Compressed Charcoal, white and green conte and acrylic paint on cardboard box.


ok


.....ok



this was my entry for the portrait prize at my art school.
I was working on an oil painting for weeks and was really starting to hate it, so I decided to do something more spontaneous, so I was thinking - charcoal! But I was all out. So anyway, while I was at the art shop stocking up on charcoal I asked them if they had any really big old cardboard boxes. And they kindly gave me one that was so freakin massive that it couldnt even fit in the boot of my car without being bended and crumbled.
it was awesome. I love brown cardboard.

..aaanyway, so I had this massive thing in my bedroom ( which has a floor space of like only 4 times the size of this cardboard ) and I proceeded to attempt* to draw myself as I looked at my reflection in the darkened windowpane of my bedroom ( it was night time btw )
it was really hard - I couldnt see any details, couldnt step more than 2 feet back from the canvas due to the small room ( so I couldnt view it from a distance and analyse my mistakes ) and the end result looks nothing like me.

though, I do think I inflicted my persona into it on a deeper level.


when I was done with the figure I turned the 'canvas' around to face another direction and drew the walls of my room. ~you can see the window where I was previously looking to draw my reflection.
its kind of a collage of elements to create a scene that works ...

weird fact; theres 2 things that denote that it was drawn from a reflection - the side my hair is parted on, and the arm im drawing with.
I chose to draw the Opeth logo forwards.
( ...actually, I wasnt even wearing that jumper at the time. It was a compositional choice )
and yeah, everything else was drawn from life and not reversed.

oh! another weird fact; When I was about 3 quarters of the way through drawing it, I kept coughing and stuff. And I blew my nose and realised that I'd been breathing in a heap of charcoal dust ( there was tons on the floor too ..... I still havent vacuumed )
And so for the remainder of the drawing I had to wear my Aquatinting mask so I wasnt breathing it in.
[ I hate the smell of that mask though - I reckon Im allergic to it .........which would be....ironic..... ]



In conclusion, I would like to say that Im glad I went for this style of drawing. It was really unusual and totally unlike the many oil paintings which were submitted into the contest.
and I think the grungy junky look of the cardboard, aswell as the sheer size of it, made it capture peoples attention.

and I won



Im so thankful to the people who voted for me, and for the feedback they all gave me. It was really really awesome.





Thanks for viewing~