And mine. Again the yellow did not photograph exactly right, but her hair is true to color, so I think the color 'tangerine' just hates me...
Details of the face
Full canvas
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Joan Of Arc (With added inspiration)
This was the portrait of her that inspired me. It is an odd image, a young girl in armor is very striking, even today....
Details of the face
Details of the face
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4 comments:
She's very good Christy. I like how you did her armor. Did you use a picture as a guide?
Also, what supplies would one need to start painting like you do? I'm going to try to sign up for that art class at school, but they may not let me. (Art 101 is a requirement. I have had teaching art classes so they may not accept it in its' place. Especially because I basically lack talent anyways. But it looks like you're having so much fun with this, and so it tempts me to give it another try.)
I don't know why the armor struck me first. I think it's because I always think of her without armor (on the stake).
I like the expression you were able to get on her face too and the texture of her hair. You do a great job with the eyes--making them look like there is something going on in the head behind the eyes. (You know what I mean?) She looks thoughtful and like she's thinking of something.
I noticed that too about the girl with the pearl earring--aged. They aren't just eyes. There's something in the eyes that make them look like they're thinking something.
I think that's a real talent!
Oh my, where to start...
Thank you and congratulations on your decision to take that class! Absolutely you should. You can come home and show me what you learned maybe...? I never been to an art class but I always wanted to see what I could learn there.
And, it is FUN! Oh man I love sitting at an easel and just forgetting the world. I have a techno remix of Beetovan, Fur Elise and Moonlight Sonata, I put them on and my hands just CREATE something.
Yup, I do know what you mean, and yes, I was guided by a portrait of her that is a 'miniature' and it is perhaps the only image I can find that was done by someone who probably knew what she looked like.
I will put up the original right now
I always focus most of my attention on the eyes. Our brains are hardwired to notice them first.
If the eyes are not right the overall effect is unacceptable to me. Woz has, hands down, the best eyed piece I've done yet.
As far as how to start, what supplies...
First, you will need pencils, standard no 2 and lots of those big pink erasers. And a damn good pencil sharpner.
The rest I have to get at Wal-mart cause no one else around here stocks what I need.
Go to the arts and crafts departments. I use the canvas boards, as you know, not stretched canvas. I only use stretch canvas on commissioned works because they are too expensive to mess up or just practice on.
You can buy a standard little made in china easel for like 10 bucks, some assembly required. My easel has been modified to adjust for hieght and my man added a large storage box at the base. I have to say I have a slamming easel, but it was custom made. The other easels I only use for display so the 10$ model works.
Anyways, back to the canvases. I almost always use a 16 by 20 inch canvas board, they are like 3 for $7. You can go down in size and they cost even less. I use the smaller ones sometimes, but I almost always use the larger ones.
But to start I would recomment the 10 by 12. It is large enough to work on yet the price keeps it cheap if you mess up.
Walmart sells a value pack of brushes, it will have larger and liner brushes in it. They are craft brushes and you can pick up that value pack, like 10 or 15 brushes for 8 bucks or so.
The thing about brushes, I have brushes that literally cost almost $20 PER BRUSH, and it was not worth any of the extra money I spent. They did not hold up as well as simple midpriced brushes.
Fair warning though, don't go totally cheap on brushes, a bad quality brush = a crappy quality painting.
Now, while you are there, same aisle, look for the craft paints in the little bottles all lined up by color. These will be acrylics.
You may use other paints like oils or watercolors, but as far as affordable goes acrylics are great.
The small bottles are about 80 cents each, the larger bottles like less than 2.
Buy the larger bottles of your base colors, for example.. standard yellow, red, blue, green, white, black and brown.
The smaller bottles you can snap up a few custom colors that would otherwise be hard to mix, like tan for example, or funky shades of green.
Anyways, get a paint caddy that is basically a bowl for water with brush rails in it to clean brushes against. $3.
You can spend money on pallettes, but to me paper or foam plates work best.
And that is all you need.
The thing about messing up... Whatever you do, do not be afraid to mess up. The one thing I love about art, no matter what I sketch or paint, it teaches me something new. About shadow, or color or whatever, it always teaches you something.
And... when you are actually past being afraid of those 'mess ups', you will see that almost 80% of the time, what you consider a 'mess up, will actually either enhance the picture, or teach you something important about how to 'fix' your problem.
And finally, even if you do TOTALLY screw up a canvas... so what? Just go to where you know you are doing more damage than good, and if it can not be 'fixed', then put it away and start on something else.
I am completely surrounded by my 'mistake' canvases, but they all taught me something, and through them, you can literally see the evolution of my skills unfolding.
I would suggest going and buying the supplies, and then just GO FOR IT. Your hands have to be taught, trained, but if you let them go, have confidence in them, they will train themselves. You will train them, even when you think you have failed, your hands learned it.
So, go get the supplies, and if you need any pointers, let me know. I would love to watch you even try. Sometimes the most simple 'tries' turn into the most wonderful works.
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