Artful Prompting, 6

[wayfaringwordhack]

 (March 5, 2024)

Artful Prompting, 6

#inspiration #process #creativity #artist #Resources 

 

This past week's prompt was Self Portraits, and thanks to Sandi Hester and her self-portrait tips video, I wasn't even apprehensive about doing it.  I set out NOT caring about a likeness, just painting colors and shapes, and it was great fun. And they don't look anything like me.  Except I do wear glasses and usually have my hair in a side braid.🤓😜

 

 

These are in order from left to right.  The first one was done on super-cheap sketch paper. You can even see around my "artistically" applied gesso coating that the paper actually has a purplish cast.  Anyhow.  I began this with a blind-contour sketch of myself, and oh how I wish I had photographed it. It was charmingly hilarious as most blind-contour drawings are.  I used acrylics, which I am not used to, so many skin areas are chalkier than I would have liked.  I had a sunburn from skiing--silly me forgot the sunscreen--so those red splotches are pretty true to life.  And I actually love the look of the red blobs of color.

 

I painted the second one while using the first one as a reference without trying to copy it. It was also done with acrylics but on watercolor paper. In fact, I re-used a painting of my husband's which was painted in response to our 4th prompt (the one I didn't share. He begged me to recycle his paper, so there you have it).  I was in a hurry--needed to take the kids to music--and so I really rushed it, not correcting wonky head, etc., and I think I will go back and retouch it.  Not to get a likeness or pretty picture but because it was fun.

 

The third one was done in a cheap sketchpad, beginning with a "head shape" laid down in Jackson's Watercolor Brush Pens (light brown and red).  I used some Faber Castell Watercolor Pencils to get more shapes and then some gouache to smooth out the patchiest places.  Like Sandi, I tried to hold my brushes and pencils very loosely and "awkwardly," in the interest of not being precise and trying to get some fun quirks. I will definitely be revisiting this prompt.

 

Husband and Daughter both did just one self-portrait in paint:

 

 

Each of the boys did two, one version in colored pencil and the other in acrylic when I insisted they use paint, too.😄

 

 

I think the green nose is to spite me🤣 when I told him to try using some different colors because I couldn't see his "paint" nose and mouth, only the pencil lines beneath.🤪

Comments

[eller]

What, you mean your kid doesn't have a green nose?!? :D Thanks for showing all this art, the prompts sound fun! I like how you played with color in your self portraits!

[wayfaringwordhack]

A friend on the art forum pointed me to a recently deceased Polish-Canadian artist who painted people with colorful noses, several of said noses being green: https://www.artnet.com/artists/zbigniew-stanley-kupczynski/girl-with-cows-UUluf6rIKDse-os8vi2hNg2

:D

Trying to see different colors in my face was the most fun, that and focusing on shapes rather than features.

[asakiyume]

Okay, that's even better than Matisse's portrait ;-)

[wayfaringwordhack]

It is all out Nose. :P

[mallorys_camera]

I love these! 😀

[wayfaringwordhack]

They were a lot fun, in case you didn't get that from my post. LOL

[asakiyume]

I like the experiments all of you did with planes and blocks of color--in yours, especially for cheekbones and neck, for S, the circles of the cheeks and the extreme shadows on the left side of dad's face (I remember doing exactly this when I first was analyzing what was cool about anime art). Older son not so much, but he does put those cheeks in on the right-hand portrait. And I love younger son's green nose. Did you tell him about Matisse's "green stripe" portrait?

[wayfaringwordhack]

I keep saying I want to do another, but something always pops up. I am beginning to feel a bit frustrated. :P I guess I need to just set a timer for, say, 30 minutes tomorrow morning and make it happen.

[rimturse]

These are great! And I love that green nose! LOL. Bet you can see that nose now! ;)

[wayfaringwordhack]

I am going to get more practice. The challenge this month on my art community is self-portraits. :P