Bemused Reminiscence, October 2010

Another attempt to improve my portraits. Trying to focus on realism as much as possible, while still adding a bit of my own flair!

I mostly like it...but I really don't like how the face turned out! I did try my hardest, I assure you, but I had so much trouble with it! I just couldn't get it to go the way I wanted. Oh well, I just need more practice, I guess. 

Love Beads, October 2010

A close-up of a necklace I made, just a fun little project.

Title Unknown, October 2010

This is another in my artist study series, this time a copy of a painting by Fernando Botero.

The Original: 

My Version:

I don't love it, but I certainly don't hate it either. I feel like it could have a much greater resemblance to the original, but I tried. I do like how the shading in her face turned out though! 

I'll leave you with a nice quote: 

"Painting is a very peculiar phenomenon that can be explained up to a certain point, but, fortunately, not altogether."     -Fernando Botero 

**UPDATE!** After seeing "The Baroque World of Fernando Botero" at the Glenbow Museum recently, I cannot express how amazing it is to see his paintings up close. I was definitely surprised by how huge some of them are! I had to walk around the gallery with my fists clenched to fight the urge to run my fingers over the surfaces of his art; the texture he adds to them makes his caricatures seem so real...it's a strange effect, but a brilliant one.

Schweres Rot, September 2010

As part of my Art 20 course, my teacher is requesting that we copy one piece of artwork by ten different artists of her choice. This piece is part of that series, my copy of "Schweres Rot" by Wassily Kandinsky.

The Original:

My Version:

Floral Still-Life at the Olds College Botanical Gardens, September 2010

The Escape Artist, October 2010

Wanting to work on my portraiture and skills regarding detail and realism, I chose to draw this photo of my boyfriend:

This was my first version of "The Escape Artist":

As you can see, it's very loose and not detail-oriented at all, which was my original plan. So, I decided to try the same picture again, this time settling down to focus on the task at hand. This was the result, which I'm much happier with:

This time, I simply used graphite, rather than pen and ink. I really like the way the bricks turned out, even if the lines are a little bit crooked. 

Mine, September 21 to October 18, 2010

My first oil painting! The assignment was to paint a photograph we had taken in the style of an artist of your choice. This is a timeline of the progress of my "masterpiece."

September 21 - Day 1: A very thin background and a simple outline. 

 September 22 - Day 2: Just experimenting with the out-of-focus background. You can see my photograph on the left, and my artist reference photo on the right. 

September 23 - Day 3: Things are filling in! Got a lot done today. 

September 27 - Day 4: Background is finally complete! Excited to start the main subject tomorrow. 

September 28 - Day 5: Starting with branches and leaves to frame the subject and my favorite part--the bird! 

October 18 - After a long period of not taking pictures, I am FINALLY done my painting. I'm quite happy with the way it turned out -- you'll see quite a difference in the feel of the colors. Much more yellow tones rather than white, making the painting overall much more warm, and less "minty." I'm glad to be done, but I'm also very glad that I put in the time to bring this project through to completion. 

Soon to come...my original reference photo for this piece!  :)