For my next project at Life Drawing class we were going to do a self portrait, one of my least favourite subjects! It would be my second attempt in two years. Again, I wanted to create an interesting surface first (perhaps to redirect the attention to that instead of my actual portrait?). Coincidentally at the same time I had asked my father and aunt whether they had any vintage articles from magazines and newspapers. They are both very interested in history in general so I thought they might have something for me.
Well, I was happily surprised that my dad had just gone through a pile of old newspaper cuttings, officially typed documents and magazine articles they found after his mother passed away. They were all about my great-grandfather who retired as director of the Post Office in The Hague, The Netherlands in 1941.
He had selected the ones he wanted to keep but there was many more left and I could have these!
I had so much joy reading these articles and selecting cuttings for my collage. I was especially moved by his personal speech looking back at his career as a director. Before I started to cut and tear I took photos of the text of course and this collage is what I created.
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| Paper collage on grey board |
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| Close-up collage |
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| Close-up collage |
Then I added gesso and sketched my portrait in pencil first. The final drawing includes brown indian ink, pen, Cretacolour Chunky Charcoal and Golden liquid acrylics. It doesn't look like me at all and some proportions are not correct but somehow the drawing is intriguing. I hadn't planned it but the way the words " De Wachter" (which is the title of a newspaper and means Watchman) are placed on my forehead and my left eye reflecting a picture of my great grandfather is quite symbolic!
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| Self portrait on collaged paper |
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| Self portrait close-up |
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| Self portrait close-up |
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| Self portrait close-up |
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