I fixed the eyes (and hopefully altered the shape well too) and beard of my picture, and I believe i am as satisfied as i'll ever be with my portrait. Reflecting on the project, i am pleased with the outcome. I have never painted a person before, and was very worried about what my picture would look like. I guess because my expectations weren't very high, i was surprised with what i accomplished. By no means is this one of my best paintings, however it is one that i am most proud of, arguably. I think i did better than expected because i had a painting to look at while i worked, something i do with many of my own pictures, and that technique tends to work for me. I am much more apprehensive/worried about the next painting where i will have to paint my idol, because i won't have an actual painting to guide me, but i think if i take it little by little, i might be able to surprise myself again.

Almost Done!

Today was almost the last day i would work on it. i finished the painting but there are now two things i see that i would like to fix. First is the beard. I scaled down the left side of his face the way i planned, and now the beard seems to be larger / higher up on the face than the original painting. the original's beard isn't as large. Mine looks like it is engulfing the face too much. Second are the eyes. i don't even think i can count the number of times i redid them today. the eyes and eyebrows are extremely important, because they hold the expression of the person's face. in the original, he looks calm, almost morose. In mine, he seems more......surprised? also, because i redid them so many times, they noticeable increased in size. Renoir's eyes aren't that large. to fix those things will only take a short time, but i want to step away from the painting and come back to it, because i worked for a long time today.

today i focused mostly on the beard and tie. I mostly just did basic colors to make sure the shading looked right where it's supposed to. I'm going to bring in the more detailed little lines later on. after i finish his beard and tie the jacket and background will be fairly simple. Where Renoir's portrait shows light, there are long streaks of light reds and browns, so putting dimension there will be easy. i hope by tomorrow the details of the beard and tie will be more prominent.

Sorry for the delay - spent easter weekend away....

i got through most of the face today. the skin tones are still a little uneven, and i plan to smooth it all out once i finish up. the face is still rounder than i'd like but i also will clean up the edges to around where i want it to be when i paint in the background (because its all generally the same color, it should be easy to cover up). Also, i slightly painted in where the beard will start. i can see in the original the small streaks of dark red and brown that separate different locks of hair. this will be really important to get right. the same technique is used for the top of his shirt. i'm going to focus a lot on the shape and curve of those details and within the next week will hopefully have everything done down to the top of his shirt and shoulders...his jacket might be more difficult and is a very separate project for me.

Day Two - Gridding and Highlighting

Today i didn't change much about the painting. I gridded off both the original painting and my stretch canvas. This should help me to paint square by square and make sure i get the proportions and face shape correct. After that, i focused on polishing off the hat, and adding a little more shape and detail to the highlighting around the eyes, eyebrows, and forehead. I didn't take a picture, because the painting itself hasn't changed much, but by next time, i aim to have most of the face basically laid out, minus the detailing. I also hope to fix the jawline, and to narrow the shape of the face, like i mentioned before.

Day One - The Beginning

I started this blog for my painting class. We were asked to find a self portrait of a notable artist whose style we admire. Then we would recreate that painting on a monochromatic palette - a palette based on only one color, using different shades and tones of that color. After we finished that, we would paint a portrait of someone we idolize, trying to emulate the painting style of the artist we chose.

Okay, so there's a basic introduction. I chose Renoir's self portrait (if you want to see it - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Renoir_Self-Portrait_1910.jpg), and decided to use red as my color of choice. As for my idol, I haven't completely decided, but I'm pretty sure I want to paint Carrie Underwood.

Today, I started my monochromatic painting. I spent a pretty long time studying the brush strokes, which are a little different from my own, and how he used his style to create shapes, depth and variation in light. I, personally, tend to have more visible brush strokes, and less defined objects. Needless to say, I'm also not used to painting people. I liked Renoir's painting because I liked his lines. Each line is highlighted specifically to bring dimension to that area. So, I started out with the hat, and got that down the best I could. I also did most of the outline of his face, and highlighted the areas around his eyes, eyebrows and nose. You can see in the painting he outlines them brightly and made certain spots in certain areas stand out more. My biggest concern is being able to get the shape of his face correctly...I already messed that up a bit. I underestimated the proportion of the rim of his hat, and of course I had to make sure his face followed the same line. Hopefully, I can pull it together and create a nice jawline that somewhat resembles the original painting. I think that by taking it little by little and focusing on small areas at a time, I will be able to make things easier for myself.