Monday 25th Jan 2010
Alan Painting 2, Well I am currently struggling with the ear! Already scraped it back once, and redone it. It now looks he has got a cauliflower ear and will probably do it again. He is also complaining of Sigmund Freud syndrome, that is I have given him a receding hairline! So that needs to be rectified.
What I want to know is how do you paint hair that makes you want to run your fingers through it? I have been looking at some Chuck Close Portraits, which is a bad thing to do really, as the detail in his work is absolutely staggering and must take years of practice. I want to be able to paint like that now!!! Which I also say” in my dreams!”
Well so far I have continued to fill in the canvas. I have tweaked the eyes a bit more, as they were too green. He has a grey green blue colour, which I am finding hard to duplicate. The jacket has also been painted in.
The background has also been worked and I like how Alan stands out on the canvas.
I have noticed that his nose is a bit more rounded than it is naturally on the end. So I will adjust that more. Also, I will work more into the beard and skin tone and hopefully it will be finished soon.
I am also painting another picture at college, as well as Alan 1 at home. I have decided upon another pose of Alan, this time he is lying down on a bed of Cushions, he was watching TV at the time, and I wanted him to forget that I was sitting there with a camera.
This Picture I have called Alan 2. I have started with a rough outline of Alan’s head, and I have started with the background first. The background is chocolate brown cushions, one long fur type and the other a satin type fabric. I have found getting the texture of fur challenging
I have then started to paint in the face, and so far I think the face colouring is right, but it looks a little flat to me. It is still early days, and also I have monged up the ear, and have since scraped that back.
FA22 – This module I have decided to continue with portrait painting, in oils. It is what I am interested in and is the reason why I started my fine art degree. I have outlined on my learning plan, to do a series of portraits using one subject, my husband Alan. I will try and focus on the portrait, looking at the style, surroundings and light, as I will also work from photographs.
I have taken on board the comments from my last module and will focus more on family and friends, as I found my last module to generalised and not specific enough. I will focus on technical accuracy of my portraits, as well as develop my painting skill. I will continue to use large canvases for my work and include sketches.
My current influences are Tai Shan Schierenberg, Euan Euglow, Lucian Freud Paula Rego, Simon Davis, and Jenny Saville. By researching into and collecting images of these artists I find I am influenced by the techniques they each have and hence developing my own unique style.
We have our Gallery exhibition in March and I have chosen to do three studies of my husband for this. There is only 7 weeks until the exhibition, and I feeling slightly panicky about the whole thing as I have to also work full time as well, so it is busy busy busy!!
I have started on a portrait of my Husband Alan, I have considered various poses and opted for a pose that show’s light in his features, and not a traditional front sitting portrait.
My progress so far: see picture
I am working in oils; the canvas is 80 x110 cm. The shot was taken of him going down the stairs, and pausing on the stairs to the front door in my home. The difficulties I have found so far is getting the right texture for his hair and beard. I have so far put a lot of time into the hair and I am now working into the beard, as you can see it is not quite right. It is all still a work in progress.
