Grotesque Self Portraits

What does Grotesque mean?

What does Grotesque mean?

a very ugly or comically distorted figure, creature, or image

What does Grotesque mean?

a very ugly or comically distorted figure, creature, or image

Grotesque can be
Ugly or Disturbing

Grotesque can be
Funny

Five Elements of the Grotesque

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Mixing of Categories
Excess/Multiplicity
Exaggeration
Omission
Misrepresentation/Uncanny

Grotesque: Mixing of Categories

Liu Xue
Untitled

Grotesque: Mixing of Categories Valentina Visintin

Grotesque: Mixing of Categories Micheal Westmore

Grotesque: Mixing of Categories

Brainstorm

Grotesque: Excess/Multiplicity
Jonathan Payne
Untitled
Flishlette Series

Grotesque: Excess/Multiplicity
Mr. Waternoose
Monsters Inc.

Grotesque: Excess/Multiplicity
Brainstorm

Grotesque: Exaggeration
Tom

Quinten Massys

Tom and Jerry

The Ugly Duchess

Grotesque: Exaggeration
Brainstorm

Grotesque: Omission
Valentina Visintin

Francisco Goya

Pale Man

Saturn

Labyrinth

Devouring
His Son

Grotesque: Omission
Brainstorm

Grotesque: Misrepresentation/Uncanny
Asger Carlson No Joke

Beaker and Bunsen from The Muppets

BBear

Grotesque: Misrepresentation/Uncanny
Brainstorm

Face Proportions

What To Do Now?
-Create a grotesque self portrait which clearly communicates
an idea such as identity, narrative, spirituality, etc. The idea is
enhanced by the grotesque nature of the portrait.
-Create at least two sketches of ideas for portraits and select
a color pallet for both of them.
-Choose one of these to develop into a graphite pencil
drawing on final paper.
-Over the graphite pencil drawing on the final paper, through
experimentation, practice, and persistence, create final
portrait using oil pastels.