Find inspiration - creating and writing synopsis

Begin by exploring artists and artwork that are inspirational to you. Cast your research far and wide: any artist, from any culture, any time period, and working in any medium that inspires you! Choose one of their works of art and use it as the base for creating your own self-portrait. There is an example below and also helpful tips in, Developing your Self Portrait, but first...

In addition to creating a self portrait, you will also write a synopsis about why you chose that particular artist. What inspired you? Talk about the aesthetic nature of their artwork. What is the historic and/or social significance of this artist? Which aspects of the work are you using as inspiration for your self portrait? Write about any artistic choices you made and what you discovered. Please include an example of the artist’s work embedded in your document and use proper citation.

It’s not copying, you are learning

As you have discovered in this course, artists use their creativity in a variety of ways to create meaning and explain their time and place in the world. As such, artists have taken inspiration from, and learned from each other for as long as we have been creating meaning!

For a contemporary twist on this concept, check out Andrea Tamme's work, "she took some well-known classical paintings and reimagined their main characters as various pop culture icons!"

Whether through a study and analysis of an inspirational work (like what you are doing with your self portrait) or apprenticing with a master to learn their craft, learning to create meaning is steeped in the tradition of studying those that came before us. Imperative in this is giving credit where credit is due, especially in our modern age of being able to snap a photo of a painting, or copy and paste in image from the internet with seemingly little consequence.

Giving credit for the inspiration, how to use after in your title

When you use another artist’s work as inspiration for your own art and you are working in their style, it is important to properly credit the original artist. One way this is done is by including, after and the artist’s name, in the title of your piece. Simply put, when you see after and then a name in the title of an artwork, it means the artwork was made by another artist based on an original work by the named artist.

Here’s an example, if you painted a self portrait by superimposing your face on the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, the title of your artwork would be, My Self Portrait after Leonardo da Vinci. By including after and the artist's name that inspired the work, you are giving credit where credit is due and not stealing or plagiarizing another person’s work.

It is wonderful to be inspired by another person’s creative work, in fact this practice has been going on for centuries. It’s just really important that you don’t steal, plagiarize, or take credit for another person’s creative idea!

Developing your Self Portrait

Your self portrait does not have to be a recognizable image of your face! You are much more than the configuration of your nose, eyes, and mouth. What other defining traits do you have? Explore and play with this idea!

You can use any medium that you want to work with: collage, staged photograph, painting, sculpting, printmaking, a combination of media. The goal is that you are taking inspiration and working in the style of someone else.

Refer back to the modules about Artistic Elements and Artistic Principles to help you compose your artwork.

Here is an example of the Self Portrait project:

Inspiration:

The Old Guitarist, 1903-04, Pablo Picasso, oil on panel

Synopsis:

Pablo Picasso was empathetic to the blind, poor, musician, who in his hardship still created beautiful music -- living in Barcelona, Spain, Picasso had just come out of a year of poverty, he had been penniless all of 1902. Because of his experience he was sympathetic to the plight of the downtrodden and was struggling to depict the emotional tension between creativity and deprivation. The first time I saw this image, The Old Guitarist by Pablo Picasso, my heart skipped a beat, I was incredibly moved by the story implied and found the painting beautiful.

I chose this particular painting out of Picasso’s Blue Period because the image is moody, the distortion of the figure is excellent and creates a story with the posture, the complementary color scheme adds to the simplicity so we focus on the figure and the guitar. The composition has the figure being pulled upward but by the vertical distortion of his shoulder, yet he remains pinned down by his crossed legs. The whole painting holds a beautiful tension, as the old guitarist is compelled to create. The message I get from this painting is, perfect conditions often do not exist for us to do what we love, but none-the-less it is still imperative that we strive to create beauty in every stage of our lives.

As I began studying the original painting in preparation for my self portrait I noticed something I had never seen before, it seems as though the figure has two left legs -- which adds to the complexity of the image! It took using the painting as inspiration for my self portrait for me to discover something new that has been in front of me this whole time!

Self portrait after Pablo Picasso by Zanetka Gawronski

Žanetka K. Gawronski Self Portrait after Pablo Picasso

My design choices for, Žanetka K. Gawronski Self Portrait after Pablo Picasso:

Media -- cardboard, colored pencil, pen
I painted on cardboard -- this is to represent the impermanence of life and that creativity can happen with any material. The cardboard piece is a flap from a cardboard box.
- Aesthetically it was a happy accident when the ribs of the cardboard began to emerge through the image. I accentuated that in the upper portion of the image.
I kept the same position and distortion of the figure because that was what was inspiring to me.
Hands -- changed to grading papers and holding a cup of tea.
The cup of tea -- symbolizes comfort and courage
Stacks of papers and projects -- that’s what I am grading, sometimes it seems like forever.
- Although in the self portrait I look old and sad, in reality I find the creativity that my students share with me inspirational and I learn from them (really, I do -- I’m not just saying that!)
I added my hair -- my hair changes, sometimes it’s blond, sometimes it’s red, various styles of long, short, and sometimes even a mohawk. So, this self portrait is a snapshot of me right now. If I did this again in 6 months or a year, it would probably be different.

Now it's your turn!

I'm excited to see who and what inspires you in your Self Portrait! Now, get out there and start your research and have fun!