I thought so much about the old masters as I was drawing and painting my self for this project. I saw what kept Van Gogh drawing and painting himself 26 times, he wanted to get it right! Not only that his model was always available and worked long hours for free!
Creating a likeness is like chasing elusive butterflies, difficult to capture! I want it to be creative, to capture the feel of the person. It’s not a photograph or hyper-realism but an illusion.
They think it took DaVinci 16 years to paint the Mona Lisa and 12 of those on the lips alone, or that is the speculation. They do know it was the last 16 years of his life that he worked on it. I can imagine him pushing a little paint around every time he walked by the canvas saying …awe not quite there, a little more here.
You would think that a face you have looked at your whole life would be easy but I think that only makes it more difficult. You look but do you see? I also learned that you want to work from a good photo and not a bad selfie. Life lessons…
Self-Portrait
By Leada Wood copyright
Inktense and watercolor
Self-Portrait
By Leada Wood copyright
Acrylic
Final version? Who knows? The paint is still on my palette so there is a chance of another dab here or there or I may say enough and try it again another day.
It’s the challenge that keeps me going back in to see if I can make it better, to satisfy that’s the best I can do…and hopefully it will resemble me just a little.
Not there yet!
Not quite there
Who is this person coming from the paint?
Building up the features and readjusting.
Laying in features
Creating the mask. There wasn’t a drawing except with paint and I didn’t get the first bit of mapping in, but this is where I paint in the flesh tones using burnt umber, cadmium orange and white. Not colors I would ever choose to do a portrait but that was part of the challenge. Sepia tones are not the easiest to work with for skin. I usually use red, yellow, blue and white for flesh tones.
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