Thursday, September 23, 2010

Behind women's eyes VI - step I... Pushing my luck!

I couldn't resist this dramatic face (thanks to Val my model) before switching to another series...


... this could be my path to contemporary portraiture that's got teeth... or my path to oblivion! Evidently, I'm not taking myself too seriously with this series. In a way, I'm trying to lay the foundation for more abstract patterns within the confines of the human face and the body. So far, I've created a feeling of solidity with my use of darks and high contrasts. In the future, I'd like to toggle between blurriness/elusiveness and solidity within the same painting...

Note: I had to revisit my first attempt realizing that working in a narrow studio has its limitations. I required several attempts in the kitchen to duplicate the general proportions of the face in my reference photo. I don't seem to have this problem as much while sketching (the drawing is the same size as what I see)...

Note to self: "The face at an angle is definitely a challenge for me... measuring may be unavoidable since my eye is always 1/4-1/2 " off  with larger formats... and this can be a killer in portraiture!"

Subnote to self: "The way I went about this one was like trying to fit a round peg in a square hole... something I don't want to repeat!"

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