Painting Studies

So, I am not a painter. Not by DNA, not by practice, not by love. I struggle with color, I always have, and painting is terribly messy, and OIL painting is worse. AND it is freakishly time-consuming and is such a process that I avoid doing it at nearly all costs.

That being said, I painted these.

Planimetric Head. These are what we are taught to master seeing. 

The idea is that if you can paint planes on a styrofoam head, you should be able to do it to a well-lit body, as they have planes too. This was not super thought-intensive.

But then you are supposed to be able to do it multiple times. Not as easy.

Very not as easy.

But I got better. Until we moved to color.

Torso Study.

Fabric Study.

Then we had to complete the ever-dreaded "Self Portrait Assignment". I hate these. People get so weird when they examine your self-portraits. They ask, "Why did you make yourself look so tired?"when you include every detail you see. And "Why did you make yourself look unrealistically perfect?" when you leave out those same details. My professor, Jenny, challenged me to use a tiny brush for my face (to force me to continue to cut the potatoes) and to use no browns in the facial deconstruction. 

Local Model. Actually, funny story. One night, while I was painting this on my balcony, my roommate popped her head out to tell me that she was going shopping for a bit and would be back soon. I nodded, earbuds still in, and did not notice that she had locked the balcony door my mistake, out of habit. I left my phone, keys, and additional jacket inside. I realized that I was locked out shortly after she left, but Had no way of contacting her. I waited outside on my balcony that for a good three hours on the arctic night. She came back and wondered what I was doing still out there. *facepalm*

Saturation Study.

Final, on wood panel.