Last Homework: Self Portrait in the Style of Alice Neel
The challenge of our last homework project was to create a self portrait in the style of Another painter. I chose Alice Neal because my initial drawing had shade of her work. The real challenge, after having worked so long on my realistic portrait, was to not stray away from the style I had chosen. I am not positive I have managed to meet that challenge. The following is one of Alice Neel's many portraits as well as her self portrait.
Alice Neal was a well-known and prolific portrait painter, having painted portraits of Andy Warhol, for instance. Her influences were German and Euro-expressionist. Ironically for me, she shunned the impressionist artists that were such a strong influence on painters of that time. I too, am influenced strongly by Renoir and Monet. So, It seemed a bit strange to be so drawn to her work.
However, what drew me most to her work was the expression in the eyes. And that is where I tried to stay true in my painting. When I started this morning, I started from this setting:
I obviously had a lot of work to do, but the first issue was the background. A pale background just was not right for this painting so I chose to use a mixture of black and alizarin red. I chose this based on the color of the shirt in this painting
I had thought about a pure gray, but decided it need to have some contrast. Thus, the alizarin red. I knew from my other portrait that red worked well with my skin tones.
I had printed the picture I had taken the day I started this painting to compare the shadows so I would be set up the same in my work space and then started working on the values. What I had not successfully don in the first round was show the proper values. Because of the windows in my workspace, there was a definite bright and dark side to my setup. So, I worked to bring that out. The eyes were my lady task. I wanted to bring the proper coloring in without losing that expressionist feel. I hope that I have manages to achieve my goal. For now, I will let it sit and decide later if I strayed too far.
Alice Neal was a well-known and prolific portrait painter, having painted portraits of Andy Warhol, for instance. Her influences were German and Euro-expressionist. Ironically for me, she shunned the impressionist artists that were such a strong influence on painters of that time. I too, am influenced strongly by Renoir and Monet. So, It seemed a bit strange to be so drawn to her work.
However, what drew me most to her work was the expression in the eyes. And that is where I tried to stay true in my painting. When I started this morning, I started from this setting:
I obviously had a lot of work to do, but the first issue was the background. A pale background just was not right for this painting so I chose to use a mixture of black and alizarin red. I chose this based on the color of the shirt in this painting
I had thought about a pure gray, but decided it need to have some contrast. Thus, the alizarin red. I knew from my other portrait that red worked well with my skin tones.
I had printed the picture I had taken the day I started this painting to compare the shadows so I would be set up the same in my work space and then started working on the values. What I had not successfully don in the first round was show the proper values. Because of the windows in my workspace, there was a definite bright and dark side to my setup. So, I worked to bring that out. The eyes were my lady task. I wanted to bring the proper coloring in without losing that expressionist feel. I hope that I have manages to achieve my goal. For now, I will let it sit and decide later if I strayed too far.
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