Abstract

Portrait painting has a long history and is a type of painting that many artists are fond of. In the very beginning, people started to paint people’s faces as the focus. It has developed into many different styles. There are also many theories and methods that discuss portrait painting. Portrait painting not only depicts people’s appearance, they also contain their function and the purpose of memorizing people.

This study focuses on portrait painting, limiting it on the work that concentrates on depicting certain facial appearance and certain subject. This study first discusses the development of portrait painting in the West and the East, comparing their function and the development of its forms and styles. Both of them started with depicting an abstract human figure, then because of its function or religious purpose, they developed into painting some certain people’s faces, including some saints from the Bible for memorial purposes, some former clergy members, such as Bishops, Cardinals and the Pope and for individual people. This study also investigates cosplay and appropriation as examples of portraits.

As for the presentation of paintings, I talk about their decoration, appropriation and cosplay. I added a strong decorative style in my work to emphasize my style. As for the appropriation and cosplay methods, I borrowed some classical stories or my own interpretation that I created for my painting topics, trying to convey my thoughts and interests to the audience. I also go in depth about the expression, materials and tools I use for my paintings.

Finally, in the conclusion of my analysis, I categorized my work into original portrait paintings, the painting that are based on their function, especially for artistic purposes and the painting that are based on traditional text and cosplay. This study combines the previous theories and experiments and the elements, patterns and the depiction of the human figure, forming an artistic presentation that can connect the past and the present day.