Assignment 2: Self Portrait

The aim of this Assignment is to work on the idea of self-portrait to discover the possibilities of image capture on a computer system.

As soon as I read the brief for Assignment 2 I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Although I did find the idea of scanning body parts rather daunting I got right to work scanning my most personal possessions. The brief states to orientate the assignment around observational drawing, silhouette, photography, likes/dislikes or interests/heroes; I feel that I may have combined all of these categories into my one final image.

Scanned Items

The image above shows scans of some of my most personal items: My MP3 player, DSLR lens cap, design from my favourite t-shirt, earphones, 8GB SD card, black and red bracelets which were a present from my girlfriend and the festival wristband is from Benicassim in 2009 at which I met my girlfriend.

Checks

This is a scan of a green and white checked tea towel. I wanted to use this tea towel because I like checked patterns and knew I’d be able to de-saturate the colour to leave me with a black and white checked pattern to use for the background.

A scan of my Hand

A scan of my Face

One requirement of the assignment was to scan body parts to make my overall image all the more personal. I chose to scan me hand and face.

Photographs

Lindsay and my shadows

This shot shows silhouetted versions of the two of us and I felt it’d be nice to incorporate it into my image.

Photograph of Lindsay

I chose to use this photograph because it shows Lindsay doing something she loves, taking photographs.

One of Lindsay’s possessions

Lindsay collects piggy banks so I took a photograph of one of them to use in my image.

Creating a Trace of my Face

I imported the scan of my face into Photoshop and using my Graphics Tablet I traced over the scanned image onto a new layer and then inverted the colours so that the drawing was now in white. Alternatively I could have drawn the trace with the paintbrush set to white but I was unsure what colour I would need it when I began to draw.

Original Trace

Inverted Trace(black background not on same layer, changed to black so white trace would be visible in this example)

Face plus inverted Trace

The Step by Step Process of Creating my Self Portrait

During each step below I added the different images onto new layers, moved them around and played with the opacity and blending modes to try and find the best combination for my image.

Steps 1 + 2

 

With my background colour set to black I then imported the trace of my face and set the opacity to 50%.

Steps 3 + 4

 

Next I imported the scan of my hand, decided that the bottom left corner would be the best position for it and set its blending mode to “Hard Light”. In step four I placed the scan of the tea towel over the image, de-saturated it to leave me with black and white checks and set it’s opacity to 24%.

Steps 5 + 6

 

In these steps I added the scans of my mp3 player and the bracelets that Lindsay gave me. The opacity of the mp3 player is 70%. I changed also the blending mode of the bracelets to “Multiply”.

Steps 7 + 8

 

During these steps I added the lens cap from my DSLR onto another new layer and my 8GB SD card onto another then positioned them appropriately. The opacity of the lens cap is 65% and the SD card is normal.

Steps 9 + 10

 

At steps 9 and 10 I added my ear phones to the top right corner and Benicassim wrist band to the bottom right corner. The ear phones layer properties are all normal but there are actually two layers of wrist band. The lower layer has normal properties whereas I gave the second layer the “Overlay” blending mode which made the image stand out and appear more vibrant.

Steps 11 + 12

 

At this stage I began to add the Photographs. Firstly I added the photo of Lindsay taking a picture but left its opacity at 100%. At step 12 I added the photograph of Lindsay’s piggy bank but changed its opacity to 60%

Steps 13 + 14

 

In my final two steps I added the photograph of Lindsay and my shadows, removed the sandy background and changed its blending mode to “Multiply”. Adding the silhouettes covered my mouth so I had to raise the trace of my face and draw in a little of my chin. I still felt like something was missing so for my final step I added the scan of the t-shirt design over my hand, set its opacity to 25% and changed its blending mode to “Overlay”.

The black background, my hand, MP3 player, lens cap, SD card, photograph of Lindsay and Lindsay’s piggy bank are all below the checked tea towel layer whereas the other layers are all above it.

The image below shows the order of the layers.

Whilst experimenting with different compositions and arrangements I saved a couple before I reached my final design.

First attempt

Second Attempt

Third Attempt

Out of the above three images I feel that the second composition is the best, the other two appear untidy and in the third image the items down the left hand side are too spread apart. I decided to try again with the arrangement and eventually stumbled across my final image.

Final Image

I have managed to incorporate all of my personal items into this picture and feel it portrays the theme of “Self-Portrait” very well. From the image it is obvious that I enjoy listening to music, taking photographs, like specific types of designs and patterns and care about my girlfriend. When I look at my image my eyes start at the scan of my hand, move up towards the photo of Lindsay then across to the right, down the right hand side to the Benicassim wristband, left towards the silhouettes and up to the trace of my face in a spiral shape.