Essay 'Why do Artists make self-portraits?'

This time the assignment was to write an essay. In the essay I had to answer the question ''Why do artists make self-portraits?''. To answer this question, I had to read articles about different artists. Then I had to try to find out why they made self-portraits. I choose to look at Vincent van Gogh and Judith Leyster. I choose for these two artists, because they seemed very different from each other. So, I thought that they would both have a totally different reason for making self-portraits. This was my essay; 

Why do artists make self-portraits?

There are various reasons why an artist would make a self-portrait. Of course there are some practical reasons. For example, you have a model who is always available and your model won’t complain about your painting afterwards. However, there are more important reasons why an artist would make self-portraits. In this essay I will try to answer the question ‘Why do artists make self-portraits?’. I will do this by first looking at two famous artist who have made self-portraits and what they were trying to say with their self-portraits.

To start with, I will take a look at Vincent van Gogh’s self-portraits. Vincent van Gogh was a painter who suffered from a series of nervous breakdowns during his life. He has painted self-portraits before and after his illness. When you compare these paintings you can clearly see that he used different colours and brushstrokes to express his emotion. For example, a self-portrait with strong colours and broad brushstrokes tell you that he was probably nervous at the time of painting. A portrait with more muted colours or with the brushstrokes smoothed out would have made him came across calmer.

Furthermore, his self-portraits showed the way he saw himself. For example, look at the painting on the right. This painting which he painted in 1888 is called ‘self-portrait as an artist’. He gave himself a serious expression and the same equipment which professional artist used at that time. In this way he showed that, despite the fact he had only sold one painting in his entire life, he believed that he was a great painter and he tried to make other people do so as well.

Secondly, I will look at the self-portraits of Judith Leyster. Compared to Vincent van Gogh, Judith Leyster had a good life. She was a successful artist, she had her own studio, she was married and she had five children. She tried to show her success in her self-portraits.

Let’s take a look at the painting on the left. This painting of her is called self-portrait and is painted in 1630. The brushstrokes she used in this painting are free and lively. This makes the painting look relaxed. The violin player in the background makes the painting look energetic and artistic. The expression which she gave herself in this portrait, she looks straight into your eyes and she smiles, makes her come across self-confident, pride and happy. The clothes which she gave herself show us that she wasn’t poor, this means that she must had success.

So, artists see self-portraits as something way more important than just a reflection of themselves seen from a mirror. They use self-portraits as a way to show other people how they felt at the time they made the painting. They use self-portraits to show who they really are, how they see themselves and how they want to be seen.

My photoshopped self-portrait

In this assignment I had to photoshop a photo of myself. For this I had to use either Adobe Photoshop or Gimp. I choose to use Gimp, because I could download Gimp for free. 

First, I started by watching tutorials on YouTube to learn how to photoshop. Then, when I understood Gimp a little, I started with photoshopping my photo.

My idea was to cut the photo into several pieces and than add a different effect to each piece. In this way, I wanted to represent that everybody has a lot of different sides. 

First I cut out myself from the picture and added a cloudy background to it. Then I drew lines through the photo. Then I could select all the pieces one by one and add effects to them.

My collage

In this assignment, I had to make a collage about myself. In this collage I wanted to show that I like gymnastics, playing and listening to music, cooking, watching movies, rabbits and holidays.

To begin with, I had to choose a colour of paper. I choose light grey. I thought that when I would stick a lot of pictures with a lot of different colours on it, light grey would be nice due to the fact that light grey can go with almost all the colours and light grey doesn't really attract the attention.So, the pictures would be more visible. 

Then I had to cut out a lot of pictures from magazines and newspapers which had to do with things that represented me. 

Finally, I had to glue the pictures on my paper. I didn't want to place them all on a random spot, so I made a spiral. In the middle of the spiral is a picture from the sign of love. Each branch of the spiral consists of pictures about the same hobby.

My painted self-portraits in the style of Van Gogh

The assignment this time was to make two self-portraits in the style of Van Gogh in which I had to express two different emotions. I have chosen for the emotions mad and sad, because I thought these emotions were very different from each other. 

Van Gogh had two essential qualities: his brush strokes and his use of complementary colours. I tried to add these two aspects in my painting as well.


I started with the background of both the two self-portraits. The emotion sad always reminds me of rain. So, I wanted to let the background looks like rain. I did this by painting all the brushstrokes pointed downwards and by using blue and grey as colours, because rain always falls down and looks a bit of blue and grey. The emotion mad always reminds me of a confused person. So, I painted the brushstrokes in different directions, because I thought that looked confused. I have chosen for some darker colour to express mad in the background.

After I had painted the backgrounds, I painted the clothes. I tried to add some colours of the background in the clothes. So, I used the grey of the sad emotions in the clothes and the red of the mad emotion.

Then I painted my hair. I did this the same in both the paintings. I have blond hair, so in the painted I tried to use colours which looked like that. I painted the brushstrokes  in a bow around my face.

After I had painted my hair, I painted my skin. I tried to use skin colours.

Then I had to paint the details of my face and the shadows. I only didn't had enough time for this, so I have one face which is half done and on the other painting I haven't got a face at all. (My idea was to use the colours of the background in the shadows.)

My self-portrait

I had to make a self-portrait using a little mirror, so I would draw myself in the way in which I saw myself. I could make it with only a grey pencil or with either a grey pencil and colour pencils. I choose to use only a grey pencil, because I thought that would look nicer.

First, I started with drawing the form of my face. Then I drew my neck and shoulders. After I made this, I situated a horizontal and a vertical line in the middle of my face. Then I drew the outlines of my eyes on the vertical line. After this, I situated another vertical line in between the first vertical line and the bottom of my face. I drew outside lines of my nose just above this line. Then I situated another vertical line in between the last vertical line and the bottom of my face. I drew the outside lines of my mouth just above this line. 

After this, I could draw all the details of my face in my self-portrait. In my eyes I drew the iris and the pupil and I gave them eyelashes as well. Above my eyes I drew the eyebrows. Then I made the details at my nose. I tried to make some shadows on both sides of my nose. Below my nose, above my mouth, I made a kind of shadow as well. I made my lips a bit darker and gave it little cracks. Below my mouth I draw a little shadow for my chin. 

After I had drawn my face, I drew my hair. I did this by drawing a lot of little hairs next to each other. I tried to make it look realistic by making my hair a bit lighter on top of my head.

My drawing which I made when I was four years old

For this assignment I had to find a drawing which I made when I was between four and six years old. After that, I had to write a little report about what I had actually drawn.

I have chosen this drawing. I made the drawing in December 2002, when I was four, almost five, years old. The drawing is about St. Nicholas.

On the drawing, you can see St. Nicholas in the middle. I think the shape of his body looks kind of like the body of a butterfly. However, I did coloured the body in the right colour; red. I gave him one long and one short leg with both five fingers. He has got two arms as well. One of them has five fingers and the other one has seven fingers. Counting was clearly too hard for me when I was little. His head has two eyes, a nose and a mouth. I have not drawn his neck and ears. He looks a bit afraid. As assecoires I gave him his typical mitre with a cross and his staff.

On the right of St. Nicholas, I have drawn his assistent; 'Zwarte Piet'. Zwarte Piet is wearing a brown dress with a big dot in the middle. I am not so sure why I drew this dot. He has got two egual legs, but on one foot there are five toes and on the other foot I drew six toes. Apparently, I wanted to erase the six toes with my pencil, so now there are some strapes at the sixth toe. However, on both of his hands there are five fingers. His head has got two eyes a nose, a mouth, curly hair and even two very big ears. I did forgot the neck. As assecoires I gave him his sack in which he carries his typical Dutch 'pepernoten'.

On the left of St. Nicholas, I have drawn his horse Amerigo. Amerigo is purple and misses two of his legs. He misses his tail as well. On his head, he has got four long hairs. He looks a kind of curious.

I drew the background, too. On the top left, I drew a blue cloud and on the top right I drew a sun. I tried to write the word sun next to it in Dutch, zon, but I was obviously not great at spelling so I mixed up a letter and not it says 'son'.

I liked to write about this drawing. I think nobody or at least me, can not draw very well when he or she is little and that is why I am glad that the teacher wrote next to it what I had actually drawn.

My painting of Green Wheat Field with Cypress by Vincent van Gogh

In this assignment I had to draw a painting. It had to chose a painting made by Vincent van Gogh. It had to be a painting he drew in the impressionism style. Moreover, it had to be one of his paintings which wasn't very famous. I've chose the painting Green Wheat Field with Cypress, because I liked the colours and the landscape. (There's more informations about this painting and about why I've chosen this painting in my report of Green Wheat Field with Cypress by Vincent van Gogh on this blog!)

After I'd chosen a painting, I could start. First of all, I made a quick sketch. I drew the shapes of the cypress, the little houses and the scrubbery. Due to this, I knew the location of the objects in the painting. After this I could already start painting.

First of all, I painted the sky and the clouds. Second of all, I painted the cypress and the scrubbery in front of the sky. After this, I painted the wheat field. At last, I painted the scrubbery in front of the wheat field.

The colours of paint which I used for this painting were yellow, red, blue (light and dark), white, black and brown. For the other colours I had to mix. So, to get green I had to mix yellow and blue. In this way, I could make a lot of different kinds of green.

Then was the result: