Art - Comparison of Phung's and Shumate's Self Portraits

Shumate’s portrait however has a very smooth and almost glassy feel to it. He used Photoshop and Painter to digitally paint his self portrait. He has used warm glowing colours on top of neutrals, which makes the portrait feel like there is movement and gesture in it, compared to Phung’s, which is very still. Shumate’s painting is done in a very modern-day style, and he has not been afraid to experiment in making the figure very shiny looking and using exaggerated colours.

In Phung’s portrait the subject appears to be standing, relaxed, with his arms crossed and a blanket or cloak wrapped around him. The sitter does not seem to have any relationship with the background, he is just standing in front of a wall or surface.

He is not sitting on anything or leaning on the wall, it does not seem to serve any important purpose.

Shumate’s portrayal of himself is the opposite though. Yes, it is still a good likeness of him, but it is a bit exaggerated and a little like a caricature. His portrait serves the purpose of informing the viewer about himself, his age, where he studies, where he lives and a bit about his art interests and work. Somewhat directly, and somewhat indirectly he also lets on that he has a sense of humour. He ends his paragraph about him by light-heartedly saying “And no… I am not usually this shiny.” The very fact that he has painted himself wearing an Elmo shirt shows the viewer that he has a funny side, which means that he thinks a sense of humour is an important part about him. Most of Shumate’s art is done digitally, which is probably why he also painted his self-representation digitally. Digital images can be painted in a much bigger range of colours than what ordinary paints offer, and tiny details are easier to paint. The artist used that to his advantage to get a much cleaner and sharper, more vibrant feeling to his painting. His use of bright colours and asymmetry add to the lively, funny personality he wanted to portray about himself.

and shape to define the detail, and sudden changes in tone add form to the portrait. There is some symmetry to the figure. He is viewed straight on and his head and shoulders balance evenly, compared with Shumate’s portrait where the figure is viewed slightly from the side and the featu

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