This is the piece from which the idea for my concentration, experimentation through self-portraits, evolved. I remember in Drawing 1 doing self-portrait after self-portrait in such exciting media as charcoal and graphite to the point where I never wanted to do a self-portrait again. I wanted to express the boredom I felt with the simplicity of the assignments I received. To communicate this idea, I used charcoal, one of the most common basic drawing media, to reduce the interest in the piece through its lack of color. Certainly when I look at this piece, though I am happy with the end result, I think of how much I hated doing assignments like this over and over and over, and I also think that anyone who looks at it will also feel the colorless, boring, dismal feeling that I felt when making this piece. I also think that the choice of charcoal really helps convey this message, as well as the fact that none of my other concentration pieces use charcoal, really setting this one apart as what started it all. As boring as the piece is, I do still believe that I chose an interesting enough composition and that the piece has enough contrast between the darks and lights that any viewer should not feel entirely dissatisfied with the piece. Like I mentioned at the beginning, this is the piece from which my concentration evolved. I decided that I never wanted to do a lame self-portrait again, so from that point on I only did super cool self-portraits.
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