In this portrait project, you will depict yourself as a member of a tribe of which you are not actually a member. You will work from a digital photograph of yourself as well as images that are taken from an actual tribe, such as the Maasai, the Zulus, etc. Research the tribe you wish to identify with. By adding features such as piercings, tattoos, body adornments, hairstyles, etc. that are indicative of that tribe, you will become a "member" in your drawing. Why do you identify with that particular cultural group? What do you admire about these people?
STEPS: This instructs you step by step on the procedures to follow so you may successfully complete this project. 1) Select images from the Internet that you want to use as reference materials for the additions you are going to make to your self-portrait. On a search engine such as google.com try words like, African Tribal Photographs or Universal Tribal Photographs. Remember when using a search engine, if you don’t find what you want fairly quickly, alter your choice of words in some way and then try again. Print the images that you want to use. You will to use them when drawing your portrait. 2) Decide what type of expression you want to have on your face. You might get an idea by looking again at the images you found either on the net or in a book from the library. It is helpful to look at the expression right before you are photographed so you can envision it on your face. You also need to decide how your face/head need to be positioned before we shot your photograph. Several shots will be taken. 3) Do some small, quick, non-detailed thumbnail sketches of your composite face. This helps you plan it out ahead of time so you will create the best composition. Remember this is a portrait. This means head, neck and some shoulder showing. 4) Once you have completed the previous steps and are ready to start on your final, lightly sketch the entire composition onto your final paper. Make sure that you have the correct proportions. This is a realistic portrait. You may want to grid part of your face to get it just right. The adornments and additions need to be drawn just as accurately. Use great care and observation in this step. If you don’t get it correct here, it will not be correct when it is completed. 5) Lay in all the correct values. There should be complete whites, complete blacks and all the values in between. It should look as close to a photograph when you are done as possible.