Leah

It’s been a while since I posted stuff, I know I probably should post more often, particularly because there is older work of mine that I think would be interesting to discuss, not least to show that I have improved a little. 😉 The problem is that life has been full of transitioning stuff lately, and I react very slowly to changes because I get tired easily/de-motivated easily, and lazy too.

My internet friend Leah (photo of my laptop screen, haha)

I saw this photo on my FB friend Leah’s profile, and I felt that it had lots of expression in it. It made me want to paint it. Unfortunately, my skills with a brush are just not as good as my skills as a pen. Partly because I find it hard to find time to sit down and really concentrate on what I am doing. On the other hand, I find working with pens and paper much more intuitive. I think I need to practice more with my paints. So I bought some acrylic paint paper to try and get some quick sketches in. I’d like to work on the way I value colours as well. I read a blog somewhere about understanding the value of the colours, rather than the chroma. That is to say, understanding how much each colour contributes to light and dark to produce depth, which is something I would like to pursue further.

Anyway, Leah said yes to letting me use her photo as a reference, and I know, I know, people say you shouldn’t paint from photos, but I think if you have no access to a live model (who lives on the other side of the Atlantic, or another friend of mine just does not have the time at the moment) as your muse, then photos are good reference material.

I am a great fan of working until I am happy with the piece. Unfortunately, I think there are a few problems with the final product, which I will discuss as I take you through my WIP.

Here is part 1. I used a sap green (from a WHSmith acrylics set) to setup the face. So far so good, I think. My major problem is normally proportion (or stopping my lines from looking like /// instead of ||||), but in this case, proportion looks ok.

Filling in the colours

Part 2. This bit looks ok. Not quite the colour I want, as this is too yellow. However, I thought I would try and fix it later.

AGH WHAT HAVE I DONE

Part 3. a.k.a: disaster. or paint mush. I think I pushed the colours waaayyy too far. I kept working at it with red and blue on either side, as you can see. The problem was that the colours lost their purity (inevitable, I suppose), and I ended up with a very strange muddy looking colour. Not nice at all. I did not really document what happened between part 2. and 3. because of two things: I was baking bread for the first time whilst starting this painting, and I was really unhappy with what I was doing. I did ok on the bottom part of the face though, and I like the eyes. But the face is a mess. I added the yellow streaks under the face as an afterthought, and realised that it made Leah’s face look like a lightbulb.

I TRIED TO FIX IT. but no.

Part 4. I tried to fix the colours, and waited for the first layer to dry before trying afresh. No mojo. No go. UGH. so so so so angry with myself at this moment. Also, I need more practice with using colours as I normally use black ink on white paper, my favourite.

I remembered one thing that I loved about my recent visit to the Cortauld Gallery at Somerset House, Strand. I had gone with my aunt, and we got half price (Monday!!) to see Picasso’s gallery of early works. (It was so hard to believe that he was so productive and only 19 years old..) What I remembered was this: I liked the way that Picasso outlined some of his stuff with a bold, dark outline.

As some of you might know, I am well equipped with an arsenal of Winsor and Newton drawing inks. I have quite a few colours, including my coveted gold, silver and diamond (to celebrate the diamond jubilee!), but my favourite has always been black. Simple india ink. lovely.

Here is the final result:

hm.

She still looks like a lightbulb head. (Sorry Leah!!) But I do like how her features are more defined now, and I have tried to highlight what I feel are her best features: her eyes! I don’t think that this portrait reflects Leah very well. I feel that it should be more dramatic, and more lively and colourful. I will try again some other time.