New Portraits
Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:49:00 +0000
I've created a new portraits section on my website and started updating it with some of my recent JKPP portraits. It's such a motivating group I've really been learning new ways to paint and draw and although I've drawn many pencil portraits in the past I used to lack the confidence to paint portraits. Now I can't wait to try out a new technique on a new face. Thanks again Julia!
I've also joined a new group with similar ideals, called Doodle Face. Even more faces to have a go at!
My website home page shows a random selection of images - sometimes I just can't stop refreshing the screen to see what combination comes up next!
Here are a few of my latest favourites:
The Happy Painter - Donna
I'm a huge fan of Donna's painting style, she is so free and expressive with her watercolours, I would love to learn that skill. I started this portrait with the hope of emulating some of Donna's style and capturing some of her energy and happy spirit. But my initial attempt was failing to capture any likeness.
So, I dampened the face area and started again with a more accurate drawing (in my initial attempt I'd begun with watercolour without any drawing lines). I then used Gouache to build up face. I've had some lovely comments on Flickr about the texture of the skin - but I wasn't really thinking about it's texture, I was just trying to get the right colours and tones in the right places - and it seemed to work quite well. Although this isn't a perfect likeness, it's quite close and I'm pretty happy with it as a painting.
What Donna said - "Oh yeah! The eyes, the eyes have it! And I am jealous of the way you do noses and skin!!! Yeehaw. I LOVE IT!"
Fairsquare - Sean Cronin
Sean's drawings are stunning, he's done many beautiful portraits for JKPP including a great one of me which I posted in my last blog - it's one of my favourites and really captures my frowning stare!
After my experiments with Gouache on Watercolour paper I thought I'd have a go with some Acrylic paper I've had for years but never use. I drew a quick pencil stetch to begin with and then used a combination or watercolour and acrylics to loosely sketch in the colours and tones. Although this isn't as 'finished' as it could be I really like the fresh and loose feel of the painting, so I decided to stop before loosing that.
As soon as I'd taken a photo of the portrait it was much easier to see where i'd gone wrong with the likeness, but nevermind! I think I captured Sean's sparkly eyes and slightly cheeky smile at least.
What Sean said - "Franny, you've got me! I'm dead chuffed! This is great. Thank you so much - love this."
Devon Lawrence
Devon is the only person so far who has chosen to tackle a portrait of me at an early age. His drawing is so beautiful and delicate, it's really lovely. Devon also has a fantastic set of photo references to choose from.
In attempt to learn from previous mistakes I tried to draw a more accurate pencil sketch before starting to paint this. Unfortunately my impatience kicked in and I didn't entirely perfect the likeness before diving in with the watercolour. In this painting I've tried to keep my washes large and fresh, and avoid having to rework them too much. I'm fairly happy with the results even though it did start to get a bit overworked in places. I also had to use a little bit of white watercolour in places to pick out the highlights - I would have preferred to have managed to keep the white paper showing for these, but I wasn't careful enough.
What Devon said - "Beautiful work Franny!"
Julia Kay's Portrait Party
Thu, 27 May 2010 22:48:00 +0000
A month ago today I stumbled across a new group on Flickr -
Julia Kay's Portrait Party. The group's rules are simple, join the group and draw or paint portraits of other artists and invite other artists to draw you!
I’ve always wanted to paint portraits, but it’s not always easy to find the sitters in the ‘real world’. So this is a great pool of resource – not only photographic, but also for the inspiration of seeing everyone else's style and technique.
It’s such a motivation to have the encouragement and support of a thriving group of diverse artists like this!
In the last few weeks I’ve painted and drawn in totally new ways than I’m used to. And now that I’ve added my photos to the pool it’s a whole new joy to see the amazing and creative versions of me.
Anne Watkins summed it up beautifully -
waking up to find new portraits of herself was like finding love notes in a bottle – treasures flung across the unknown – from people she could not hear or touch, only see and imagine.
Here are just a few of some of my favourite portraits, some of the portraits I've done, and some of the fab portraits of me!
1.
Andrew Mirzoian by
Mariah O'Neill2.
Gila Rayberg by
Jennifer Lawson3.
Margaux B by
R K Schlueter4.
Peter Vanayk by
me5.
NC Mallory by
me6.
Me by
NC Mallory7.
Wally Torta by
me8.
NC Mallory by
Wally Torta9.
Me by
Sean Cronin10.
Sean Cronin by
Timothy SchorreTo see more of the portraits or join the party go
hereTo check out Julia's great photostream go
hereIt was so difficult to choose just a few favourites that I'll be posting more soon!
V&A Fabrics
Sun, 02 May 2010 17:47:00 +0000
A few weeks ago I went along to the Victoria and Albert's Quilt Exhibition - Quilts 1700-2010 .
It's a great exhibition with some beautiful quilts, some of my favourites were the ones with amazing appliqued people, trees and animals. I'll have to scan my photos to show some examples...
Anyway, as part of the exhibition's merchandising they've collaborated with Liberty and re-created a number of the original fabrics from the quilts. With beautiful designs dating from 1700+ I just couldn't resist. I haven't done any patchwork for a few years now, but I hope I'll have some time this year to put some of these lovely fabrics to use!
1.
India Flower (Blue), 2.
Seaweed, 3.
Palm Tree (Blue), 4.
Petals, 5.
Stripes, 6.
Seed Head (Blue), 7.
Rose, 8.
Leaf (Brown), 9.
Shells