My First Self Portrait

Thomas Gomes "Self Portrait - Imperfect Man" 2013

I've never attempted to create a self portrait before because I didn't really know where to start...

Thanks to a project that I'm working on in my degree course I had the opportunity to do a self portrait.  Also I feel, seeing as this is my first official post on this blog, that  I would like to share a little of myself with you! 

First, it's worth nothing, that I didn't take a realistic approach to my portrait (the four arms and four legs is a big give away), but each item tells a little bit about my personality.  The watch represents my time keeping abilities, the pens and pencils as my use of physical materials, the magnifying glass is my researching and critical approach to work, the odd cube is my skills in 3D CGI, the papers are my ability to write and explain my ideas and work, finally, the graphics tablet, is my skills in Photoshop and general digital understanding...

Leonardo Da Vinci "Venetian Man" taken from:  http://eccentricparabola.blogspot.co.uk/2012_06_01_archive.html on 04/06/2013

You may recognize what my self portrait looks like and you would be right.  I based my design off of Leonardo Da Vinci's "Venetian Man" which is considered to be the perfect man.  Now, I realize that I am FAR from perfect, so I approached this self portrait with a little bit of cynicism.  For example rather than a perfect circle for the proportions I chose to do an oval and my cartoon style makes it more a parody than anything else.  I've also titled it as "Self Portrait - Imperfect Man" because perfect people don't exist, and I think they never will. 

Please leave comments and thoughts on this post.

Challenge!

Consider doing your own self portrait.  Try populating your portrait with items that describe you, maybe you like sports and want to add sport equipment or, if you're an artist, the mediums that you favour.  Why not ask others what they think about you?  Maybe convince them to do their own self portrait and compare them!