Self Portrait
Underneath
Oil on canvas
2 ft by 2 ft
Completed September 2021
Underneath is a self portrait showing a half of the face "peeled back" to reveal the skeleton, taking inspiration from the ruler of the underworld Hel in Norse Mythology. The painting style is inspired from Francis Bacon's Portrait of Lisa and incorporates many streaks and lines meant to create texture and bring out facial imperfections. This piece brings inner emotions onto a physical canvas and showcases the "uglier" parts of the person.
Oil on canvas
2 ft by 2 ft
Completed September 2021
Underneath is a self portrait showing a half of the face "peeled back" to reveal the skeleton, taking inspiration from the ruler of the underworld Hel in Norse Mythology. The painting style is inspired from Francis Bacon's Portrait of Lisa and incorporates many streaks and lines meant to create texture and bring out facial imperfections. This piece brings inner emotions onto a physical canvas and showcases the "uglier" parts of the person.
Inspiration
My second inspiration is the ruler of the underworld from Norse Mythology, Helheim or Hel. Hel is half human flesh and half skeleton, and she is known for her trickery and the pain she brought upon others. For my portrait, I was looking for a less realistic concept to apply to make my painting stand out. I chose the skull because I wanted to depict a darker side of myself, and I was intrigued upon learning that Hel also had a half skull face, so I incorporated her into my inspiration. She is often portrayed as blue in color, so I applied this aspect to my work. |
Artist interpretation of Hel
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Planning/Experimentation
Upon researching Hel, I started sketching skulls and skeletons to becomes familiar with the skeletal structures I would be painting. I had recently started using oil paints and I really liked them. I had never done an oil portrait this big before, so it would be a new and challenging process. I knew I had to research and plan extensively to accurately portray what I wanted to. I incorporated Hel into my art to give my piece and imperfect aspect. I didn't want to make myself look beautiful or flawless, I wanted to express real feelings and flaws onto the canvas. Hel, being a devious ruler, was a good figure to use for this purpose.
Sketchbook Page of practice sketches
At right I have a planning sketch for the setup of my piece. I originally wanted the skin to look more naturally peeled back in some areas as a gory way to reveal the skeleton, but gore wasn't something I needed to reveal imperfection, and I didn't think it would show the right idea. I highlighted how I wanted there to be no blood/gore and how I would be draped in a sweatshirt and bare chested. This was meant to show the rawness of the piece and the vulnerability of the parts of myself I was showing in the piece.
Bacon's style would be difficult to copy because I am always tempted to make my art look as realistic as possible. I practices sketchy lines that would later be replicated in paint. I also considered how I was going to distort the figure to look more tired, dull, and dead. I planned to amplify eye bags and add tones of gray and green to the color scheme. I also planned a more downturned mouth to illustrate negative emotion. The eye and socket on the skeleton side of the piece would be veiny and wide to give a terrified or perplexed look to the art. Hel, my inspiration, is historically blue, so I would tint the bone structure this color.
Sketchbook Page with written brainstorming and an annotated composition sketch
Process
I used this photo (left) as the reference for my painting. This photo was taken several months before I started this project. I took it because I liked how tired I looked, with my makeup smudged and my sweatshirt hanging off my shoulder. It gave off the same vibes as the idea I wanted to incorporate into my project. It was also relatively forward facing and plain looking. I decided it would be a perfect reference for this project, so I sketched it out several times in my planning sketches to get used to the facial proportions and position of the head. The only thing I w as unsure about was my hair, because I have dyed it red several times after this picture was taken, so I had to figure out how I was going to paint it.
I lightly sketched out myself on the canvas using the reference above. I drew in the dividing line between the skeleton and the flesh part of the portrait very lightly to mark where I was going to paint it in. I drew in my shirt and necklace as well, which were later erased and replaced with the skeleton of my shoulder and collarbone, as well as some of my ribcage. Because of my planning sketches, I got my proportions down pretty well the first time, and only had to adjust a few things later on.
I went over the sketch again to darken some areas. After adjusting some proportions, I added in more of the skull over the flesh I had originally drawn in. I drew the cheek in more and made it more angular to match what a skull would look like. Aside from skeleton pictures I found on the internet, I also would often look in a mirror and feel the bones under my skin to understand the shape and where the bones would be on my skeleton. I did the same thing for my shoulder and collarbone skeleton.
I started adding paint. I knew I would have to do many layers to get the natural colored undertones of the skin. I had learned this technique from an art class I took over the summer, and the skill carried on to be used in this piece. I used dark blue, because it is always best to start with darker and more saturated colors and layer lighter colors on top. I only used this colors in the darkest of shadows, and to outline set areas, the the divider between the flesh and the skeleton.
Focusing on the skeleton side of the face to start with, I began layering lighter blues on top of the darker ones. I made this color by adding white to the dark blue. i got carried away with the eye, which I eventually had to go over to better match the other eye. I was eventually blending straight white with the blue in the sharp highlights of the skull, like the cheekbone and parts of the forehead. I kept the cracks in the skull near the socket because they related to my imperfect theme. I also noticed what looked to be cracks in the skin of the figure in Portrait of Lisa by Bacon, which I thought was an interesting aspect to the piece.
After finishing the skull for the most part, I moved on to the flesh side and began layering purple and blue in the darkest shadows of the skin. I wasn't afraid of bringing in bright colors because I knew I would be able to cover them with lighter ones and let the darker tones show from underneath. I also wanted to bring in the streaky aspect of Bacon's work into my own. He used less color in Portrait of Lisa than I did in Underneath, but this was intentional; I like working with color and I can still incorporate my inspiration into my piece if it has more color.
After finishing the skull for the most part, I moved on to the flesh side and began layering purple and blue in the darkest shadows of the skin. I wasn't afraid of bringing in bright colors because I knew I would be able to cover them with lighter ones and let the darker tones show from underneath. I also wanted to bring in the streaky aspect of Bacon's work into my own. He used less color in Portrait of Lisa than I did in Underneath, but this was intentional; I like working with color and I can still incorporate my inspiration into my piece if it has more color.
On top of these shadows I added green areas to give the skin a sick and dead look. This brought an ugly, imperfect aspect into my face. I added small amounts of yellow to balance out the green. I admired how the undertones of green look in Portrait of Lisa, and how Bacon brought in streaks of yellow to balance it out, and I hoped to get a similar result with this technique.
I continued the process of layering colors, adding in yellow, pink, and eventually green. This resulted in very saturated and colorful skin, so I continued toning it down with light colors, even adding in some brown and tan paint. Eventually I got the color I wanted. I kept my lines streaky, but the shading still looked relatively smooth, but I didn't consider this a bad thing so I left it as it was.
I was unsure at first how I wanted to do the hair, because I have dyed my hair in the past and I didn't know which color I wanted to showcase for this piece. I started with dark brown for the shadows and the areas around my face since those were the darkest. When doing hair, I generally make shapes of different colors all throughout the head and then I blend it after I have all of the colors down. This works especially well for oil paints because it takes them way longer to dry.
I added many contrasting colors of the same relative scheme. The purpose of this was to show the many colors that my hair has been throughout time, essentially bringing a timeline into my piece. Francis Bacon once said he wanted his work to look as if a person had passed through it. Bringing a timeline into my piece was my way of showing this in my work. I mixed white, purple, and brown into different base colors to make shapes of the hair color. I started at the root of the hair because it was more straight and easier to manage and experiment colors with. The curls got more complicated in shape, so it was better to have a feel for the colors I was going to use while doing them.
I tend to move around the piece while I'm working on it, so I took a break from the hair to do the rest of the skeleton and then the background. I used the same technique for the skeleton that I did for the skull; starting with the dark blue for shadows and slowly going to stark white. The background was mostly black, however when studying Bacon's work I noted how he often adds streaks of blue or green to his generally dark and solid backgrounds. So I added some tan and blue colors to the black and blended it just enough to look like a natural part of the background.
I was wearing a sweatshirt in the reference photo, which I wanted to include in my painting, but I didn't want it to be the focus of the piece. So I made the garment more loose and light looking in the painting, so it looked more like a gentle drapery than a sweatshirt, and I kept the chest bare. I then finished the hair and the background streaks.
Compare and Contrast
- Both pieces have dark background with no distracting factors that draw away from the portrait.
- Both pieces convey texture using streaky lines upon the flesh part of the face.
- Both pieces have a focus on the eyes, which are very clear and set. This draws the viewer to the expression in this specific area of the face.
- Both pieces convey texture using streaky lines upon the flesh part of the face.
- Both pieces have a focus on the eyes, which are very clear and set. This draws the viewer to the expression in this specific area of the face.
- My piece is less impressionistic and more set, with hard lines of color and and a sharp edge to the form. Portrait of Lisa has many impressionistic lines, and it is not clear where the hair ends because is blends in with the background.
- the skin tone palette in Portrait of Lisa is very light and pale with tones of pink and gray. My portrait has a more colorful palette for the skin with undertones of green, blue, yellow, and purple.
- Portrait of Lisa is more distorted to the point where some proportions are intentionally completely off. Mine has minor distortions in the way the halves of the face line up but not much more, the features are very set in place while in Portrait of Lisa they are more like suggestions.
- the skin tone palette in Portrait of Lisa is very light and pale with tones of pink and gray. My portrait has a more colorful palette for the skin with undertones of green, blue, yellow, and purple.
- Portrait of Lisa is more distorted to the point where some proportions are intentionally completely off. Mine has minor distortions in the way the halves of the face line up but not much more, the features are very set in place while in Portrait of Lisa they are more like suggestions.
Reflection
I am extremely proud of this piece. I learned a lot while making it about working with oil paintings, control, and blending techniques. I was very excited to complete this project and eager to work on it, I didn't ever get bored of it. I wish I had spent more time on getting the proportions correct and lining the sides of the faces up better. I am very proud of how the hair turned out, I was able to use many colors and blend it very well. I started using a very thin brush to help with small parts of the piece like the eyes and lashes, small strands of hair, and the veins in the eye.
Bibliography
"Francis Bacon Artist Overview and Analysis". 2021. TheArtStory.org. Content compiled and written by The Art Story Contributors. Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors. Available from: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/bacon-francis/. First published on 01 Dec 2010.
Estate of Francis Bacon. 1970s. Francis Bacon. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://francis-bacon.com/artworks/paintings/1970s.
McCoy, D. (2017, July 9). Hel (GODDESS). Norse Mythology for Smart People. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/giants/hel/.
Estate of Francis Bacon. 1970s. Francis Bacon. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://francis-bacon.com/artworks/paintings/1970s.
McCoy, D. (2017, July 9). Hel (GODDESS). Norse Mythology for Smart People. Retrieved September 27, 2021, from https://norse-mythology.org/gods-and-creatures/giants/hel/.