“Self Portrait explanation”

Yoshi Stover


“Self Portrait explanation”



My self portrait is a simple traditional, self portrait. The materials are just graphite and paper and the content is my face. I made this work to be different from my biography. My biography was somewhat about assimilation into my Japanese culture, but this time I want it to be different. This work is related to my previous work and aspirations because it’s practice. My aspiration is to become a concept artist. Which is like the artist that originally designs creatures and fantasy locations in games and movies. The reason why this self portrait is related, despite sounding the complete opposite of creating fantasy monsters and science fiction locations, is because in order to become good at the job, you have to know the basics. The self portrait is a tried and true practice method for improving one’s art skill. Most of my previous work I see as stepping stones and mostly just for practice, in order to get to my final goal.

I wanted to address imagery, identity, and culture in this piece.

I wanted to remove myself from my own cultures, with this piece. This is because I've come to the realization that because I am part of two different cultures, both cultures treat me as a sort of an outcast. Thus in order to represent the lack of assimilation, I’ve done something that’s absolutely neutral and devoid of culture. Despite having read, “Between the World and Me”, I feel like I understand the main character to some extent. I understand that culture is important, and I understand how he has come to his cultural awakening at the same time as an intellectual one when he started reading about historical African American inventors and heroes. However it’s hard for me to relate because, while yes I am physically connected to it, unfortunately, culturally I am so out of touch that I feel it is wrong for me to call it part of the culture.

This I feel is also a way of identifying myself, since I’m a person that has little to do with my cultures. I feel often that people have started to live their lives through their culture, and have not realized that their surroundings shouldn’t be all that they are. As for imagery. I feel that this is a part of the evolution from the Lascaux cave paintings. The Lascaux paintings in a sense were paintings of self portraits in a way. And this is a self portrait that combines multiple different techniques from the techniques that were created up until this point. Even if it’s a different medium or material that I’m using.

Technically speaking, many artists have influenced my work. The art professors I have been taught by from both Rutgers university, as well as my other college professors, have both taught me that self portraits are a test of skill. The most influential in terms of just technique might be an artist that goes by the name of ZHC and another named Proko. ZHC, for his masterful use and control over the pencil. And Proko for taking my ability to shade as far as possibly with his specific techniques. As well as the artist Andras Szunyoghy, who wrote a book called the Big Book of drawing. His book was the backbone and is instrumental to almost all the techniques I know.

Presentation link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11RD7tSDG8n2Xh6cH3sMXp7xW3-612EqV/view


Self Portrait link