Drawing Tuesday - Self-portraits

Over the years I've had various encounters with self portraits, including these, found in old sketchbooks -

Self portrait (with contact lenses and good haircut), 1990

1992: "Why did you make yourself look so old?" (Really?)

Collage selfportrait from the late 90s, and (above) glowering c.2009

None in this collection is a self portrait; taken from photographs of friends, they were stitched onto envelopes in the 1990s -

A variety of techniques/approaches thus presented themselves, but I approached the project with some trepidation - and decided to do

Something Completely Different, 

using the glut of Sarah Raven plant catalogues that happen to be on hand (ie, hoarded) for an inner portrait. 

Archimboldo was the inspiration 

Start with skin tones

It's helpful to quickly draw out the main areas

Can't believe this took two hours

The way of working develops as you keep going. I started by looking for "the eyes" and made some that by now are All Wrong. Rethink - do the skin first. With collage, it's easier to start with the bottom layer and work up to the details - how long has it taken me to learn that??

With head and neck done, there remained only (only?) collar, dress, and headdress. Background was hastily painted in. 

Something to come back to - 

(I meant to get back to it, but haven't yet.) btw a rather different Arcimboldo showed up on instagram later and it would really have been a self-portrait if (with my history of avid reading and librarian training and love of libraries and book and - nearly forgot - the book arts MA) I'd used books instead of flowers.

From Carol: I was feeling a little blue today but then remembered that it was beer o’clock time and that the government has said that some foods can be counted as ‘essential religious items’. I’m moving onto the Easter eggs later.!!

From Sue: Here’s my self portrait, sporting my newly made trousers! It was a bit tricky matching the stripes!! There was a tapered section below the knee!

From Joyce:  I’ve been looking at David Hockney’s book ‘Faces’ and he did so many line drawings just capturing the essence of his sitter. That was my inspiration.

From Judith: Complete cheat as done from photo and all those teeth!

From Mags: I took photos of my shadow yesterday when on my walk thinking I'd use them for drawing from today. But instead I stitched on calico, each version going wrong in a different way! 

From Janet B: Drawn from a photo taken first thing in my dressing gown before I’d had a shower or brushed my hair. 

I’ve also attached my only other self portrait and one and only attempt at drawing with my sewing machine. It eventually found its way into a group quilt to say thank you to the departing chair of New Horizons, one of my many quilt groups. Luckily mine wasn’t the only bonkers one. 

From Jo: Is it cheating to do a self-protrait from behind!! Anyway - this is me every day.

From guest artist Helen: 

Painted faces, close up

After looking long and hard at the Vuillard exhibition (a few of the 500 paintings he made of his mother), we turned to the permanent display at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, which has a little of everything, not overwhelming in size but a good survey of the history of painting. 

The light on the paint texture got me looking closely at how faces were painted ... here are a few from the 18th, 17th, 16th centuries. 

And here's the 19th century painting that got me looking, and paying attention to the informative text on the labels:

"the portrait is unfinished, especially its rapidly-improvised landscape"

ah yes, those brush marks

 The "boldly painted figure is resolved enough to demonstrate the impact Manet made as a provocative painter of modern life subjects" -

but "the boldly painted figure" is resolved

Comparing his use of provocative paint with that of Renoir's impressionist palette and techniques was what promoted the series of close-ups - 

Drawing Tuesday - National Portrait Gallery

Love the mosaics at the entrance to the NPG, and there are more inside as well -

Wandering to a distant room, I found this grouping of portrait busts, most sculpted by Chantrey (1781-1841) -

Quite daunting in detail, and it was the light and shadow that drew me to them - so I took off my glasses and blind(ly) drew what I could see -

With glasses back on, things looked quite different. I'm in the bad habit of starting with the most interesting thing, in this case the nose on the right -

Gradually the group came together. I'd bitten off more than I could chew with these, could and maybe should try again - but do not want to revisit them!

 Others had more interesting work.

Jo did her work on the s-l-o-w bus into town

Michelle's unknown lady

Najlaa took a deep breath and tackled "faces" (Mary Ann Clarke,
mistress of Frederick Duke of York) - then
relaxed with some pattern

 

Sue captured Edith Sitwell and Harold Moody

Edward William Lane, Arabic scholar, by Joyce

Janet K found two Edwards - the Black Prince was, appropriately, cast in
black metal and drawn on dark paper

Carol found a vista, and flocked wallpaper

Edward William Lane again, by Janet B, and also Joseph Collet

 Extra-curricular activities

Najlaa's quilted fabric face

Joyce's pattern stamping, inspired by a piece in the Anni Albers exhbition

Janet B's machine embroidery, and a soap carving based on a bird in her sketchbook

Michelle has gone seasonally glitzy