This week was the first week of my second year long art course. Let’s Face It focuses on, as the title implies, drawing and painting the human face. Since I draw humans or human-like characters so much, it seemed like the perfect course for me to develop my skills and improve my abilities. Life Book kicked off with a bang with lots of lessons in quick succession. Similarly Let’s Face also started with two exercises for the first lesson, both taken by the course organiser, Kara Bullock, whose WordPress blog I follow.
The first exercise was about painting from a photograph, not in an attempt at precise verisimilitude but as scaffolding for constructing a work of art that resembles the angles and proportions of the original image. Working from photographs is not something that I do. I sometimes refer to images just to fix in my head a particular feature, such as what a hand holding an object looks like or what colour the “eyebrow” feathers of a rockhopper penguin are, but I don’t work with that photograph underpinning my drawing or painting. Partly this is because I simply enjoy working from my imagination but it is also because I imagine that I would experience a creative block if what was emerging on the paper did not resemble the photographic image. I prefer having nothing to compare to for fear of failure essentially. Having determined that I am going to strive to stop fearing failure, therefore, this was a welcome exercise in testing my resolve.
A random google turned up a front facing portrait of a young woman that I thought would make the good foundation for a painting. I liked the soft colours, the warm skin tones, and the dark hair piled around the face. I knew that a more painterly approach was going to be time consuming and necessitated working on the painting for longer chunks of time than I am used to devoting to a piece in one go. I, therefore, worked on this painting late at night and I was very glad I did so because it took me much, much longer than I usually work in one sitting. That in itself was an interesting learning experience.
I can see lots of shortcomings in this painting: the proportions of the head are a bit awry, the skin tones are not as blended in some areas as in others, the mouth is a bit too small and pinched, and I have lost the youthfulness of the subject of the photograph. However, there are elements that I really like such as the choppy but neutral background, the colour of the lips and the rendering of the eyes. Considering I used to be entirely inept at painting not so long ago, I can see from this painting how far I have come. I can also see how far I still have to go with my painting skills but that is the point in doing these art courses after all.
Whatever the flaws (and I’m not educated enough about visual art to really know), something emotional comes through strongly.
Thank you very much, Ellen. It’s the technical gubbins where I see all the flaws. I do think I translated the feeling of the photograph into my painting and that is largely because the eyes are actually successful.
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Wow Laura, this is great 🙂
Thank you, Alison. You are too kind.
Not at all x
It is a great painting Laura, and as Ellen says, you’ve managed to capture something quite emotional in the young lass’s face 🙂
Thank you very much! It’s not bad as a starting point goes. Lots of room for improvement though.
It’s a very good starting point Laura 🙂 I think painting faces is one of the hardest of things to attempt, it’s very difficult to capture the 3d nature of a face, and likewise with emotions!
Indeed. I am hoping to learn how to make the faces I draw much more expressive and emotive.
I think it is a great painting too and very expressive!
Thank you very much. That’s very kind of you.
She’s beautiful! I love how expressive her eyes are. She tells a story. Great job at painting her.
Thank you very much, Christina. I appreciate the encouragement.
Aww this is such a great portrait Laura. She is beautiful and there is this mysterious, calm and intelligent nature in her especially in her eyes.
Thank you very much! I really appreciate your feedback and encouragement.
I like this Laura, there’s a certain individual style that’s coming through. All the colours work well together. ☺️👌
Thank you very much, Jean!