self portrait process post

At the beginning of my self-portrait, I felt discouraged and uncertain about how the piece would come together, especially since I had never done a self-portrait before. I started with the chest area, which lacked many distinct shapes and lines, making it feel a bit monotonous and challenging to continue. This initial struggle made it difficult to stay motivated. After working on it for another class, I started to create depth and shading, which gave the piece more life and encouraged me to keep going. Once I had completed the chest area, I was able to move through the rest of the piece at a good pace. I ended up finishing the portrait in about 7 hours, which surprised me, since it’s one of my faster works considering its large size and my slow work pace. I think what really helped me complete in that time was large amount of dark shadows that could be quickly colored and built with the charcoal pencil. Overall, I happy with the final piece; It looks pretty realistic and accurate. I did struggle with incorporating artist marks into the work, something I wish I had done a little more effectively.