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blunderbuss self portrait ILLUSTRATION
PROJECT OVERVIEW This self-portrait illustration was created as a class project for Mastering the Pencil IL1020 B2OL at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. The project called Balderdash, required us to choose from a list of words and illustrate an alternate meaning. The word I chose was ‘Blunderbuss’ and the alternative definition I created was "an action one takes without considering the consequences." I thought it would be fun to make this project a self-portrait. The piece was created with a series of graphite pencils, blending stumps, and erasers. METHODOLOGY In class, we were sent a list of strange and exotic words and the task was to take one of these, and develop a new definition for it without looking up the actual definition. I chose the word "Blunderbuss" because broken down, it was made up of two words "blunder" and "bus." I Initially thought to take the name and create the definition of an actual bus that was doomed to folly. Through my thumbnail sketches, I started exploring the prospect of not being so literal with the definition and developed a series of sketches of a character in the act of doing something without considering the consequences. Instead of developing a new face of character, I entertained the idea of making myself this character preparing to smack a fly with a flyswatter on my own face. I developed three variations of shading and lighting, along with different levels of contrast and refined the sketch that created the most interesting visual hierarchy anticipating motion in an almost cartoon-like fashion. VALUE RANGE
thumbnail sketches
Preliminary sketches
final sketch
TOOLS I used a series of H, H2, B, B2, B4, B6, and B8 graphite pencils, kneaded and plastic erasers, and a series of blending stumps. FOLLOW THIS PROJECT ON SOCIAL MEDIA
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