I like how I paint, but I haven't painted a lot, so I have a lot to learn. Especially I want to paint shadows better.
I ran the watercolor portrait of Peal Duquette under the tap twice yesterday, so I could repaint the shadows on her face. But this makes the paper rough, and the stain of paint remains, so it's now harder to paint... NOT a good working solution at all.
I was pretty pleased anyway. I thought, this looks sorta like one of Alice Neel's portraits. Neel mostly painted portraits. She said she was a collector of souls (NYT article).
She outlines her people, which I love. (Larry Rivers is another painter I like who does that.) My outlines are drawn in fat pencil.
I thought looking at Neel's shadowing might be helpful.
Is it ever!
Look. Her son "Hartley with a Cat" (via "Alice Neel: My Family and Other Animals"):
I cut this in half so I (you) can enlarge the painted shadows to see more closely. Irene Peslikis, "Marxist Girl, 1972 "
This portrait of Charlotte Willard is at The Walker in Minneapolis, closed for Covid--(also originally one piece, not three):
I'd like to paint all the dolls (24, I think?), to get a whole gallery--maybe a calendar's worth in future years.
Ostensibly they look the same, but I want to catch their differences--different moods from different angles, different lighting, etc.
Things help carry the story.
I didn't even realize I was doing this:
the white-in-red gap in Pearl's dress (right hand side) suggests the shark biting her arm:
It does!-Suggest the shark that is. I had not heard of that artist and really like the portraits you have shared. Shadows are so hard. I try to mix up batches of colour and do sections at once with the dark and light but that doesn't always work. I also like the outlines, they show confidence in the drawing.
ReplyDeleteI can't paint portraits at all, I'm completely useless at things like shading and shadows. I'll stick with photographs.
ReplyDeleteShark attack! Yikes! I love that Alice Neel painting. All three of the paintings are great, actually. (Plus yours, of course. :) )
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine trying to paint a person. (Or girlette!) I might be able to do a still life of some sort, but probably not very convincingly.