Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Sooooo, whatcha doin?"







So my mantra for years has been "I can't do faces" This is why I love mixed media collage, because I never have to start with a blank face. Then I took a couple of classes, practiced alot, and found out with perseverance and a good eraser, I can draw faces. So after I found out I could DRAW faces, my mantra changed to "I can't paint faces". Again, a few classes, and a whole lot of practice, I found.... I can't paint faces. I have tried, and they never look like I want them to. Then I applied the technique I use in drawing charcoal faces, which is looking at my subject in terms of light and dark value, and not a facial features, and found that I could paint faces....a little. I still find that they end up looking like paint by numbers, but a recognizable face none the less. Here are a few that I am working on, and while I am not in love with them, I can recognize who they are. (Well except for the girl, I don't know who she is, but I am sure she looks exactly the way she is supposed to). I took earlier drawings I did of Mick Jagger, where I had already established the whole light/dark value thing, and on top of a whole lot of spray paint, I painted him with black, tan and brown only. The Chris Robinson is not a favorite, but he was a little harder to do for me, since I did not have an earlier drawing to look at, just a photo from a magazine. All in the name of practice. The girl is finished at 12x24 and has an encaustic top layer. The other two are 24x24 and are Tulip spray paint, acrylics and pitt pens.

7 comments:

Mary said...

Oh my gosh, don't ever say you can't draw or paint faces!! These are fabulous!!! To be able to recognize the person you have drawn is huge!!

Well done!!

These are fantastic!!

studio pashnada said...

very nice
I'm glad you've challenged your inner critic and proved her wrong

My Studio 13 by Carrie said...

Thanks so much!!

Paula Phillips said...

Such beautiful new work Carrie! I'm still swearing to myself about my paint cannon... but we won't talk about that. ;)
Much Love

Unknown said...

FAN-TASTIC!
i love the mick jagger piece...
well done!
xoxo
jul

Modern Gypsy said...

wow! amazing. lol you can totally draw faces!

Lisa said...

When I draw, I always feel the worst about faces, too. Some of my figures have no faces at all. A lot of the ones with faces have their eyes closed. I would like people think it is for some symbolic reason that the eyes are closed, or that the face is missing from the figure... But usually I am just scared that adding the face, or the dreaded eyes will ruin the piece.

I am never so critical of other people's drawn faces (yours are great), so I figure it is like with photos. We had a family photo taken, and everyone thought that everyone else looked great, but that they themselves were making a weird face. We are never so critical as when we judge ourselves.