Capturing the elusive likeness

Some days things just come together and you actually pull off what you set out to do. I haven't painted for a couple of days and was feeling rusty this morning as I searched through my archive of saved reference photos for someone to paint. I have been a bit out of sorts the past week or so, and haven't been doing much, truth be told, besides binging Netflix and taking care of a few tasks for my upcoming teaching stint at UCLA. Oh, and I shipped out three portraits, all of which sold on Etsy this week after nearly nine months of no sales, so that was massively cheering.

Anyway, after exercise and breakfast, I decided today was a good day to paint, but I couldn't settle on who or how. Watercolor? Acrylics? Size? Face only or go for a scene? Then I remembered that I had asked friend Kirsti to ferret out some photos for me of my cousin Kirsten, a truly elusive subject when it comes to digital records. I myself have precious few photos of her, and most date back to childhood or early 20s. But people around Kirsti seem to get their picture taken rather frequently, so I knew she'd have at least a few (even though she is strictly forbidden to post them on social media by said cousin), and sure enough, she came through for me.

I started this portrait in some doubt that I could catch an accurate likeness: Kirsten has distinctive features, but typically remains completely unadorned by eye makeup, jewelry, and fancy hairstyles, all the accoutrements that allow one to fudge a likeness by accentuating them, so I was nervous. But as I said earlier, some days serendipity is in your favor, and two and a half hours later, I had a portrait I felt confident anyone could recognize. The nose is a tiny bit more delicate than in reality (that happens to me a lot in acrylic), but is faithful as to shape. I also had big fun using one of my abstract backgrounds and incorporating all the background colors into the image itself.

I hope Kirsten agrees that I "caught" her, and also doesn't mind that she will be plastered all over social media today, because we artists are an egotistical pack and want to get all the acknowledgment from our public that we can, given that we do all our labor in splendid isolation!

"Kirsten"—pencil, acrylic paints, stencil, and a tiny bit of brown Stabilo on Fluid 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.

Just for fun

Today I decided to do a semi-loose watercolor of someone, and the winner (or loser?) was the artist Kara Bullock, who runs the school from which I am taking the Let's Face It 2022 class (among others—also discovered my big influencers, Deb Weiers and Emma Petitt, there). She is always posting great pix like this with exaggerated expressions of happiness, shock, and enthusiasm, and she has a big, infectious, goofy grin that is universally appealing.

This was all done with my #12 Silver "Black Velvet" round brush, which holds a ton of water and keeps me from getting too fussy, although I did add a few key details with my tiny rigger brush as well. I don't know what I did before I "discovered" the rigger—what a great tool for thin strokes and outlines.

No monumental works of art today, but it was fun capturing Kara's likeness in this unique pose.

"Kara B"—pencil, Pul Jackson watercolors, Signo white gel pen, on Fluid 140-lb. coldpress paper, 9x12 (with a 1/2-inch border).

Spark eluded

This is one of those times when I chafe against my lack of perception about how to unfailingly capture the spark. This portrait is based on a photo of my friend Claudia's Aunt Anna, who is a beautiful woman with attitude. I captured the likeness pretty well, although I didn't quite get right the angle of the face and the chin tilt; I know it's a well done portrait, and she still looks beautiful, even regal; but I feel like the portrait is completely lacking in that intangible something that makes her Anna—a spirited attitude that speaks out of her eyes and says simultaneously, I know I am beautiful and, What's it to you?

The difficulty begins with the eyes, and this is a problem that I am solving more often lately but still haven't mastered: How do you make your subject look at you? In her photo she is staring right at the photographer, and that's part of the attitude of daring that comes across so forcefully there and not at all here, where despite every effort I made, she is staring off into the distance instead of looking at the viewer. It's so frustrating that I find myself yelling at the portrait, "Look at me! Over here!" as I move the highlights, elongate the pupil, change the shape of the eye, all to no avail. She just ain't gonna do it.

So, while some might see this as an accomplished portrait, I am made aware, once again, of how far I still have to go to master this discipline.

Or, I could simply draw and paint more abstractly and not worry about it; but that's a question for another day!

"Aunt Anna 1"—graphite and carbothello in Bee mixed media sketchbook, 9x12 inches.

Drawing once more

I really wanted to make a painting today, but I just couldn't settle on a subject. Then I found this photo of a homeless man, and realized doing justice to him would be difficult in paint, but maybe more expressive with pencil. So here is another line-and-shadow rendering, with accents of white Carbothello pencil and Signo gel pen and some watercolor enhancement for the eyes, cheeks, and lips (and coat), on tan paper to help with the weathered look. 9x11 on Strathmore toned tan 184-lb. mixed media paper.

Graphite, Day Two

Patrick Greenwood challenged us to do a graphite "morning drawing" every day this week. I don't know that I'll go that far, but I decided to try another one today, and went for a little more ambitious pose/angle and more challenging features.

If I'm going to do more of these, I think I'm going to have to invest in what some swear by as a secret weapon, the Black Wing pencil, for a softer, darker lead. And also learn how to blend and smudge better! And maybe find out what to use for fixative after.

"Willow"—graphite pencils HB-6B (and a little Carbothello for blush), in Bee multimedia sketchbook, 9x12 inches.

Graphite

Every Monday they keep throwing pencil drawings at us as assignments, and every Monday I have deviated and used another medium. Today I finally decided to give in and do one. It's not that I can't do it; it's that I don't do it that well, and also I don't enjoy it near as much as I do ink or paint of ANY kind. But...here it is.

This was Patrick Greenwell's lesson, and I do admire his drawings. I didn't use the reference photo from which he worked, though, mostly because after only three weeks I am heartily sick of seeing the same face a thousand times every single week as each student does her version of the model. I told Phoebe today that one requirement for taking this class should be that you watch the lesson, then apply it to your own reference so we aren't all so heartily bored by the time the first thousand get done and then the hundreds of stragglers keep posting over the next six months!

We were supposed to use a photo with a difficult angle, so I chose this one with an extreme uptilted chin, to show foreshortening. At least one person will (I hope!) recognize the subject of this drawing, while for others it will just be another pretty face!

This was done with a hard and two soft leads, and then I went back in with a little Carbothello colored pencil for the blush on the cheeks and the brown of the eyes.

"Chin Tilt"—H, 2B, 6B pencils and Carbothello in Bee multimedia sketchbook, 9x11 inches.

Another portrait in Payne's Grey

I decided to try another monotone portrait in Payne's Grey on grey-toned paper tonight, again with a little bit of blush added. I used for my reference a picture I had saved from a friend's photography shoot, excerpting only the mother's head out of the family photo of she and her husband and two daughters. I particularly liked the angle of her head, and that she was looking down through almost-closed lids.

I didn't get the angle of the head quite extreme enough, and thus the eyes were also harder to get right—it should look as if she's looking down, but I'm not sure she doesn't just look like her eyes are closed. I considered putting some whites in there, but they really don't show at all in the photo, so...no.

I also tried a mixed media thing that didn't really come off. I used some Daler Rowney Shimmering Green ink as a background, and apart from tinting the grey card faintly darker and giving a slicker surface, you can't even tell it's there, which is disappointing; the shimmering gold ink pops on this surface and I thought the green would do the same.

I was pretty happy with the texture I achieved for her sweater, which was a tedious process.

Addendum to post: I woke up at 5:30 and decided to mess with her, so I put in a background coat of pearlescent white ink over the green. Then I took a stiffer watercolor brush (I had been working with my swishy Silver) and amped up some of the darks in eyes, brows, lips, and shadows, and reiterated some of the wispy hairs that had gotten blurred out by the white. I also tweaked the directionality of the eyes. I think it's an improvement...although it shows more in person than in this scan.

"Mother Love"—pencil, Payne's Grey watercolor, and Daler Rowney Pearlescent White ink on grey-toned smooth 184-lb. mixed media paper, 9x12 inches.