Waterstones... The home of inspiration

Whilst doing some shopping in Maidstone yesterday, i decided to go int Waterstones to havea look at some art-based books. I end up spending most of my time in here, looking at books to get inspirationational ideas from. I've aways been one of these Wikipedia and google images fans, but there's nothing like looking through a book full of artwork. A few books that caugt my eye were some of the street art books, presening amazing grafitti art. I've always been a fan of street art and the likes of Banksy who's work always manages to amaze me. After looking at some of Kid Cudi's photoshoots, i particularly like the way Augor's work has been composited and i feel thi is something i woud like to try, getting ideas from the books saw in Waterstones. I also found a great book on storyboarding, unfortunately there was only the one. i realy want to develop my storyboarding and concept art sks, as i feel this is a crucial part of the course. looking at these books was a great inspiration and i can see myself spending lots more time in there.

My self-portrait - Influences

My love for film and music often influences and inspires the creation of my ideas. Here i have found some photoshoots of Kid Cudi and Master Shortie, which i feel are key in helping me picture and sketch one of my ideas for my self-portrait.

I'm liking these images at the moment because they are very similar to how i envisage one of my ideas for the final self-portrait. I like the way virtual reality has been combined with reality, which creates a surreal and fun picture. I can particularly relate to these pictures as i am often daydreaming and thinking of unimaginable things.

I particularly like these drawings by Augor and the way they have been composited into the image, giving the image a lot of personality. i'd like to create something like this, using photgraphy and drawings to represent my personality and portray who i am.

My self-portrait - Idea Development

So... i've been thinking a lot about this self-portrait project over the last couple of days. The lectures that Phil gave were very insitive of how i could research and analyse different self-portraits, to influence the creation of my own self-portrait. I've also realised that you shouldn't try and hold a cough in during a lecture, as it will only make things worse :P. Back to the more important topic though... I've come to the conclusion that there are two main ways of portraying yourself, as the person within or the person that you are on the outside. Often we pretend that these to aren't disimiliar, in a bid of hiding our true identities, which i think we often see in self-portraits. But I have not yet decided whether how i will portray myself yet. I often find that the person I am inside, is someone who likes to think things over and often spends his time dreaming of the unimaginable. Whereas the person who people usually see is a more lively and outgoing person, completing hiding the identity of my true persona. This is why people often struggle to comprehend my inner self, almost giving the impression of a split personality. I feel that it is important for me to explore both these paths in a bid to find the best way of portraying myself. It may even be possible to combine the two ideas to give an overall picture of who i am, instead of one part of me.

How can we define a self-portrait?

It seems that the concept of a self-portrait has a varied response, giving a varied perception on what a self-portrait actually is. Looking at some of the self-portraits in lectures, using thorough analyse, we can clearly identify the purpose of the self-portraits, giving the idea that a picture really can say 1000 words. But, is it possible that in our curiosity, we often over complicate and are too thorough in our analyse of these 'self-portraits'. I felt that the image of Rembrandt, aged 22, was a clear example of how we can often overlook the point behind the self-portrait. I straight away believed that the man was deranged and crazed. When in actual fact, he was only practising his drawing skills. I believe that a self-portrait represents a connection or link between the artist and the piece of work. Although, this connection could be the tiniest of things, often, it portrays a bigger picture to the artist and viewer alike. Giving a clear portrayal of who the artist really is inside, in oppose the person we see on the outside.