Okay, so this post isn't about any new piece I've done, but just a little bit about what's going on, what the self-portrait is all about, and what I have in the works.
First off, school is going good. I have hardly any time to breathe, let alone sleep or do my own projects, but getting the education in is still worth it to me. I just passed the year mark for at ASF, and I am now collecting vacation time each paycheck! Woot! Aside from that, life proceeds as normal. My current term at school will end in another couple weeks (next week, maybe, I think) and I won't have to go back until I believe the second week of January, so I'll have a nice break from things.
For my future projects I've got a bunch of things that will most likely not ever be finished, but I still have high hopes for. For instance, I'm still working on my robot legs and motorcycle, though both have kind of come to a standstill. I've also started a car model which is progressing better than expected but is already losing steam. I've also got a stamp idea that I really want to make. It will be hilarious if I get it done. Aside from that, the chopin music video is still sitting on the shelf for the moment, but hasn't been forgotten. I just haven't had the time to work on it at all, and I'm still wondering what the other musical elements will be in my scene.
And that, my friends, is what I'm working on!
Now, to the meat of the subject. An explanation of just what I was thinking when I drew my self portrait. I had the first general scene idea when my professor presented the project. It evolved quite a bit from it's conception, but I still crammed as much information as I could into it. SO. Let's begin in the back, shall we? Many of the symbols work together, so bare with me while I try to get them all.
First, the giant chess pieces. These serve two purposes. Obviously, one is that I like chess. It's one of my favorite board games, though there's hardly ever anyone around who wants to play. Secondly, I used them to reinforce the idea of my way of thinking. I think logically, as you can probably tell, and the chess pieces work with the gears you can see in the floor to put forth that idea. Gears and chess seem to me to both be pretty logical, wouldn't you say?
(side note: those gears are under glass. Did I get that across in the illustration?)
Aside from the above symbolism, the gears don't serve any other purpose.
The books on the lower left should be pretty obvious. I like to read. So...I put lots of books there.
On the right hand side, the blue thing is the logo for the 3D modeling program I use. Cinema 4D. Just kinda laid it on the floor like that to keep the perspective, and drew the blue lines to reinforce the idea of 3D. That's there as a sight of my hobby.
Now, moving on to the figure in the middle. First off, he (I never intended the figure to actually be me) is sitting on a swivel chair, holding a keyboard. Both work to convey the obvious fact that I love computers. (we'll get to the....decals later) The hair choice was deliberate, and Elicia got this right, to a point, that Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite movies and characters. Not really a "I want to be" kind of deal, just a symbol of a "like". The hair coincides with the clown mask. The clown mask shows, not that I hide behind humor, but that humor protects me. Think of it like a hockey mask. When things get stressful and insane, I try and use my humor to maintain my sanity. The coloring of the mask is better suited for a frowning clown mask rather than a smiling one, which helps reinforce the idea of my innate sarcasm. The mask, along with the hair also portrays my black humor. I've found that a lot of people don't appreciate black humor, but I enjoy it quite a lot, and Sweeney Todd is all about black humor.
Lower down, you have his white shirt. The kind and color of the shirt aren't symbolically important. The white shirt, however, is in stark contrast to the black background, which serves to make the figure pop off the page and also draws the viewer's eyes to it. Not only that, but it's mostly positioned right in the center of the page, which also serves to draw focus there. The blood seeping through the shirt was kind of a silly addition I decided on. I was thinking a Pink Floyd "Bleeding hearts and artists" kind of analogy. An artist should have a bleeding heart, should he not?
The jeans are similarly not important in and of themselves, but I guess they do show my difficulty in finding good-fitting pants. That was an unintended symbol, I guess. The shoes, on the other hand, do have significance. They are rough recreations of the sneakers I wear currently, but I tried to make them worn and dirty. I don't think I got the worn part very well, but they do have a brown tinge to them at the bottom, don't they? They symbolize how I enjoy hiking, especially where the dust is brown, red, and deserty. Moab, specifically, was on my mind when I did that.
Now, the shield the figure is holding has it's own significance to it. I decided to portray how I've learned to shield myself from others, not so much as the recluse that I am, but just being able to ward off what people say about me. Kind of like having thick skin, but drawing thick skin is kinda hard. A shield worked just fine. Not only that, but I also tried to make it worn and broken in places, showing that I HAVE had to use it. Most people have, you see, but I included it for myself.
And, finally, the blood on the keyboard shows that typing, writing, things like that, are my weapon of choice when fighting back. Granted, this doesn't always work well, and people DO get hurt, some of which don't deserve it, but nevertheless, that's how it works.
There you have it! I don't think I missed anything, did I?
