Self Portrait

Like last year, we did another Tempera Batik painting. Last year our subject was a vase of flowers and this year our subject was ourselves. Our self-portrait took place in two parts; we did a small version and then we did a larger version. Doing the small version we drew a portion of our bigger portrait and than did as we would do for the bigger version. Personally I don't think my small version came out very well. It looks nothing like the section of my bigger version but it was a good place to practice. I thought doing our small study was a good way to prep for doing our larger study.

As for my large portrait I was really pleased with the out come. The black ink made the right patterns in all the right places and it was really fun to paint. I suppose I paid more attention to our large study than the smaller one, but getting a feel of what I was doing first on the small study gave me more confidence to play around and be daring on the bigger one. I ended up surprising myself because whenever I thought it looked done I knew there was more I could do but I was afraid of messing up what I already created. Pushing through that fear, I ended up creating something even better.

With my large painting, I decided to enter it into The National Art's Program which is an art contest for all Camden County residence. I entered under youth and there was a reception for everyone's painting to be displayed. I ended up coming in first place for the teen category, which came to me as a big surprise. At the reception I saw so many other works of art from my peers that I considered better. They were all simple though, and whereas the other contestants used common pencil or paint, mine stood out by the use of mixed media. I was happy I decided to enter my painting, and taking a risk of putting it out there turned out to be more rewarding than I thought.