progress - Self Portrait in a Double Space

After initially struggling, as oils are not a medium I am overly familiar with, I have managed to make progress on my head, hair and neck.

Just got to work on the shadow and background now!

prep for college - 'Self Portrait in a Double Space'

As part of our summer project, my college set us the title Self Portrait in a Double Space, and detailing that it should be 50cm x 60cm and completed in oil. The title, however, was totally down to interpretation.

I have spent the summer attending galleries, sketching whenever I had the time, of others or myself in the mirror, as well as researching artists and producing reproductions.

I have settled on studying shadows, having been inspired by a piece by Murat Tezcan Demirbas, after seeing his submission to the BP Portrait Awards 2015.

I took some photographs last night. I wanted to focus mainly on the head and shoulders, making sure there was shadow cast not only on the contours of my face but also on the door behind. 

The artist who I have chosen to draw inspiration from is Jo Fraser. I particularly like her Sun in Edinburgh series, with a special preference to this piece, the third out of three in the series. 

Finally, I have decided to outline where the light hits my face and the shadow, in order that I can emulate this style as best as possible. 

As part of our brief, the piece specified that it be drawn from life, therefore I will be carrying it out in front of a mirror, using the photographs just as a secondary point of reference. 

Will keep this updated, as well as the elephant piece which is still in progress. 

progress - 'elephant'

Just some progress I'm making with my current piece.
Acrylic on canvas 100cm x 100cm

a new project - 'elephant'. 100cm x 100cm

So I was commissioned back at the beginning of summer to paint a square piece of an elephant in vibrant colours. This was very exciting for me as I have never done animals before, but unfortunately, with other commissions, college work and various summer holidays I have only got round to starting it now. 

Here is the planning and progress so far...

this was the starting point - I printed out lots of pictures of elephants and various styles from which I could gather my ideas and come up with a composition and colour palette




in the end it was this picture I chose. Despite liking the tusks visible on some pictures, the face of this elephant was just too beautiful not to use for this piece!



Using a website I found, called pixlr, I edited the photo, mainly using the unsharp mask tool, which provided me with vibrant colours which would help when it comes to painting the elephant in an abstract, expressive manner



The piece is by Gayle Curry, found on pinterest. I chose this technique to emulate, obviously changing the colours to fit that of my edited picture. As mine is more close up, there will probably be more depth and detail, but the overall effect should be similar.



And finally...the progress so far! All I've done is drawn it up but I do looking forward to starting this, a completely new experience for me as a painter.

college summer work sketchbook

Here are some reproductions I did as part of building my summer sketchbook in time for college in two weeks

All images are A5

Jen Joaquin

Jo Fraser 'Sun in Edinburgh'

Aaron Coberly

commission number 2 - finished!

Finally finished my second commission, a reproduction of Cristina Troufa's 'Pedestal', done in acrylic and using a roller and a light hand to achieve the patchy background.

The lower step of the stool caused much stress and it wasn't till I returned from holiday with a fresh eye before I could sort out the perspective! The proportion was all off, but perseverance paid off!

Let me know what you think!