Projects

Creating your own Pop Art Self-Portrait

Reading: In Chapter 7 read Color in Representational Art (pages 143-145) and Symbolic Use of Color (pages 148-149); in Chapter 22 read Pop Art And Minimalism (pages 512-513).

Premise: To create a self-portrait from an original photograph in the style of the Pop artists, most notably, Andy Warhol.

Warhol's process employed several steps. The color portions of each print were done with colored ink printed through hand cut stencils. Look at the image of Marilyn Monroe . You'll see that everything that defines detail—hair, lashes, eyebrows, eyes, is black, or a contrasting color. This detail image is printed over simple flat shapes of color that indicate hair (yellow), lips (deep red), eye shadow (blue), and face (pink). Black was the last ink to be printed using a photo-stencil silkscreened over the top of the other colors. The photo image on top of the flat solid tone colors created an uneasy sense of an individual's portrait sufficing as a commercially printed product—and contributed to the notionthat Warhol's subjects, living or dead, were commodities. Visit the Andy Warhol Museum to view other images.
http://www.warhol.org/

In this process you'll start with a photograph of yourself, define its areas of light and dark, and convert them to flat color, using paint instead of silkscreen equipment, which can be costly, cumbersome, and technique intensive. You will choose your materials based on the size that you wish to produce the painting. A smaller painting will cause you to spend less on supplies, but a large painting might have more "impact."

To turn the photo into a painting you'll have to do some basic tracing, and identify areas of key—light tones and dark tones. If you're going to do a large painting you'll need large paper or a stretched canvas. I recommend buying craft or butcher paper off of a roll in order to keep costs down.

Time required to do this project: Allow between six and twelve hours, not including photocopying time.

*Materials: A 4" x 6" photograph; then, depending on the size you wish to make your painting(s) either a 16" x 24" sheet of illustration board, (or, as I like to use—a 4' x 6' sheet of construction paper purchased off of a roll at a craft store), poster paint, gouache, tube acrylic, or liquid jar acrylic, a pencil, paintbrushes (see below), two containers: one for mixing paints the other for rinsing your brushes, a small ruler and a 36" ruler, India ink or black poster paint.

About brushes: When you go to purchase brushes, you'll probably be overwhelmed by all the options. I would get two inexpensive brushes, not sold in a packet, but rather individually. While several companies offer exceptional (and expensive) sable brushes, these same companies also produce student grade brushes that are far more reasonable in price. If you're painting onto a piece of illustration board that's 16" x 24" or smaller, you should get a #2 and #6 (the #6 should have a 1/4" ferrule, the #2 smaller than 1/8" ferrule); If you're painting a larger work, get the #6 for detail work, and a 1 1/2" or 2" wide foam rubber brush for all the large areas of paint.

How to start: Begin with your photograph. It can be a 4" x 6" color image, or a black and white print. For best results, your face should fill the frame. Ask a friend to take it with a 35mm camera. You want it close up and clear, because the larger your face is in the frame, the easier it will be to outline areas of key and distinguishing features.

Because I like to collage things (cut, glue, tear, etc.), I get in the habit of photocopying my "sources." Also, if you spend some time, and possibly a dollar at your local copy shop, you can enlarge the photo sufficiently to aid the process. So begin by photocopying your photo to 200% so that you have an image that's approximately 8" x 12." The final copy should not be too dark or light. Maintain medium contrast so you can see all the facial features and shadows.

Next, you're going to use the grid technique of transferring an image. Using a ruler, draw a grid of 1" squares over the surface of the photocopy image. Plot the points with the tip of a felt pen where the lines of the images cross the lines of the grid. The photocopy is now a pattern for the large sheet of paper!

Now you need to draw a grid on the ground you've selected for the final painting—illustration board, paper, or canvas. Regardless of the ground you've selected, it should have as many squares as there are on the photocopy. If your paper comes off of a 4-foot wide roll, then you should get a 6-foot length and your squares should each be 6" on a side, giving you a grid of 8 squares across the top and 12 from top to bottom. If the final ground is 12" x 18" illustration board, you can use 1 1/2" squares.

Next, you're going to plot the same points from the photocopy grid onto the line pattern you've just created on the illustration board. Start with any square on the photocopy, and find the corresponding square, rectangle or shape on the illustration board. Now plot each point from the first square onto the second square simply by rough estimate. Pick a line segment on the square, and a plotted point on that line segment. If the point you start with is 1/3 of the way down from the corner of its crossing point with the other squares, etc.

Once you've transferred over all the points you're ready to "connect the dots," so to speak. Refer to the lines of the images in the photocopy. Using a pencil, connect the dots using lines that are smooth and continuous—try to make them flow with the same consistency as the original image.

You've basically created a giant "paint-by-numbers" ground for the colors of your choice. Next, you'll have to decide if you're going to use local or arbitrary colors (pages 131 -133). You'll probably find that the easiest paints to work with are tube acrylic (such as Liquitex®), gouache, or poster paints in small jars. NOTE: If you use tube acrylic or gouache, dilute it with water, about 1/3 by volume to 2/3 paint. It will become more fluid and you'll have more coverage.

When this has all dried, you'll do the final detail work in the darkest color. Black or any dark color will work for the facial details. Use the smaller brush for this. It may be necessary to go back to your gridded photocopy for reference. Details will include facial hair, eyelashes, eyebrows, pupils, the line between the upper and lower lip, etc. You might find that the pencil lines which define these features are still showing through the painting.

Good luck...and have fun! Below is my example of my own "self-portrait" done with gouache on illustration board. (To see the work in its larger format, click the thumbnail image.)