A little bit of Art
To jump around in time and take things out of sequence, the day after I returned from Florida I got together with my older son’s girlfriend, Ashley, to work on an assignment for her college art class (I LOVE getting to share in my son’s and her assignments and learn stuff). I lent Ashley some art supplies to save her the expense since I had plenty. I hadn’t used my gouache much, so when that assignment came up, she asked if I would like to do it with her. YES!
The assignment was to take a black and white photo of yourself–a head shot (or color and then remove the color) with good contrast. Size: about 8×10 or a little larger. You were then to trace/copy the shapes in various values onto bristol board (a card-stock weight paper with a shiny finish) and use black, white and one other color to create a monochromatic self-portrait. Ashley did the assignment as given (good decision–see above), but I decided to muck around a bit (see lower down).
At first, I thought I’d do the portrait as a “grisaille” or toned underpainting, then go over it with a single color. But once I got it done, since I don’t really know what would happen with the gouache–likely it would either lift the grays underneath or just cover them up–I left it grayscale.
![My first effort. Clearly I need a bit of instruction in handling gouache, but not too bad.](https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2015.03.QtheGdnPlus05.jpg)
My first effort. Clearly I need a bit of instruction in handling gouache, but not too bad. I kinda messed up the eyebrow and lid crease on the left, but it could be a lot worse.
I finished a bit earlier than Ashley, so decided I’d do a second, much faster, and be more loose in my application of utterly non-realistic colors. You could scare a child into blindness or nightmares with this!
![My two self-portraits. The upper one isn't bad. The lower one, just plain freaky!](https://www.sarahannsmith.com/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/2015.03.QtheGdnPlus08.jpg)
My two self-portraits. The upper one isn’t bad. The lower one, just plain freaky! But they do look somewhat like me. Just hope I don’t look as saggy-chinned and jowelly and scary as the one in color!
Next post: More Hawaiian applique in Florida!
April 15th, 2015 at 7:55 am
Very cool! I’ve always wanted to try to work in non-representational colors. You look more like the top piece than the bottom you’ll be happy to know!
April 15th, 2015 at 11:59 am
I do not think you are quite as scarey as you believe you are in yellow! Fun to explore new ways of creating art, and images to then take into fabric, I think. What a fun thing to share with your son’s lady…good practice if they continue to stay together 🙂