Icebraker: Self Portrait

 During the class we had to draw a self portrait in about 15 minutes but I spent more time drawing it after the class. We could use any media we wanted so I chose to do a digital drawing using the app Sketchbook. After using this app for my major project in the last term I feel a lot more confident in this type of drawing and I am not afraid of using it anymore, so I thought that this was a good task to use the skills that I acquired last term.

In the past few weeks I have seen a lot of illustration made by digital artists since I started following them in social media, while I was doing research for my last term's Major Project. Some of these artists are, for instance, Alexis Franklin and Aykut Aydogdu.

Although my digital art is not even close to the paintings they made, I feel that I am improving a lot by seeing and reflecting in their artworks.

Alexis Franklin

Alexis Franklin Self-Portrait

Alexis Franklin was born on June, 1996 in Dallas, Texas. With only 24 years old she is already known as a digital artist and is followed by more than 128k people in the Instagram. Alexis when talked about her expressive paintings said “I’ve always seen the world through a filter that brings vibrance and excitement to things most people wouldn’t notice, and that’s something that I really want to have come across in my work,”.

Her style reminds oil on canvas although it is made with pixels. She often paints surreal and expressive subjects and she considers herself a traditional art enthusiast.

Aykut Aydogdu.

Aydogdu A. (2017), Sputnik

Aykut Aydogdu was born in 1986, Ankara - Turkey. He started his college education in Marmara University but he transferred to Hacettepe University - Graphic Design Department after one semester, and graduated in there. He is a freelancer surrealist illustrator mainly focused on the dilemas of the daily life.

 

Like Alexis Franklin, it is hard to believe that Aykut Aydogdu does not use a paintbrush while creating his artworks but the Adobe Photoshop in a tablet. Through his paintings, he is able to capture the human soul's complexity. 

It is also interesting to find in his artworks some homages to famous television shows such as Breaking Bad and movies as Fight Club and Lèon. He is also inspired by series of Asian and American television. One other  and there are frquently women accompanied by flowers or birds. Other important feature in his paintings is the apparent nostalgia.

Reference:

Colossal(30 August 2020), Vibrant Digital Portraits by Artist Alexis Franklin Emphasize the Nuances of Emotions[online] Available from: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/08/alexis-franklin-digital-portraits/ (Accessed 11.01.2021)

Contemporary Art Curator , Aykut Aydogdu [online] Available from: http://www.contemporaryartcuratormagazine.com/home-2/aykut-aydodu (Accessed 12.01.2021)

Meeting Benches, (4 June 2017), AYKUT AYDOGDU (1986), TURKISH DIGITAL ILLUSTRATOR– without a single paintbrush, so complex human soul [online] Available from:

 http://meetingbenches.com/2017/06/aykut-aydogdu-turkish-illustrator/ (Accessed 12.01.2021)