-12
Shutter Speed
1/30 second
Aperture
F/2.9
Focal Length
6 mm
ISO Speed
100
Date Taken
Oct 23, 2011, 1:47:13 PM
© 2011 - 2024 EigthDegreeBites
Comments5
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nfaas's avatar
:star::star::star::star: Overall
:star::star::star::star::star: Vision
:star::star::star::star::star-half: Originality
:star::star::star::star-half::star-empty: Technique
:star::star::star::star-half::star-empty: Impact

This is a very unique self portrait, I don't think I myself have ever seen it done this way. The poses and techniques are not original, but there are many details which make this piece interesting over all. The black, grey, and red colors add enough variation without taking attention away from the other themes. I don't know what you look like, but the faces all have good proportions and they are consistent with each other, even though they all display different moods / sides of the artist's personality.

There are four details which really make this piece stand out:
First, the birds and music notes; they have a nice randomness and a real sense of motion. I especially like the shadows behind some of the birds.
Second, the bright blue eye color on the far left face; it creates a nice sharp contrast with the darkness surrounding it.
Third, the deep red highlights on the middle right and far right faces make the whole piece more lively.
Fourth, the heart / key thing - I'm actually not sure what that is but it's a nice touch.

There are four things which could be better in my opinion:
First, the red highlights in the hair could be brighter / stronger to make it less gloomy.
Second, the white surrounding the music notes and birds which overlap some of the hair, and also the white streaks which cover the middle left face and a bit of the middle right face look too scratchy; if these marks were smoothed out it could look more finished.
Third, I like the idea of being able to see part of the skeleton on the far left, but I think the teeth might be slightly at the wrong angle, as they seem to be curving down. I have no great knowledge of anatomy but it looks a little unnatural right now.
Fourth, (and this is not so important because I only noticed it after a while) the eyes on the face of the far right one could be better aligned - the one without the eyebrow showing should be a little lower.

On sort of an unrelated note, I have seen you photomanipulations - they're very beautiful. To be very honest I think your digital art is better than your traditional art.

I hope this has been helpful! Keep in mind that since I am mostly a multimedia and acrylic artist, I am more likely to be critical of others who use these media. If you choose not to display this critique I understand and I will not be offended at all.
<img src="e.deviantart.net/emoticons/h/h…" width="15" height="13" alt=":heart:" title="Heart"/> *nfaas