Self-directed Project
The self-directed was a good starting point of where I could think for myself and expand on my chosen topic. To begin with, I agreed that my chosen topic would be looking closer at animals as well as their emotions. I decided to do this due to the amount of texture that could be created when doing fur as well as adding a twist on exploring emotions through art work. When starting this project, I looked towards my dog for my influence, taking photos of her everyday activities as well as placing more focus on her emotion when completing these. With these photos I created a a portrait of my dog using acrylic paint which showed her in her true form. The hardest part of this painting was creating the fur texture without making the image look flat. After this, whilst keeping the same image I experimented with various materials such as tonal pencils and charcoal. Using Alan M Hunt as an artist influence i looked into how he created the fur texture and how to make it appear realistic. However, When talking to one of the tutors (Virginia), we talked about the similarities between both human and animal emotions and what lies behind them as well as if human and animals (especially their pet) are that different from each other.
Therefore, when advancing my project I looked further into anthropomorphism and how animals and humans are a like in personality. So moving on, I took Photographs of my family and compared them to animals of which they shared a personality with. An example of which I chose my sister, whom is very feline looking as well as having a mysterious and curious personality. Acting on this i did a painting, using acrylic paint, only of half her face and mirrored it with a painting of a cats face, maintaining the theme of domestic animals.
To conclude on this small project, overall I would say that the overall outcome was a moderate success. This is because even though the original theme at the beginning of the project was different, I still believe I could've explored more using animals and their personality. As well as this, I could've expanded on a few more areas within my work. However, the work I produced i was quite happy with, especially when looking at the texture of the fur and skin tones.