Andy Warhol Portrait Reflection Journal

Andy Warhol was an American artist, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 6, 1928,  known as a leading figure in pop art. In this visual art movement known as pop art, Warhol explored the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture, and advertisements. Drawing soon became Warhol’s favorite childhood pastime. Besides, devoting his time to commercial art, he began devoting more attention to painting. Eventually, about 11 years later, in 1961, he brought upon the concept of what is known as “pop art”. In 1962, Warhol and pop art was brought into spotlight nationwide, as a result of his well known exhibited iconic paintings of Campbell’s soup cans.

Warhol has created portraits of many individuals. In Warhol’s portraits, he using uses bright colors for the features on and surrounding the persons face. He usually, makes the features brighter than the background and face. Warhol’s portraits remind me of a tessellation pattern because a tessellation is a pattern of the same subject used over and over again. I would buy Andy Warhol’s artwork because unlike other artworks, Warhol uses a variety of bright colors to contrast certain subjects and make them stand out. In popular culture, critics play a huge role. Some individuals criticize without having enough facts to prove their point. This is called an uniformed opinion. However, when someone has a variety of resources to make a claim it’s called an informed opinion. A person’s opinion can usually harm a persons self esteem or make a person stronger, and make them work harder to prove others wrong. When someone is bias, they usually do not like something, but taste is different because that means you do like something.

In class, for our second project, we had to create a Warhol portrait of ourselves. To complete this Warhol portrait, we used the application Adobe Photoshop CS6. First, I had to take a picture of myself from my head to my shoulders. I created a file and placed my portrait. To complete this first huge step, I had to go to file-Artistic- and then cutout. Next, I created a new file and created a folder, then, I created a folder. I copied the folder three more times and dragged the photos from the new folders onto the canvas. Finally, I chose a color for my background and used the paint bucket tool, to color my portrait. Artists have painted portraits throughout ages because portraits are important.  Not only can you capture the beauty of nature, but you can also capture the beauty of someone’s face. In a portrait, you show expression and the portrait can be more strongly expressed if you use color. After creating a Warhol portrait, I feel like I gained some skills I can use in the future. In the future I can use these skills because I now know to compare and contrast colors in order to make a certain piece look nice, and make a certain subject stand out.