Dear me,
I am writing to you to tell you about this art assignment we had to make. We had to paint two self-portraits in the style of vincent van Gogh. Each self-portrait had to express a specific feeling, these feelings had to be opposite of each other. The subject of these art lessons is the question, who am I? Because of this question, I started doubting about who I am, and what I meant in this huge world. I hope, I will get a better perspective of myself after finishing this assignment and the lessons are over.

We had about four lessons to finish our paintings. In each lesson we had to paint a different part of the paintings. We started with the background, which I think was the easiest part of the painting. After finishing the background, we had to paint the clothes. These had to be coloured with complementary colours. The last two lessons we had to paint the face including the hair. These two lessons were the hardest for my opinion. The face had to look realistic, which offers a lot of work for all the details. I wanted to symbolise the feelings in my eyes. I didn't had enough time to put such a kind of details on the self-portraits.

At the end of my letter you can see a photograph of the paintings. On the left you can see the self-portraits which symbolises the negative one. This portait should express the negative feelings like anger, disappointment, sadness and confusion. While painting this self-portrait i imagined the negative feelings I have felt. I didn't finf it that hard because my parents divorced a few years ago. The background of the painting is dark, so a negative feeling would be expressed. The colours I used were dark red, dark blue, black, brown and purple. I tried to imitate the characteristics of van Gogh's paintings, like painting with brushstrokes and not mixing the paint. For my clothes I used complementary colours, this is also a characteristic of van Gogh's paintings. Teardrops are rolling down my cheek on the painting. You may think there is something strange at my cheek on the photo, but this is the wet paint which is shining because of the light. The thing I would change about my self-portrait are the shadows. These aren't really visible. Personally, I think the negative painting is better than the positive one.

On the right photograph you can see the self-portrait which symbolises the positive one. I tried to express pure happiness in this self-portrait. The background is coloured with colours, which I think define happiness. Colours such as yellow, orange and red. The colours are brighter than the negative self-portrait. Also the colours of the T-shirt I coloured with complementary colours, although they should have been darker. If I had more time, I would change my face because I don't think my face expresses happiness. My smile is unrealistic and on the photo it looks like my face has no chin. This may come because you don't see shadows on the photograph. The characteristic of van Gogh is really clear in the background.

I hope that after these lessons, we know more about each other. I really want to get to know you better.

Lots of love,
your mind.