Iskan self-portrait (2021) Collages par Iskan

Iskan’s self-portrait in red, a paper collage, size A4, 21 x 30 cm. The material was paper: - Italian made Fabriano Tizian pastel paper.
I wanted the silhouette to be more telling. Here is a list of what I creatively reworked in the quest for a more artistic image:
• Fine-tuning the forehead proportions, I made a nod to the iconic Socrates, and this called for the top of the skull to be re-designed too.
• I beefed up the nose and added a slight hump to it, increased the overall dimensions and slightly hunched the nose. I made it look more aquiline! Every tiny fraction of a millimeter counted because the profile dimensions were only 15 by 14 centimeters.
• I drew the jaw to look a bit heavier, more macho.
• On an artistic whim, I bulged up the two fat rolls on the back of the neck.
• I couldn't help adding a moustache! Amusingly, I gave the moustache the form of an acute triangle. I always dreamed of this sort of tidy moustache worn by officers because when I was a kid, one of my to-be dreams was a shock troops officer! The crisp triangle is difficult to achieve and quickly loses its form. I wonder how Dali sorted out the upkeep of his moustache!
I took a profile selfie on my mobile phone, and I liked right the first shot! I started with a lead-up: on the phone, I pushed the slider from color mode to b/w, I increased the contrast to the limit - and got something of a medal profile – this was a good start!
For the rough draft, I extracted from my printer a regular sheet of A4 paper and began to draw and erase, draw and erase, again and again – rinse, repeat - rinse, repeat - rinse, repeat - squinting at the phone with one eye and looking at the paper with the other eye. My French BIC Evolution pencil and my Koh-i-Noor and Staedtler erasers made it a pleasure conjuring up the silhouette! It seemed to me that I went on and on playing with the line for more than an hour!
When the line went sharp, clean, and singing, at last, I cut out the contour with Gipfel scissors, producing an intermediary blank to be copied on the final support – that is, on the red paper. I fixed the white blank to an A4 sheet of red paper with 3M (Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing – the real thing – the authentic Scotch tape!) masking tape for designers, which does not spoil thin and loose paper and does not dry out for months. Then I circled the blank with the pencil. As a result, I got the final outline on the red paper. I gave the red paper a rough cut, with a margin - one centimeter off the outline. Then carefully, holding my breath, I cut out the skull line along the contour. I took a deep breath, concentrated, tuned in, and went on cutting, taking breaks to relax. So I cut out the nose, then the neck, and finally the lips and the moustache.
I only had one sheet of red paper, so I had only one chance. I lived up to my expectations because I didn't need to be taught how the line is built because a geometric abstractionist works predominantly with the line.
The backing. From a sheet of heavy paper 320 grams per square meter, I cut out the backing to fit the A4 size frame that I had at hand. I played around with the red silhouette on the blue backing, looked at it from different angles and distances, figured it out many times, and finally, I found the location and fixed it by flanking the silhouette with six beacons made of the same 3M masking tape. I applied liquid UHU made in Germany tube glue to the red silhouette along the edge, put the red profile between the beacons on the blue backing, covered it with a clean sheet of printer paper, and pressed it with the palm of my hand.

Thèmes connexes

IskanCollageRedSelf-PortraitPaper