So today I had my final review for my Painting Techniques
Class. I had to turn in a five page paper on a contemporary artist in which I
analyzed two of her works and explained why I felt her work reflected mine; I
chose an amazing Canadian artist named Malinda Prud’homme. Check out her art
and the meaning behind it – its truly beautiful and I relate to it on so many
levels.
I also had to turn in my final project, which had to be
Roman themed, or as Professor Ennis put it, “have a little Roman flavor.” I
didn’t have a lot of time to complete it, so I decided to go with my own kitchy
tourist impression of a really beautiful painting I saw in the Santa Maria
Maggiore the first few weeks I was here. It actually turned out better than I
expected for stepping so far out of my comfort zone.
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| This was my inspiration from the Santa Maria Maggiore |
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| And this is my final project I painted in maybe 4 hours total... |
And now, here are the rest of my paintings that I have
worked on throughout the entire semester and a little explanation of each one:
This was the first painting I did - Professor Ennis looked at my sketch book, saw this eye, and asked me to do it on a larger sheet of paper. So I did, but then she told me to paint the background black after I had suggested painting eyelashes on it. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out pretty well.
Painting number two: After a long day walking around the historical center of Rome at the beginning of the semester, we had hangrily picked a random touristy restaurant where we ate in the basement and had a very strange experience. There was s black sequence curtain downstairs that I became obsessed with, so I decided to paint it. Then Ennis had me modify the background and I spent at least three weeks trying to make the background look okay. While I still really don't like the background, I think the drape turned out very well.
Painting number three: I love yoga and I love sunsets, so I thought, why not paint them together? I used a picture I found on Google for this one. I really enjoyed blending the sky, but the water was definitely more challenging. that shadows weren't too difficult since they were mostly black...
Painting number four: I adore roses, and I usually end up painting a rose if I'm in a painting class, so here we are! However, as I have mentioned before, I am not entirely comfortable painting with acrylics because it is harder to blend and be hyper-realistic like I prefer, so I decided to step out of my comfort zone and use larger brush strokes that aren't blended as well as they can be. An alternative version to that story is it was almost half-way through the semester and I needed to get more paintings done quickly and this technique allowed me to paint much faster. I decided to use black and white because I love black and white and they are easier to blend because you are only dealing with two colors rather than three or four. At first, I painted the background pink, but it washed the rose out and added nothing, so I painted it a dark red, which actually made the rose really stand out. What I love about this painting is that it's sort of an inverse rose, and I was able to paint this with only references to pictures of roses! Professor Ennis loved this painting because I was challenging myself, so she encouraged me to paint a still life of fruit she had set out in an abstract style.
Side not - my professor was asking each of us if we were willing to donate one of our paintings to a children's hospital for a new project she had started, so I chose to donate my rose!
Here is the result... it is by no means finished, nor will it ever be. There are things I like about it, but mostly there are things I don't like. However, I painted this with the technique of dabbing my paint brush rather than stroking it, which is what allowed me to do my next painting, which I am actually very proud of.
Painting number six: I traveled to Ireland over Spring Break, and while I was in Galway, I took an amazing picture of this huge wave (that almost killed Kasey) at the Worm Hole on Inismore, the big Aran Island. I decided to paint it because I found it beautiful in its landscape, power, and even near lack of color. I have never been particularly talented at painting landscape, but I am pleased with how this one turned out!
This was the inspiration-photo
So after that, I finally started painting what I am really passionate about: human faces, particularly eyes. It just happens to be a coincidence that I ended up painting two self-portraits of sorts.
This is my favorite painting I did all semester. These are my eyes that I painted from one of my senior pictures. I find eyes incredibly beautiful and fascinating to paint because that is where almost all of the emotion of the person is captured. Nothing was particularly easy about this, but the most difficult part of painting any eye is getting the reflection right. I'm not sure if I got it quite right, but I didn't have time to keep re-painting all semester, so I left it like this. I got a lot of comments about this one at the Art Exhibit, and I even saw some girls taking a picture of the eyes looking at them - it was hilarious!
So for my next painting I had another picture of my eyes that I wanted to do, also a senior picture. At first, I was only going to paint one eye on one canvas, but then I got an idea that I have always had an interest in doing and painted two other canvases from the same picture. Keep this in mind when you look at them, I painted them all very quickly (each canvas in under 10 hours) so there are still many things that need to be fixed about them - especially the mouth.
Here is the progression of the first eye that I painted:
And here is the final product!
So next, I decided to paint the other eye on a separate canvas. This was a challenge because I was painting them at two separate times, and I didn't even have this one with me when I painted the second, so the colors are slightly off.
The differences: I like the skin tone better in the second one, but I like the eyebrow better in the first one (I spent more time on the individual hairs). However, the eyelashes in this one are much more realistic because I clumped them together like real eyelashes do after a classmate suggested to. The reflections in the irises were, as usual, extremely hard to paint, so the eyes might not be looking in the same direction exactly. Also, the shape of this eye is a little longer, or more stretched out, than the other.
Finally, I painted the bottom of my nose and mouth on my last canvas. I did this in about four hours, so it's not actually done, and there are a lot of things I need to fi, but it's a good start.
Now to put it all together...
A little weird maybe, but not too bad. I think if I had more time to spend on it they would have looked even better! But I actually think they all look much better together than they do separately!
I enjoyed my painting class a lot this semester, and can really see some improvement in my skills. I can't wait to start using my oils again and paint portraits for people!
Observation of the Day: Who am I kidding, I will never have time to paint. I will try to make time this summer because it is one of my favorite hobbies, but my passion for making short films and doing leadership stuff will always come first (after my job so I can pay bills), so I probably won't have much time... That's why I took the class here!
