Self portrait in acrylic

Hey, not much has happened in the past week. I forced myself to finish my self portrait, which I had to take a step back and say 'no more'. I didn't blend much after my last blog post, I just added a couple of lighter washes to lighten the whole thing (as the shadows were too dark), and added some different colours and strokes to my hair. The picture below looks lighter than it does in real life, and I've managed to give myself a massive double chin!!


Self portrait, 5 x 7" acrylic on canvas paper



Reference photo, taken about 8 years ago

 I'm practising on my tablet every weekday now, I take it into work and on my half hour lunch break I just practise. On the below I'm using a photo I've taken of a statue. At first I was trying to block in areas of colour like one of the techniques I've learned in Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain by Betty Edwards, but then I realised I was struggling to find the edges of the statue, so I've drawn some line art to help:

In regards to the tasks I set myself for accountability last week let's see what did & didn't do:

Finish my self portrait - done
Actively participate in an active art forum - not done, I had a lot going on last week
Critique at least one piece of work - not done for same reasons above, although I feel this is a bigger priority than the task above
Try to promote my blog at least once - done, but not how I intended, I cheated and posted it to Twitter, I feel like I should post it on an art forum
Start a graphic design piece for my portfolio - not done

My tasks for this week will be to do the ones above I didn't do last week. Also if anyone knows how I  manage to duplicate my blog post please let me know!

Moving on - job opportunities, further education, and practice

Since finishing Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain I haven't completed many new works of note.

It's been easy for the first blog posts for this blog, all I have done is post my previous work from years gone by. However to keep this blog a regular feature I now need to produce more art in a shorter time frame. Ideal for practising, but hard to do when I have a full time job, a house to keep, and also like to fit in other leisurely activities (keeping fit, watching films, etc). It doesn't leave much time for creativity.

I was very nearly ready to give this up again when an excellent job opportunity came up in my area; a trainee baker. I worked in a bakery when I lived in Australia, and I hugely enjoyed it. However this opportunity wasn't meant to be, as I didn't get the job. Everything for a reason, as my mum says...

In my first post I mentioned about taking a university course. My views on this haven't changed, I still want to take a degree in fine art, but now the issue is money, as I'm saving for a house. I think I will leave it a few more months and see what I want to do then. My work situation seems to be taking a turn for the better, I won't mention any more than that for now, but depending on how things go will determine whether I go ahead with the university course.

In regards to practising I haven't done much since finishing Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain, and you know what? I have absolutely no excuse for it. I've carried on with CTRL+ Paint, but I've only covered 2 videos, imagining things & Expressiveness in Drawing. Below are a few of my very quick sketches:



Imagining

Man in hat, exaggerating the beard and drawing a different hat, looks a bit like Gandalf!



Man in hat, exaggerating the hat but diminishing the eyes

 

James (my partner), exaggerating his hair & sideburns, diminishing his jaw

James, normal



James, exaggerating his nose, diminishing all other features

Since drawing the above I popped into my local stationery store and noticed they were selling a beginners artist paint set. In a near little foldaway case is an artist pad with 4 sheets of canvas 'paper', 6 acrylic paints, brush, pencil, eraser, sharpener and pallet, all for the affordable price of £4



Well loved

I have 3 ideas for my 4 sheets of paper: a landscape picture (Uluru), a self portrait and an F1 car. I'm not sure what to do for my fourth piece. I have already completed my landscape painting, my canvas is too small at 5 x 7", at least for any detailed work. I enjoy painting. Painting block colours and working out nearly everything to do with drawing is quicker than my tablet (but this is due to lack of practice in any medium). Painting and trying to blend colours with acrylics is much harder and takes a lot longer, I find rendering on my tablet much easier. Anyhow, below is my painting of Uluru, aka Ayres Rock, Australia. It only took an hour, and it was just so I could practice painting as I've never painted before. I think my painting sucks, but every single person I have shown has said it's good, even my mum who is my next harshest critic after myself:



Uluru, 5 x 7"acrylic on canvas paper

I'm currently working on a self portrait painting, same spec as above. I really am finding it difficult, but it's a good learning curve. When I paint the F1 car next I'm going to paint using a different technique. I enjoyed painting the above so much that I've bought more paint, more brushes and an actual canvas. I have an idea for that, but it's hard to explain.

On this blog post I want to try and make myself more accountable for my art, so I will propose the following tasks for myself for the week ahead:
Finish my self portrait.
Actively participate in an active art forum.
Critique at least one piece of work.
Try to promote my blog at least once.
Start a graphic design piece to add to my portfolio.

Also my local cinema is screening some interesting shows in the coming months, art at the Vatican, and Van Gogh's work. I may have to book myself a ticket!

PS I keep posting a comment which is a duplicate of my blog post and I have no idea how to remove it!

Finishing Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain

I finished the book on 2nd January 2015. The last challenge was to draw the self portrait again, but using the techniques learned throughout the book. While I still have a lot to learn you can see a drastic improvement.

I also learned how to draw in a one-point perspective and a two-point perspective.

It took me about 3 months to complete the book, I worked very slowly through it, and probably would've taken longer if the library hadn't asked for the book back!

I'm not too sure what to do now I've completed the book, I'd like to do more self portraits, and restart CTRL+ Paint, although I don't have many plans for personal projects yet. I'm still deciding whether to start a university course in the fine arts as I'm saving for a mortgagee. I don't know if the course I want to do will be beneficial, as it's distance learning, and I don't think it will yield the same contacts in the design industry than if I went to a bricks-and-mortar university.



One point perspective

Two point perspective



Self portrait



Comparison of self portraits. Left: drawing before reading the book. Right: after reading the book, 3 months later

Improving on Drawing On The Right Side Of The Brain

Diligently working through the book I've learned some important techniques such as adding shadows and highlights, drawing negative spaces, and drawing using a One. Below you can see how I put these into practise.

Drawing a chair using negative spaces

Foreshortened hand drawing using a viewfinder

Left: drawing using negative spaces. Right: upside-down drawing of foreshortened limbs

Mme. Pierre Gautreau, 1883