portrait

Unfinished Self-Portrait

| cathmary1030

I got bored with this, so it’s not finished. Sketched on drawing paper based on a photo from 2013, then transferred on to 300-lb. cold-pressed watercolor paper. (At that point, I’m already bored, ha-ha!) I did a wash of an orange mix with matte medium, and then painted with Mars Black, messing up on the shadows.

More Portrait Practice: Grayscale

| cathmary1030

This portrait is from a black and white reference photo that, unfortunately, I cannot remember where I downloaded it from — possibly from the curated Unsplash photos here. In any case, I actually drew this one out entirely by hand (in willow charcoal). Not sure why I chose a yellow ochre-clear gesso background, but I did. 

I’m reasonably satisfied with this one — at least she looks fairly human. I can list at least half a dozen things I would want to do differently next time, but calling this done for now.

 

Let’s Face It 2024 — Week 4

| cathmary1030

I did this charcoal work as a part of the 4th weekly exercise of Let’s Face It 2024. It was taught by Jim Bentley. (He does a demo of this face on his Instagram account.) For the class he used Bristol paper — which I believe is fairly smooth — and also carbon powder applied with brushes, none of which I had. I did my charcoal piece with some willow charcoal, compressed charcoal sticks, and blending stumps. And on Strathmore Charcoal paper, tinted green.