Portraiture and Me

2018's Birthday self portrait - 25

Portraits are my thing, my jam! If I was only allowed to draw one subject matter for the rest of my life, it would be portraits - I don't tire of them. Faces are so interesting to me, which is odd because I often say to my friends and family that I don't like people. But what I really mean to say is people disappoint, intrigue and confuse me which is probably part of the reason why I'm always drawn to drawing faces. As a way of figuring people out. It's a strange dichotomy... If that's even the right word for it.

My love for faces can often give me a tunnel vision type focus. And so a lot of the time I have to make a concious effort to draw other subject matter. During my sketch a day and inktober I tried to space out my portraits to make sure I was drawing other things to widen my skillset. After all improvement doesn't happen if you don't step outside your comfort zone every once and while and challenge yourself. But because I have such an ease with faces I find them relaxing to do. I'm no master face drawer by any means but it is definitely my strength area. And with that comes a zone and flow of drawing that I often crave. The zone where you are not even actively thinking anymore but thoughts are just passing by and it feels like your in your own world with no sense of time. To get technical, it's probably a type of mindfulness meditation.

However since I've been limiting myself in regards to portraiture I've found I've drawn less and hindered my own improvement. When I get a strong urge or portrait idea I begin to stop myself either because I feel like the idea isn't good enough or because I make myself feel guilty that I'm not drawing something else. But I never end up following through and drawing anything else and so in the end I have a blank sketchbook page. I think it's time I put stop to this vicious cycle and just let myself do what comes naturally. It's time to draw all the faces!

2016

2017

So this year I've started myself off with the best place to start - self portraiture. Since 2016, I like to do a self portrait on or around my birthday. I actually did an inital blog post on self portraiture, its challenges and my first annual portrait which you can look at here. Even though I only have 3 portraits so far it's good to look back and see where I was, what I remember feeling and how far I've come. I know in the grand scheme of things 2 years isn't a long time but I can already see that my confidence has grown. 

This year I chose to do a double portrait to show different sides of me both literally and metaphorically. For a while I've been thinking about experimenting with limiting my colour palette with particular works of Jen Mann in mind. I settled on doing a tonal blue and red piece facing each other (giving strong vibes of JLo's Brave album cover which caused me to sing a lot of Jennifer Lopez both aloud and in my head while doing this piece). I'm already thinking of expanding the series, possibly doing a green piece, maybe purple. I also want to try a front facing monochrome piece with the reds and blues. I think it would fit nicely with the ones I've already painted.

The only problem I've encountered this time round with the self portraits is the feeling of vanity. It's been a while since I've drawn myself continually and so with that can come a feeling of stupidity which I know I need to check myself on. Back when I did my self portraiture work in high school - work above - I would draw myself everyday but didn't feel self absorbed because in the end it all had a purpose - getting a good grade. What I need to convince myself of is that drawing myself does have a purpose and significance outside of just grades. It helps me practice and experiment and plus if I want to continue doing original work I'm my best model at the moment a.k.a. I'm always avaliable. So shut up brain! Why do you try so hard to sabotage me?! At least I recognise I'm doing it. 

I hope in 2018 I will continue down this path of portraiture. I think I need to start trusting my gut more and my gut is telling me original portraiture is the way. 

Hazel, xoxo.

November Sketch A Day Faves

December is here! I was going to to say I can't believe at first but to be honest I can. This year has felt like the fastest year yet even though some months felt like they where going in slow motion at times. November was a pretty good month for me. I haven't drawn this much since probably earlier in the year. I don't what came over me. Suddenly I just had a burst of energy and it became really easy. All things good things come to end though as Nelly Furtado would say and I have slowed down a bit. But enough about now and here are my favourites from November and it is the first time in a while where I had to narrow it down! 

First up my squirrel pencil sketch! I originally intended for this drawing to be a quick, small sketch and even though it was small it definitely wasn't quick. Turns out drawing tree bark doesn't come as easily to me as facial features but I really like how it turned out. No better feeling than challenging yourself in whatever small way and it paying off. Plus it helps me work on my patience.

My favourite thing about using varying tones of paper is the challenge of figuring out how shade and light works. Even though I haven't mastered coloured pencil on black paper yet (still can't manage to get those colours to pop!), I love the colour palette of my sparkler drawing against the black background. Also I really love my grey paper too especially when I get to use my white charcoal and I got to use plenty of it for this Marlon Brandom portrait. Everything just comes to life when you add a highlight!

This month I also played with my soft and oil pastels some more. I have fullt come to terms that precision is not something I am going to achieve with the soft pastels but as I have mentioned before I really enjoy the difference in style and I'm beginning to appreciate the texture of the paper I get with soft pastels like in my Matilda drawing. Plus the green colours are just really pleasing to me. In regards to my oil pastel piece of Antelope Canyon I love the strong colours and the blend of oranges against the blues and purples. I'm still getting the hang of layering and how far I can layer but I've managed to incorporate quite a bit of colour in this one without creating too many layers. 

I decided I wanted to do more portraits but almost didn't do these because I had already drawn the Olsen twins earlier in the year. In the back of my mind I had pressured myself to not repeat ideas too much or at least too close together. But when I found these photographs in a style similar to the ones I had done before I couldn't say no. For some reason Ashley was harder to do than Mary-Kate. It took my three attempts of the outline to get it right. But thankfully I stuck with it. 

And my final favourites are my christmas decorations.  What I like about painting them is that I get to use my acrylics and since the mdf shapes are smaller than you average canvas, the paintings come together way faster, meaning I can do a lot more. 

So December is here. Currently I am working on a commission that cannot be shown in it's entirety until the very end of the year but when that's all finished up and I can start making more ornaments! Hopefully it will get me back in the Christmas sprirt. My problem is I get excited way too early and then run out by December. My aim for this month is to do at least the same amount or more drawings and paintings than November! The next time we will speak will probably be the last #sketchaday 2016 blog unless I do a December Faves and a full year Faves. Haven't decided yet. I guess you will have to wait and see. 

To the final stretch!

Hazel, xoxo

August Sketch A Day Faves

Off the bat I will say this month has dragged a little. Every other month this year I blinked and it was done whereas I've been convincing myself for half this month it was already September. It's not that I've been bored, I've spent most of month working and watching the Olympics (I've said it before and I'll say it again, Rhythmic gymnastics....WOW!), so it makes little sense as to why August has seemed to last so long. 

I've continued to pace out my work and have been enjoying it even though I have significantly less work to show for the month. And with that being said let's show and tell my collection of favourites.

At the start of the month I finished my AJ Michalka portrait. It seemed only right to draw the AJ to my Aly from July. I used the promarker and pencil technique from before and really enjoy how it looks in the end, especially with a bold solid colour in the background. The challenge with this one was definitely the hands which when I look back are quite similar to the hands from the Emily Blunt Huntsman portrait I did a couple months ago. I must be drawn to that particular pose. AJ was kind enough to repost the piece to her Instagram page which is always a thrill.

I finally got some black Pitt pens to try and this was my first go using them. I think they have a lovely finish and I intend to continue using them possibly for illustration work. With the dancer piece I tried to create some movement and hopefully in time I'll get the hang of that. My style is quite tight but to create movement it needs to be more loose. Not my strong point but it's a goal. And I really love my owls little face!

This acrylic painting was done specially for my Mum. She has been asking for a painting of mine and my siblings childhood teddy bears for quite a while and this was the month I finally granted her requested. Since my room is quite small it is hard to do acrylic pieces just because I don't have the best set up. Thanks to my brother I have a portable tabletop box easel which I can set up on the bed but if I'm painting for too long my back tends to hurt since I have no back support. Luckily this one didn't take up too much time and the teddies seemed to flow out of me (apart from that creepy teddy on the right). Painting this piece reminds me of just how much I love acrylics. Definitely need to think up more ideas for other canvases.

I've been seeing a lot of awesome work done with pastels online recently so thought it was time to give them a go again. As I have probably said before I find pastels a little too messy for my liking so to try and combat that I bought both pastel sticks and pencils for more precise detail. The colours are so pretty and they blend lovely. Once I have used them more I hope to do a blog post about them and how I have gotten to grips with them - if I ever do. 

This is the month of Britney Spears' Glory. If you haven't listened to the album and you enjoy pop music I highly recommend you give it a whirl. It's basically a mix of elements from In the zone, Britney and a hint of Blackout. The day I listened to the album was the day I drew this. I just got my grey Strathmore sketch pad which is such a great size. I didn't expect it to be as big as it was. Plus I was finding it hard to find a pad of just grey paper here in the UK. This pad was an import from the US on Amazon. I can't wait to see how colour pencils will work on it. So many possibilities! 

I have finally started using PayPal and taking commissions. It has been a some time coming. I had been thinking about it for a while but didn't quite know if there was a demand for it but when I did my Aly drawing last month and people seemed to be interested I thought it was time to get things rolling. This piece is for a former work colleague of mine and she has been great through the whole process. She has been like a cheerleader for me and I can't thank her enough! The next step will be to set up some sort of store, whether it be through Etsy or elsewhere, and sell prints and so on. But for now I'm just focused on the commissions and putting together a solid price list. This is another topic I wish to do a blog post on so stay tuned next month.

 

My last two drawing of the month make my favourites purely because I think they show some improvement compared to some of my other work in pastels and charcoal. All I need now is a better fixative, other than hairspray, to hold them in place so I'm open to suggestions. Also I really like the expression on the portrait piece. I'm a sucker for emotive faces.

My goals for next month are to do smaller pieces just so I can work on my speed. I can be quite slow sometimes. And other than that I just want to continue using pastels and other mediums to improve my skills. Drawing aside next month I will become an aunt for the second time so I'm quite excited for that!

Roll on September!

Hazel, xoxo