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FaceValue Table of Contents
New Portfolio:
Pure 2-3 Smile 4-5 Lauren 6-7 West Wing 8-9 Blue Butterfly 10-11 Darkness After Wright 12-13 Anguish 14-15 Multiple Reflections 16-17 Twins Turn Two 18-19 Hidden in Fear 20-21 Black Magic 22-23
Old Portfolio:
Engagement Love Clowns Wedding Portrait Aladdin Belle Ariel Eyewitness Scar Peter Pan
24-25 26-27 28 29 30-31 32 33 34-35 36-37 38-39
About the Artist
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Pure For this I wanted to do something different than I am used to. Normally my portraits are straight on smiling pictures, but for this I wanted a profile. I wanted an image that evoked emotion. This image is based off of the engagement picture I drew of my grandma and for me that picture was full of emotion by the things in and around the actual portrait. So for this one I wanted to take all of that emotion and put it into the actual portrait itself. I wanted to do a picture of myself and I wanted a pose that would make the viewer think and feel emotion.
In comparison to the other piece there were other objects in the picture. This one is just the portrait. I wanted you to see the emotion first, rather than a bunch of other objects. I wanted to push myself so the viewer would only have the portrait to look at.
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Smile
For this assignment I had to make a picture that would take up the entire space of an 8.5 x11 in. piece of paper. I could easily do this with an up close picture of myself. My last smiling portrait of myself did not turn out as well as I had hoped so I thought I would try it again. I wanted my head to be on an angle in this to add an interesting look to it. Also, it adds a difficulty level for me, which I like because I like to challenge myself to better myself. Being as both this and the previous drawing both have interesting angles, I wanted you to see the eyes first when you looked at this. At first, the lips were darker and more predominate, but I toned down their shading so it would not take away from the eyes. I think the eyes are where you see emotion in a portrait and I wanted to make that the focal point.
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Lauren These pieces are both of my sister. I wanted to do something different than myself for this assignment. I would like to make the series move in the direction of portraits of people I know and that mean something to me. I am trying to strike emotion as usual. I am just trying to show the people who mean the most to me and that I care about.
One of thesse is a close up of her face and the other one is farther away but her eyes are closed. I wanted them to be of the same subject but a different pose. Being a diptych, I wanted them to be similar. At first, I wanted the two to be one of my sister, Lauren, and one of myself. These ideas did not work out and I thought the idea of having the same subject worked better off each other. I wanted the eyes to be seen first, being that the only object in the piece is her face. Also, I wanted the emotion to be felt first. Making the common themes: portraits of people I love, angles, and drawings.
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West
With one of my rules being cropped view, I made a zoomed in picture of the face. I wanted the eyes to be the focal point, giving the emotion to the piece. I did a one-to-one drawing so it is 3.25 x11. It is an interesting size that I am pleased with. Being on the cork also adds an interesting texture that adds to the outcome of the piece.
Wing
For this assignment we had to try and use different surfaces other than what we are used to. I tried a variety of things including cardboard, file folders, black canvas, wood, card stock and the cork that I decided to use for my finished piece. I wanted to use a cropped view, being one of my rules. It was challenging for me to work with paint to begin with, let alone on cork.
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Blue Butterfly I was trying to come up with something out of the ordinary and not the usual blue things you see in a portrait. I did not want to do the basic blue eyes or accents. We came up with the idea of the masquerade mask with the feather. It was a picture my mom had that I went off of, making it my own. I wanted to make it bigger than my usual ones so it would have more of an impact. I wanted the face to be seen second and the mask to be the focal point. I wanted the main part of the mask to take center stage making the blues pop and the feather flow along with it.
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Darkness After Wright I was inspired by Joseph Wright’s self portrait. I saw it in the Chicago Art Institute and it caught my attention. I thought it was fantastic and related very much to my style. It had extreme and dramatic lighting, which is out of my comfort zone completely. I wanted to challenge myself because I have been told I could work on my blacks and whites and pull them up. So that is exactly what I did.
At first, I was using a sketch from one of my previous drawings, but that was not working out for me. I wanted to do a similar pose to Wright’s so I took some more photos. I found this one and I knew this was it. It had just the right amount of light and dark. I wanted it to have a mysterious look to it and I wanted it to make you think. I wanted the light to hit the eyes, making them the focal point. I did all the lighting myself and overall I love this. It’s my favorite piece I have done and it proves the benefits of pushing yourself gives great results.
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Anguish This was inspired by the audience. My audience was my best friend, Dana. I have drawn her before, but it was a normal, head on portrait so I wanted to do something different. She is into theater and drama, so I wanted to do an expressive portrait of her with meaning and background of something she loved. She has a story behind every act she does, so I played off that.
I photographed her behind a dresser door to fit my rules. I wanted it to be cropped and to have only half her face visible. I wanted her head to be tilted to add to that weird angle aspect. I did not want there to be a major physical focal point. So the eyes were closed and half of her face is hidden. I wanted the focal point to be the emotion evoked from this piece.
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Multiple Reflections This assignment involved numbers. I did not want to be too obvious with my concept so I went with the three reflections in one. I did not want to be too literal. You see three views of her face and body, making it not the usual portrait, but still cropped. I wanted it to be seen in a descending perspective. I made this by starting off with contours of each different view of my sister. I went to the middle first. I shaded that with graphite and heavy weighted drawing pencils to give darker values. I shaded the hair in the middle last and I wanted it to have a soft look to it. I did the far left next, starting with the face then working to the full body. I did the hair on the right last. I needed it to look as soft as the other two, so I did an underlay of light pencil, then the darkest parts. Lastly, I did the highlights with a kneaded eraser to give it the softness.
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Twins Turn Two This piece had to use the title to explain something you did not know by first looking at the piece. These are my twin cousins and I wanted to do something for their upcoming birthday. I decided to do a piece based off them and their birthday. I wanted to make sure it read that they were twins and that they were turning two so I titled the piece “Twins Turning Two�. For this week’s assignment I did not want to do something where the subject was solely in the center. I chose this picture because there is a main focal point on each side of the piece. It adds a good asymmetrical balance to the piece giving the eye something to look at on both sides.
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Hidden in Fear When I started brainstorming, I wanted to do a full face with red lips for emphasis. Then I wanted to add pops of red with accents. I wanted there to be a stark contrast by using black and white shading for the face and then do the one part in red. Then, I was out to eat and I saw a painting on a wall and it hit me. I saw it and I immediately knew I had to do a version of it. I knew just what I was going to do to make it my own and where the red would fit perfectly.
When I saw this, I loved how it was arranged. I wanted to play off it. The piece was originally “Andy Warhol�-like and was flat with no dimension. I added the shading to add form. I wanted the eyes to be seen first along with the nails. The red pops and I wanted that to be the focal point. The dark parts add emphasis to the face which adds a dramatic, mysterious emotion. The cropped view of the face fits my rules.
Rules for Series: 1. Drawings or Paintings 2. Cropped, Close Up, or Angled 3. Female Subjects
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Black Magic I started out with a contour drawing of the face and mask. Next, I went to the shading of the nose and lips. I wanted to make them dark enough so it would contrast the colored pencil, but not where it would take away from the colored pencil. Next, I went to the colored pencil. I wanted the paint like texture again with the pencils. After the colored pencils, I added the glitter as I felt it needed some flair. The mask actually had glitter on it and I felt it needed it. This piece was a possible cover for my magazine. I wanted it to be something dramatic which embodied my series with the cropped theme going. I wanted to use color, but still stick with my black and white theme as well. Because it is called “Face Value�, I wanted the viewer to see the face, but also add some mystery to it. It plays off the emotions I wanted to provoke and the values of shading.
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Engagement This piece is a picture of my grandmother. It is her engagement picture. It includes the name of her husband on an envelope, the date of her wedding, a letter to my grandfather, and the lyrics to the song he would always have requested for her. To me, it is a representation of my grandmother. It is my favorite piece I have done. My grandmother passed away last November and as a remembrance of her, I did a series of pieces that remind me of her. This actu-
al piece means so much to me. She was my best friend and being able to honor her with the gift I have been given was a true honor. It is a very detailed piece that resembles her very well. I was trying to show all the parts and feelings she would have the day she got engaged. I tried to be her and think like her to write a letter with the emotions she was feeling. I think it is important to embody the character fully that you are trying to draw and express.
I arranged all the objects this way wanting it to seem as though you just walked into her room to find her desk with everything she was consumed with at the moment. I wanted it to seem like she left it this way. I felt it made it more personal. The technique I used is trompe l’oeil, meaning it is supposed to trick your eye into thinking it is actually on the table. I wanted the picture of her to be noticed first. That is why it is the most detailed part of the composition. The parts I wanted seen second were all the accent pieces, like the letters and song lyrics. They are all meaningful, but they are meant to only add to the main portrait, not take away from it. They are subtle, but still they make an impact. Each and every detail was placed where it was for a specific reason.
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Love This piece is probably the most important piece I have ever made. It is a picture of my uncle holding my grandmother’s hand. It is the last picture we have of her before she passed away. It is an extremely emotional piece and means a lot to me. This is the first piece I have done completely in color. It is all colored pencil. It is normally out of my comfort zone to use anything other than graphite but I was glad I pushed myself to get this result.
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Clowns
This was one of the pieces I did for my breadth in AP art. I was doing a piece including perspective and objects decreasing in size. I made it for my mom who collects clowns.
I made this using graphite. I started with the biggest clown and did the shading on it first. I wanted it to be subtle because the clown is almost completely white. It is made of glass so it had a lot of reflections. The clowns were very human-like so I tried to make them as human as possible. I did the same with the next clown, making the shading subtle to not over power the face. The next clown was the most dramatic. I had to get the details on his face just right to get the emotion across.
Wedding Portrait
This was a part of my AP Portfolio senior year of high school. My concentration was my grandmother and I was doing an age progression of her. One of the most important parts of her life was her wedding and I wanted to pay tribute to that. I made this with graphite pencil. I started with a contour drawing of her wedding portrait. I went off her actual wedding photo that my mom had. The most challenging part was trying to do the lace on her wedding dress. It was also challenging to get the detail of the piece in her hair.
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Aladdin This is one of the first pieces I did completely in paint. I made it using acrylic paint. I tried a different kind of technique to paint the faces. I normally do not like obvious brush strokes but for this I think it works. My all time favorite thing in the world is Disney. It is my favorite thing to paint or draw. I make most of them for myself or my friends, and this one happens to be for me. It is one of my favorite movies and it is a piece for my room.
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Belle
Again, I make most of my Disney pieces for me. This was more of a trial piece to see how it would look, but it turned out to be better than I thought. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite movie so this one was all for me.
I made this piece in colored pencil. I wanted to try to do a face in colored pencil so I made this. I started with the yellow undertones and added orange to give it the shading. For the eyes I used a combination of pinks and purples to get the right color. For the hair I used a variety of browns to get the hair to look three dimensional. I did the same techniques to do the dress and sleeves.
Ariel
For this piece, I started out with a sketch of her face. I added slight shading to her face because the characters do not have much shading to them. I did the eyes next, because the eyes make the characters. The hair was last because it had the most detail. I added some
detail because I did not want them to be too flat. I made this piece for a good friend of mine as a graduation present. It has been his favorite movie since he was a child, so I wanted to do something with meaning for him.
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Eyewitness The idea for this assignment was to make a movie poster for a specific genre. My genre was independent film, so I went with a court theme. We came up with the name “Eyewitness”. I used an image of a courtroom and combined it with an image of a young boy. With only his eye in view, it gives a double meaning to “Eyewitness”.
This piece was done entirely in Photoshop. I combined two images to get the overall picture. Clipping masks were used to combine them. I also made up the actors, title, credits, and release date.
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Scar This is a mixed media piece. I used acrylic paint to make the majority of the piece and I added a little glitter to the piece to make it my own. I started with a contour of the character to know where and what to paint. I always start with a drawing underneath to know where to paint. I used a variety of colors to get the colors just right with the perfect three dimensional shading. I did the glitter last to add another thing that I enjoy a lot. I made this piece for myself. I wanted to make a big painting of one of my favorte characters and I came up with this. I love this movie and I felt it would be a good addition to my collection of Disney paintings
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Peter Pan This was another piece I did as a graduation present. It was for one of my best friends whose favorite movie is Peter Pan. She wanted me to do a painting for her for a long time, so before she left for college I gave her this painting.
This piece is the first full portrait I have done in paint. I made it with arcylic paint. It was a trial and error process that turned out quite well. I started with an under painting of the facial features and then I did the over painting next. After that I went in and did the small details down to the soft, featherlike texture of the conton balls on Tinker Bell’s dainty shoes, as seen above. It was challenging to get some of the small details like the tiny fingers.
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About the Artist:
Lindsey Surin
Lindsey is studying art at Saint Xavier University. She is a first year college student who enjoys anything art related. Currently she is a studio art major hoping to have a career in the illistration or animation field. She attended Marist High School and was President of both the National Art Honor Society and Art Club. She has background in drawing, painting, graphic design, photography and pottery. She has loved art for as long as she can remember and has over ten years of art training and experience.