Self-Portraiture

It's about time for me to do my annual self-portrait painting. It was something I decided to do last year, when I painted my self-portrait digitally. Lots has changed over the course of this past year. But right now I'm trying to decide on which media I want to work in.

I'm also working on putting my portfolio together for college 'cos dammit, I want my BFA. So I want to do something that I could include in a portfolio -- I'm thinking of working traditionally.

It's been a very long while since I've painted my self-portrait. I still do self-portrait drawings, 30 minutes, no erasing. It's something I picked up from Evil Professor Rex, and I actually really enjoy it. It was something he had us do for homework in his life drawing class, and it's also something that he critiqued us very strictly on. He critiqued us on likeness as well as technique -- his background is very academic, artistically speaking, so he wanted us to draw as objectively as possible.

I'll admit, I was afraid of doing my self-portrait before I took his class. There's something about it that's fraught with issues, especially if you identify as an artist. Like many women, I have issues with the way I look, but after looking at myself in the mirror once or twice a week to translate what I see onto paper, I've discovered I'm okay with the way I look now. And when you identify yourself as an artist, there's also that whole set of baggage that comes along where not only do you have to draw yourself, you have to do it WELL because you're an artist, not a five year-old with a box of crayons. No pressure.

So here's a progression of my self-portraits, starting from my time in Rex's class to the ones I do now on my own. I'm only including the ones I think are better, because it's my blog and I get to curate things here, but these are the ones I'm happy with. Later I'll put up some of the self-portraits I did in his painting class, which was a whole new kettle of fish entirely.

Yes, you're going to see my construction lines. Like I said earlier, we weren't allowed to erase. I never understood some of the students who did surreptitiously erase -- missing the point entirely. It's good training to (1) put your initial marks down lightly, which is something I think I'll always need to work on, but also (2) it trains you to choose where you put your marks down, 'cos once it's down, it's down. It's worse when you work in pen, which Rex would have us do sometimes -- but I like working in pen because you can't erase. You have to put your marks down with confidence, or they suck.

For the most part, these were done in thirty minutes, no erasing, in pencil. The very first one, August '09, was the very first one done for Rex's class, and it's done across two pages of sketchbook, which was something I did a lot of at the time. The one next to it, September '09 was actually 45 minutes, and we were permitted to erase, which made me all kinds of happy! The very last one, dated September '11 was done in black Prismacolor Verithin, which I really enjoyed working with.

You're not seeing the ones where the proportions are uber-squirrelly, or the ones where the technique was really bad, or the ones that were really unflattering . . . well you get the idea.

So right now I'm doing the self-portrait drawings more often as a warm-up for the self-portrait painting. I haven't decided whether to post a WIP of it; but when it's done I'll definitely post it online.

Convalidation and Sketching

I've gotten out of the habit of carrying my sketchbook around everywhere and using it, so when I had to go to a Convalidation class yesterday with the husband, well -- it was a very long class!

As a side note, if they took all the religious stuff out of it, it would be a very good class for incipient bridal couples (talking about the importance of communication and understanding; realizing how much one's family influences a person and how they act in a marriage; how to fight fairly and repair any hurts that occur over the course of a relationship -- no, not physical fights or hurts! Anyway, everyone knows I don't fight fairly!) because not only does it teach valuable life skills on living the married life, it also is a test of devotion. If you're willing to attend something like this with your spouse-to-be for eight hours, then you'll have a better understanding of what marriage is all about as well as proof of your devotion to your beloved. Since this particular class was for married people (my husband returned to the Catholic Church), he so totally owes me ice cream for doing this.

Anyway, here's a few sketches from that class. And yes, I was paying attention while I was doing this.

The Five Stages of Pot Roast Grief

So, because of all this rutting ice and snow and lack of infrastructure-that-deals-with-ice-and-snow, my sleep schedule has gotten all kinds of wonky, and as a result, I slept beatifically for ten hours yesterday (yesterday, not yesternight), and as a result, my poor pot roast died a horrible death.  No one can hear you scream in the Crockpot.

As I sullenly drank my coffee and sulked, I realized that I was working through the five stages of grief.

For a fricking pot roast.  And I present them here for you:

Denial:  No, no, NO, my pot roast isn't dry!  It isn't a hockey puck, it just needs some . . . moisture.

Anger:  Dammit!  How the hell could this have happened?!  Why the hell does no one else in this house have the sense the gods gave a frickin' weevil to know when the frickin' roast is *done*?

Bargaining:  Okay, maybe if I sacrifice somebody's firstborn to Hestia, she'll salvage my pot roast!

Depression:  My pot roast is RUUUIIIIIINNNNNNEDDDD!!!  Why the hell do I even TRY?!

Acceptance:  Okay, pizza rolls sound great.

Okay, to be honest, I didn't try bargaining with Hestia, 'cos I don't think she rolls that way.  But I did try to find ways to salvage the pot roast. 

Meanwhile, for art therapy, I did this for Day Four of thing-a-day:

Forty-five minutes in Autodesk Sketchbook Express, reference from the Livemodel Companion CD.

And those pizza rolls were pretty darned good.

First Thing-a-Day, Ringy-Dingy

So, my first thingy for thing-a-day is up and posted. 

 

Reference courtesy characterdesigns.com. (nudity warning)

There's so much wonderful stuff to see, I can't imagine being able to see all of it.  I think there's over five hundred people signed up for it?  That's like a small village.  And the kind of talent pool available -- I actually wonder if we'd make a viable, real-life village.  I wonder what it would be like to live there.  So long as I didn't have to build my own home -- I'm rubbish at carpentry.

Anyway, I had some fits getting this sketch done.  Couple false starts. Then I relaxed 'cos it's supposed to be fun, and it worked out at that point.  Forty-five minutes in mypaint while listening to a selection of songs from musicals.

SuperDanny!

So.  They've got a new Superman in the works, and a new actor to play the Man of Steel.  Didn't the last Superman movie come out just a few years ago?

Anyway, got to talking with the husband about Superman actors, and he suggested a couple that I thought could be interesting. 

Danny Devito.  I think that would be awesome.  I like Danny Devito.  And they should cast Rhea Perlman as Lois Lane.

Oh gawd.  That would so kick butt.

I even did up a little quick sketch in Autodesk Sketchbook Express with Devito wearing the cape.  Please excuse the uber-crappy quality; I did it in ten minutes.  Very sketchy quality, no thought to composition or color theory, just a quick, quick scrawl to get the idea down.

Then the husband suggested another actor:  John Cleese.

I'd pay twice the going movie ticket prices to see that.

Sorry, Mr. Devito.  We still love you though.

Learning Curves and the Like

I'm currently puttering around on posterous.com in preparation for thing-a-day and right now I'm trying to set things so that they publish to my blog simultaneously.  After all, why go to the trouble of logging into two sites, and futzing with arranging the elements of one's post twice when I can just go whap!pow!zam! and get it all done once?

 

Oh, and abusing colors?  Never gets old.  Until, of course, it does.

 

Meanwhile, this is what I'm up to:

 

 

(reference photo courtesy of atistatplay and can be found here.)

 

I thought I'd revisit this particular piece since it was done over three years ago.  I certainly hope I got better!  This sketch was done in Autodesk Sketchbook Express, which was part of the bundle of software that I got along with my new Intuos.  I'm not quite sure where I'm going to go with this; most likely I'll continue to develop it into a digital painting (probably in the GIMP).

 

One more week to thing-a-day, and I haven't a thing to wear!

 

All I Want for Xmas --

My husband is a mean ol' man. I adore him. And I'd rather draw him a thousand thousand times than keep his photo in my wallet. He's a patient model, and very game for anything.

And did I mention he's a mean ol' man?

He came home from work on the 23rd with a bag from Best Buy which he put under the tree, after informing me that it was for me. I was a little surprised, simply because earlier in the month he'd asked me what I wanted for Xmas, and I told him. As far as I know, downloadable audiobooks don't come in Best Buy bags. I looked askance at the package.

"What is it?" I asked.

He smiled at me brightly. "It's a present!" he replied in a chipper tone designed solely to annoy.

No matter how much wheedling, whining, whinging, asking, prodding, needling, pouting or otherwise making a pest of myself, he remained stalwart and refused to answer my question.

Though he did offer to let me peek. But really, where's the fun in that?

So, I waited (im)patiently, until the husband came home from Midnight Mass, at which time I was permitted to (finally!) open up my gift, which was way cooler than what I got him.

The marvelous bastard got me a Wacom Intuos 4.