February 28, 2011

Self-Portrait in -gasp- oil paint!


This is me.

I am taking a portrait painting class this semester, and we have to use oil paint. I have never used oil paint before, so although I can draw faces alright, I'm stuggling with learning to mix colors and get the paint texture right.

Our homework assignment for next week is to paint a self-portrait, which means I will be staring at this photo of myself for hours on end. Today I set up a studio in our kitchen, which gets lots of beautiful natural light.


I'm too cheap to buy an easel, so I taped an empty Kleenex box to a chair and placed the canvas on that. Please ignore the pile of plastic bags in the background - I'm taking those to be recycled soon, I promise. Here's a fancy animated GIF of the painting in progress.

Gif Created on Make A Gif

After about 3.5 hours of work, the painting is definitely in its "ugly" stage. Seeing my face in this condition can be alarming, but after nearly a decade of going through my own ugly stage, I've learned to persevere. With a few more hours of work, this too shall pass.

At least I hope so. I really want this painting to turn out well, although I have no idea what I'm going to do with it after it's finished.

6 comments:

  1. Kelley, that's amazing! I am always in awe of people with this kind of artistic talent... I still find it somewhat eerie to see something so lifelike peering out of a half-finished portrait - because the last frame of your gif really just looks like a photo that someone played with in photoshop, and I mean that in a good way!

    Looking forward to seeing the finished product!

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  2. Kelley, your portrait is going to be beautiful! With your talent, it does not matter what medium you use. ♥

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  3. Thanks, Victoria! I will definitely post the finished product in a few days.

    Thank you, Cindy. I wish it was true that I could pick up any medium and naturally make beautiful art with it, but unfortunately that isn't quite the case. :)

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  4. Give it to me! I'll put it up in the Mancave, and foosballers from near and far will admire it.

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  5. An when the foosballers make admiring comments, I'll say proudly, "That's my daughter". And they'll say, "Really? That's her?" And I'll say, "Not really. It's just a painting of her."

    ReplyDelete

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