self-portrait

Self-portrait in progress

| Anna Cull

Anna Cull Work in progress

Here is a little something I’ve been experimenting with as a way of making use of an old (vintage 1970s), much loved and sadly threadbare tea towel.

Work in progress #1 – using gel medium as a glue, I covered a piece of artboard with the teatowel to make a linen canvas
Work in progress #1 – using gel medium as a glue, I made a linen canvas by covering an artboard with the tea towel (I have enough fabric left over to make another canvas)
Work in progress #2 – I began painting with acrylics thinned with polymer medium and used a photo of myself as a child for reference
Work in progress #2 – I began painting with acrylics thinned with polymer medium and used an old photo of myself as a reference
Work in progress#3 – I continued to build up the layers with thicker, more opaque acrylics to unify the different elements
Work in progress #3 – I continued to build up the layers with thicker, more opaque acrylics to unify the different elements

I’ll post the finished painting tomorrow.

Love Your Body campaign poster

| Anna Cull
Love the shape you're in – mixed media, 297 x 210 mm, 2012.
Love the shape you’re in – mixed media, 297 x 210 mm, 2012.

Here is my entry for a poster competition run by the NOW Foundation promoting the positive, healthy, inclusive portrayal of girls and women. Yes, another competition. It’s been a busy month.

My aim was to put a positive spin on the idea of body types and to create an image that would make people smile. All too often, we hear ‘pear’ and ‘apple’ shapes (et cetera) described as problems that require fixing in some way. Instead, celebrate your shape because it’s all natural and naturally beautiful. Love the shape you’re in!

The fruit characters are ink and acrylic — one is a self-portrait : )  The background collage was created using paper and gesso. I added the heart spotlight in Photoshop.

Self-portrait in charcoal

| Anna Cull
Charcoal self-portrait – semi-blind drawing, 320 x 280 mm, 2011.

I learnt to draw the Danny Gregory way — slowly and deliberately with a pen. No pencil. No eraser. Mediums like graphite and charcoal really throw me now. This preliminary sketch is a semi-blind drawing (that’s where you spend most of your time looking at the subject, NOT the paper).

Charcoal self-portrait – charcoal on paper, 380 x 280 mm, 2011.
Charcoal self-portrait – charcoal on paper, 380 x 280 mm, 2011.

I persevered with the exercise and ended up with a self-portrait that I quite like. It is based on a photo of me when I was a young ballerina.

Self-portrait in vector

| Anna Cull
Pop art self-portrait, vector illustration, 2010.

This was a personal project undertaken when I had time on my hands following the September 2010 earthquake(s). The illustration has proved to be quite useful.

I tweaked the colours for print, added a background pattern, and used these as the first and last pages of my D&A diary.

I’ve also been using it as my WordPress Gravatar and as my profile picture on Facebook.

Self-portrait in felt

| Anna Cull
Finger puppet self-portrait in New Regent Street, Christchurch, 2010.Student project – mixed media, drawing and photography.
Finger puppet self-portrait in New Regent Street, Christchurch, 2010.
Student project – mixed media, drawing and photography.

A fun, three-day project.

I have always loved the Spanish Mission style architecture of New Regent Street. The pastel green, yellow and blue façades are like the icing on the cake of central Christchurch. The street was opened on 1st April 1932. Happy 80th birthday, New Regent Street.

The street suffered some damage during Canterbury’s recent earthquakes but has survived remarkably well. It is, however, in the city’s no-go Red Zone. There are plans to restore the street and to try and reopen it by Christmas 2012.