And now, some art....

Merryl is progressing at a glacial rate.  I am so strung out with life at present I barely give her the time of day

Over the last two weeks we have worked on some timed, small tonal studies during our portraiture class which has been so much fun - although I was such a cranky pants last class one would NOT think this is so (sorry Don and my lovely arty friends)!!

Taped up and ready to start.  We used a large brush, burnt umber and white and slapped, ha!, delicately/confidently/expertly applied the paint in generous blocks of tone.

10 minutes in, a likeness is beginning to appear.  Viv has had a breakdown beside me by this time (I saved mine for a later lesson and mine was non art motivated methinks).

30 minutes in and 'brushes down'.

One hour each and a lot more paint - aaaargh and much more tuition and assistance and demonstration from the ever patient and generous Don.  I need to adjust the nose and eyes of the monklike fellow at bottom before next lesson. Hopefully I am able to find time instead of just rocketing around in a state of perpetual anxiety and unease as I have been of late.  I mostly feel like a crazed squirrel at present.

Hope all is well with you.  xxx

Studio Tour 2 and what's on my easel.

Life has changed quite suddenly and significantly for Jeff and I since my last, long ago post.  My brother and his two little boys have moved in so we've packed and cleaned a house that sold and made space here in our home for the boys.  They live in the rooms off my studio and having new demands on my time and having someone living so close to the studio has changed how I do things a bit.  I'm finding my feet again though and my health has coped really well with the changes which is great.

So, back to where I left off.....

The main wall of my studio which doubles as both display and storage for my art.  Yes my studio is YELLOW!!  Oh so yellow.

During Open Studio's the children's playroom doubles up as my gallery space and we bring tables in for Aannsha's felt and any textile art made by my sister and I.  This room is right next to my studio and joined by an open arch so it flows quite nicely as a viewing space.

As for what is on my easel.....I am studying portraiture at present and continue to be amazed that I quite enjoy it!  I am currently painting a young Merryl Streep in the French Lieutenant's Woman. 

I prepped the canvas in a warm tone and then drew a very rough image on with charcoal.  I was less than happy with this and it sent me into a state of anxiety.  My homework was to complete a detailed drawing to then paint over.  I became so anxious and scared to draw that I threw out my class instructions (sorry Don!) and used the painting technique I use when painting animals....block in large shapes with a big brush and focus on tones.  I rubbed out most of the charcoal and then just went at it with the paint.

I had previously mixed up a tonal run of colour using Burnt Umber and white and used that to just get some paint on the canvas.  I was in such a tizz that I ran out of paint and just kept stretching it across the canvas as best I could.  It NEVER occurred to me to mix more.  What a dill.  As you can see this is very rough and was done very quickly.

 

Starting to refine the image.  Looking at the photograph I see some hard edges and splotchy bits of paint that need attending to.  A lot more work needs to be done to refine and accurately depict the face and hand but I'll get there. She doesn't really look right at present.  I may also change the waterline in the background and move it up or down a bit.  Not sure about that. 

Here is the paint run that I used to work on this tonal underpainting.  I used Burnt Umber for my dark and Tinting white with a trace of the umber for my lightest light. I made a value scale from the two and worked from this.

Here is an example of a portraiture palette I had set up for another exercise.  The image has rotated strangely and I use this with the colours running down from dark to light on the bottom (rotate left 90' in your mind!).  First is a cool run of colours, then bronzes and then warm.  Unfortunately these colours are not quite right for this current portrait so I'll have to work out how to mix the right colours to match the skin tones and hair for this portrait.

I'm off to work on this portrait in class tomorrow so will photograph my progress and post it for you now that I've come back to blogging.  Can't wait to see what the other girls in my class have done. There was some great work last week - I of course am dragging along behind everyone!

Stages of a Portrait. Part 4

Here it is, the finished product. I think.... I know I'll come back to it over time and tweek it.  A little line here and there can make all the difference.

Stages of a portrait. Part 2

Day two of working on my portrait for homework.  I toughened up this morning and made a start on my expensive artists paper instead of fluffing around on ordinary (and cheap) bond paper.  Can't play it safe forever!  Here is my work space on the table with tools of the trade, including my brand new glasses which might help me see what I'm doing a bit more clearly!  I use a masonite board on the table as my work surface. It provides a smooth, clean support to work on.

Here is a close up of what I've achieved so far today. It's taken a few hours as I've been building up layers and even gazing at things with a microscope to see the detail in them.  There is obviously still a lot to do and much refining to occur. I'm not particularly happy with the 'spider leg' eyelashes I've created but it's too hard to rub them out.  I haven't done any blending either so the face shading is very rudimentary.  This is on the agenda for tomorrow or later tonight if the whim takes me.  Feel free to click on the image, I think it makes it bigger.

Stages of a portrait. Part 1

As mentioned in an earlier post, we've started our portraiture unit in my art class.  This week we are combining all of the features studied to do our first complete portrait.   We are working from a photograph of a child (daughter of course founder) for this exercise.

From this photograph we work in stages to develop our portrait.  After much measuring, squinting, peering, comparing and general staring, you come up with the following odd collection of lines that make up the 'bones' of the image.

All of the lines and shapes revolve around a central axis which runs vertically through the head. This is not traced from the photograph. I have used measurements, my eye and free drawing to create this framework to work from. The nose and lips have been created using construction drawing (where you use shapes to represent areas).  Once happy with this you do this again on paper and begin to fill in more details to create the outlines of shapes, where shading and highlights occur etc.

I am really quite happy with this and am surprised by the likeness I've been able to achieve. This image is transferred onto good quality artists paper and the fun or stress begins!  I was a bit tired today and rather scared about putting pencil to paper so I have started by doing a 'draft' on plain photocopy paper. I've only done the hair so far.

I learned quite a bit doing a rough practice first, discovering how the angle of the pencil effects the quality of the line being produced etc.  I'm not entirely happy with some sections of hair and will have a play around with them to see how I can improve upon them before putting my pencil to the good paper for my final piece.  I think I'll complete each stage of the image in draft form before moving onto my final piece. It means I have to do the picture twice but perhaps I'll learn twice as much!  Check in over the next few days and see how I am going.