I painted this last month, but kept forgetting to upload it. This was based on a photo I took while hiking in Connemara National Park in Ireland a few years ago. I actually took this photo with the intent to paint it someday! I’m pretty happy with it. I’m really enjoying the imperfect impressions watercolor yields.
I really need to get a scanner. These photos never do my work justice. I mean just look at the color of the paper here! Does that look white? Sigh. I even tried to color-correct in PS too, but obviously did a half-assed job.
The title is “Hey Julie” because I had that song from Scrubs stuck in my head the entire time I did this.
I don’t think my watercolor skills are particularly strong, so I’m trying to improve. I am actually really happy with this piece, especially the mouth area.
Weirdly enough, this photographs worse than it looks in real life! So, this was a watercolor experiment…I’m not getting the hang of them *quite* yet. Watercolor is not forgiving, so I had some bleeding issues as well as “crap painting over this too much just…removes the paint” and had a lot of trouble getting the color and shadows of her skin right. I think I need to stop treating it like a pencil probably, and treat it like watercolor. I don’t think I’m going to get subtle gradation or the perfectly mixed skintone. (As you can see here by the filthy, splotchy look of it.) She should look more chic than homeless. Or like she has a beard. But oh well. It’s a learning process.
I don’t know why this is so horrifying. Definitely not my usual lady portrait!
This was my first assignment for an online illustration course I’m taking. Take an image (in this case, a random profile photo that showed up in my Facebook Feed… thank you Lacey for unknowingly becoming my subject!) and draw the image in three distinctly different styles of other artists you like.
1) Describe each style you chose to emulate. I tried Fiona Staples, Jim Mahfood, and Ira Sluyterman van Langeweyde. Fiona is really good at economy of line, and doing a lot with a little (linework, that is). Jim is all over the place and wild, and I don’t think mine was very successful. His hand is loose and he balances heavy ink with tiny quick lines. Ira’s style is super cute, round, and soft, with big eyes and a beautiful use of controlled watercolor and depth/shadow.
2) What did you learn while working on each of these? I feel like my own “style” is more unique than I thought, because purposely trying to copy other styles was REALLY FREAKING HARD. Way harder than I expected. I’m also too impatient to spend lots of time on one drawing…but I think I knew that about myself already.
3) Which one was easy for you? Which one was the most challenging? Why? The watercolor, surprisingly, I think came out the best. But my impatience and inexperience with them led me to painting too soon on wet areas that I assumed were dry, and then lots of bleeding and trying to fix it…oops. Jim’s style was the hardest. I think I really struggled against my natural movements and control. It felt more like my lines were an afterthought and trying to make it look messy than really understanding the process itself.
4) What elements of your experience would you like to apply to future projects? I really like the use of watercolor for color and shading (I used to use marker a lot, but I like how the watercolor came out. I think I need to try to break out of my comfort zone more often in general. Too often I think I draw from habit and muscle memory, which isn’t really good practice. I mean, it is, but not in a necessarily beneficial way that will grow my skill and make me a more versatile artist.
