Day 98 - Fauvism?!

Today I spent a couple more hours trying to straighten this portrait gone wrong.  I was shaving off 1/8" at a time..lowering an eyebrow, an eye, shortening the chin....getting more frustrated by the second.   I actually am fairly pleased with her until I look at some practiced portrait painter or figure painting.  I just started portrait/figure painting less than a year ago.  Hmm February I think!

Love the way the hands turned out!!

And doing it with acrylics can be SO frustrating. I fixed the drying out of acrylics part by buying one of those sealable pallettes...its fantastic.  The paint just stays wet forever.

The completed portrait!! Ho Hum!

However I thought I was getting too fussy with my painting because I could keep the colors from drying out...just can't make me happy!! :)

Scroll down to see what I decided to let fly today!! And it was actually fun...didn't give me a headache.

Yesterday there was  a big discussion during break about what makes a great memorable artist as opposed to a competent good artist....has nothing to do with selling but making art that is different.  Something novel...not run of the mill.  So I set a challenge after completing this portrait.  Maybe it was a quest after I listened to Elizabeth Gilbert on Super Soul Sunday?!

Fauve Erica*

I got out a piece of canvas board...cheap stuff..no expectations and made two rules for this second go round.  NO using flesh colors and I could only use large hog bristle brushes...hard to get too ticky picky with those large hog hair brushes.  Funny thing.  People are liking this like crazy on instagram...including a gallery...HUH!! Maybe playing is the way to go??

The background...I scraped the paint off the palette with a pallette knite scraping it on the board. Then I sprayed it down with a spray bottle so it could run.

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   *Fauvism is the style of les Fauves (French for "the wild beasts"), a loose group of early twentieth-century Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. From Google!
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3. Here's a link to more about Fauvism if you want to read about it! Try it - it's fun!!

Day 64 - Erica again!

Alex

Continuing to work on refining the painting I call Alex though it's really Erica. Hope you are not bored with her yet because her sirens call continues.

Art guild meeting tonite and am hoping I leave her further refinement till tomorrow.

I stayed up til about 1 am last nite working on her. Never a good idea at my age. Gone are the days when I could stay up late at nite and get up and go in the morning.  No more 1 am painting!! At least til next time. :)


So exactly what did I do to her? Lightened the shadows on her. Refined her upper arm, shoulder and the breast. Worked on the hand and fabric. Looking better but still not there.  Her head should actually be tilting away from the viewer to her left...mine does not tilt enough.  More needs to come off her upper arm, her shoulder and her back.  Tomorrow!!