Friday, April 20, 2012

I'm not sure about this one!

Earlier in the week I posted a work in progress.  Well she's finished, but I am actually kind of hesitant to share it here.   She kind of makes me cringe every time I walk past her. 

I've been wanting to try a realistic face for awhile.  I was feeling a little inspiration from Misty Mawn and Maria Pace-Wynters (whom I was recently introduced through in Tara Leaver's blog, thank you Tara!) both who use figures in their paintings but in very different ways. 

Even though this is one of my least favorite paintings I've done in awhile, I decided I would still share it with you, because really I think I should show both the good and the bad, right?  I like to read about other artists triumphs, but also their struggles and mistakes, so I thought I'd share mine!

So here she is:


 

When I first started painting the face she sort of looked like a drag queen, which I have nothing against drag queens, but it wasn't the look I was going for!  I think I got past the drag queen look, but now I think she is stuck in the 80's!  I used painted tissue paper that I ripped into pieces for the hair, but she looks like I would find her in a 1980's hair magazine at the salon!   The color palette initially started with more muted colors, but I just couldn't get this piece to work so I just kept adding more and more colors which seemed to help.  The flowers were originally supposed to be part of her shirt but I made them too big so I just kept adding more all over.  I feel like it definitely has more of a Maria Pace-Wynter feel too it than Misty Mawn, with the colors, flowers and butterflies, but I hope  it is still my own style.

This painting has reminded me why I stay away from realistic faces, there is always something that seems to bother me about the faces I draw and I can never put my finger on what exactly it is.  I think practicing drawing faces would definitely help me out, more than avoiding them! 

So for now here she is, but as I'm finishing up this post, I'm starting to feel the urge to paint over her face, because that IS what bothers me the most about this painting, but I'm going to hold back until at least tomorrow and try and  sleep on it, but for some reason I'm just having a hard time leaving her alone.  Arrgh. 

What do you think?  Should she go in the recycle bin? or does she just need some touch ups,  maybe an updated hairstyle or maybe a whole new face?  I would love to hear what you think, good or bad.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  It's city wide yard sales in our town this weekend, so I'll be looking for lots of deals!


2 comments:

Janet Ghio said...

I actually think you've done a really good job on the face and the shading on the face. I like the colors you used. I personally don't care for her hair- mostly the white lines in it and I think her neck and shoulders might be too wide. Just my opinion.

Unknown said...

Thank you Janet. I know that hair! I tried to do something with it this morning, but I don't think it is fixable. I think I'm going to end up cutting the flowers off and that's about it. I need some more practice!

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