Imaginative Self-Portrait

• Nine mouths which represent my love of language and my goal to learn nine of them at a conversational level
• The binary code represents my love of computers
• The ‘ear’ is a symbol for a video game I play
• The heart represents my love of biology and that I was once able to draw an anatomically-correct heart from memory
• The brain--in a most straightforward way--represents my thoughts and is filled with the things that consume me (Travel, language, art, and my work)
• The flag represents Spain and the Spanish language and relates to me because I consider Spain (Madrid, specifically) to be my second home and I intend to live there when I am older
• The building blocks (within the brain) represent my work (at a daycare) and how much that work has impacted me personally
• The fountain pen nib (within the eye) with ink running down represents my love of writing and of fountain pens in general, of which I have two so far.
• The globe represents my love of travel and my future plans
• The DNA further represents my love of science and biology and is in my brain because I consider it to be an integral part of me
• The circular symbols are from a T.V show that I adore and which pushed me to begin drawing; without having watched that show I wouldn’t have discovered my passion for art

The white values and dark values complemented each other. If there is a light value towards the bottom right portion of the head there is also a light value towards the top left of the head. I used similar patterns of light and dark in particular areas to bring out certain objects (i.e the brain and the heart) and unify the piece as a whole, as the pattern would be throughout much of the drawing. Overall, I could have done a better job at this, as my final drawing has a lot of while and very little middle value.

My strength in this piece was drawing the symbols; the brain looks like a brain, the heart looks like a heart, the boat looks like a boat, and so on. A quick glance at any one of these objects would allow the viewer to discern what it is that has been drawn. A challenge I faced while drawing this was to make the whole thing flow. Although the brain connects with the heart and the boat and the ocean work well where they are, there is a lot of negative space which isn’t conducive to having things flow; if I were to do this piece over again I would fill the entirety of the head with objects instead of leaving vast swaths of nothing as I have it now.