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Core Self by ~emobrad:iconemobrad:

Categories Traditional Art > Paintings > Surreal

©2009 ~emobrad
:iconemobrad:

Artist's Comments

The ‘Identity Making Task’ for Term Three focuses on the concept of a ‘Self Image’. Self Images are a representation of an individual and how the view themselves, which is what I have expressed through my Self Image titled ‘Core Self’.
After understanding that a Self Image isn’t necessarily an image of yourself - but rather who you are, the first representation of myself I could think of were apples. There is no reasonable explanation for this apart from that I’ve enjoyed eating apples ever since I can remember, so essentially apples are a "part of me". I began exploring this idea, from including my eye inside the apple – ‘the eye of the apple’ – to a surreal portrait of myself with vine-like hair producing apples. None of these ideas really appealed to me, so I started thinking about something exploding out of the apple. It was then I remember a scene from ‘The Little Mermaid’ which has always stood out for me. It’s the part of the movie in which Ariel decides to abandon the underwater life of a mermaid and transform into a human. Once gaining legs and losing the ability to breathe under water, Ariel frantically rushes to reach the surface. She bursts through the water, creating a glittering cascade of water which follows the motion of her body. ([link] – 1:26)
The globular figure the body creates when flipping back the hair (in such a way that is shown through this painting) has always appealed to me, and I thought it was a beautiful way to represent Ariel’s transformation. Steering away from a straight-forward portrait of myself, I decided to explore the abstract aspect of a ‘Self Image’.

Exploring this idea even further, it came to me that the apple could be a representation of someone. Rather than being like the person’s actual self, the apple acts as a protective shield in which one is safely enclosed inside. Over time, the protective shield may be broken down – ‘bitten off’, as the one enclosed inside becomes revealed by the experiences they have gone through in life. By showing the women breaking through the apple, represents someone who has opened their eyes to the world and doesn’t need the protection shield to bowdlerize their vision. Put simply, an experience of an epiphany. This is a representation of myself as I have experienced an epiphany, which has symbolically made me feel like I have burst through a protective shield.
The close up image on the left is a part of the ‘work in progress’. This shows the face of the woman, whose face is based on mine. The way I underwent this painting was to first sketch roughly the shape of Ariel shown at 1:26 of the ‘Ariel’s Transformation’ video. This was done in my A4 Exercise book and then transferred to an A3 piece of paper using a Projector. I then wiped the whole A3 paper down with a wet tea bag to create a brown tinge. The purpose of the brown tinge ensured that the colours looked more natural, rather than just a pale white background. Next the apple was painted, using vibrant green watercolours. The shading and texture for the apple was based off a real one. The figure of the women was painted as a silhouette, using dark blue colours just as like the image of Ariel. Splashes of water around her body were noted as the skin underneath was painted a much lighter tone to show the transparency of the water. Around the figure tinges of pink were added to give the feeling of a setting sun behind, while the finishing touches were added using a white-out pen to create the tiny droplets of water.

Overall, I am pleased with how this Self Image turned out. I love the rich colours, and the successful duplicate of the water/apple juice, especially the transparent part of the image (the splash covering most of her body).


[note: copy and pasted directly from my artist statement, which included pictures for reference]

Comments


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:iconunicornia:
~Unicornia Jul 5, 2009, 2:38:12 AM
I love this! :)
Your use of watercolors is very beautiful.
:iconemobrad:
~emobrad Jul 6, 2009, 2:54:35 PM
thankyou! :aww:

--

digging your smile apart
with my spade tongue
eckstein, eckstein
alles muss verstreckt sein

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July 2
1.5 MB
172 KB
900×1200

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FUJIFILM
FinePix S5700 S700
1/49 second
F/3.5
6 mm
200

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