Portrait- Pop Art

My Portrait! :)

Why did you choose this style of painting? 
I chose this style of painting because I felt that it is simple, yet bold and pretty. I felt that this style of painting describes me because I am outgoing at times and and not very difficult to deal with. I really enjoy this style of painting because of the blocks of colour that I had used, and that they are just  different shades every time. I also really enjoy the bold colours. The background of my painting is a very bold blue and then changes to a more subtle and calm blue. I really feel like this describes me because I can either be really out there or very calm, and collected. All of these colours tie in with the actual portrait which makes everything seem very unified and together. This is why I chose this style because I can do the colours and the way I want yet in the end everything looks very organized and professional. 

How did the finished painting evolve from the original idea?
The finished painting looks mostly the same as the original although some of the different lines are not there any more. This is because when I started painting I felt that some lines looked better if they weren't there. There was not much of a difference from the finished painting to the original idea except for some of the colours that had changed because if they were the same some of it did not look very unified. Other than that nothing else was changed. 

What techniques did you use? 
The techniques that I had used in this painting was projecting the image. I had to project it knowing that if I didn't the different shapes and proportions would have been distorted. So I had used that technique and then traced most of it onto the canvas. Also I had the technique of mixing one colour and then just adding a black or a darker colour to make the different shades. This was much easier than making a new one every time and trying to get it to be exact although my technique did not work every time. Other than that there was not many more techniques except for that one technique where if I happen to mess up I would just use the darker colour to cover it up instead of trying to try and use a whole new colour. 

What was the hardest parts?
I would say that the hardest parts was lips, eyes, skin and projecting the picture. Projecting the picture was hard because my picture did not take up the whole canvas no matter what I did with the picture. So to make it the way it is now I had to draw some of it myself and I do not think it looks too bad because now the whole thing looks like it was all apart of the picture. The skin was hard because in the original image the skin was paler than it was right now. So when I was doing the skin I had to redo it three time and had to make it lighter every time until I was satisfied with how unified it look with the background and the hair. The last and probably the most hard and frustrating part was the lips. It was very hard to try and get the lips the exact colour. This was because every time I painted the lips on and then stepped away form the painting it would look either very bright or way to dark. Also it would look so weird with the whole painting because it looked like it didn't belong with it. So I had done the lips over many times until I came across this one which seemed to work more with the painting. If I had done it lighter it would have looked to pale and I found that it did not look too bad, and I know it would have taken me forever to get the exact colour. So I had just gone with this one because I had liked it more than the others and I felt that it worked much better with this piece. Also the eyes were hard because I had my wrist splint on it made it harder for me to make the curves in the eyes. Also it looks different from the picture but I do not mind them too much any more because I had added the glasses and that made the eyes look less weird and much better. Which is one reason I am glad to have glasses! 

What would you change if you could? 
If I could change anything about this painting I think that I would change the lips and the skin again. If I had more time I would have made the skin lighter than it is now and then I would be able to change the lip colour to how it was before. Although other than that there is not much I would change it's just little details that seem to frustrate me but if you look at it form far I think it looks fine. Overall it would just be the skin and the lips but I think they are fine at the moment. 

Overall painting this portrait of myself was a very fun experience and I learned so much from it! In the beginning I never knew how to paint and I finish off with a portrait that looks like me! I am really glad I had the chance to do this and I hope you enjoy this painting as much or even more than I do :)