lizzconley.blogspot.com

my approach to painting has always been much like my approach to drawing. i'm not sure the technique is all that great for either medium, but it certainly wasn't working with paint. i tend to start in one area, usually the eyes, and then when i'm done there i just keep expanding to the rest of the face. this is why my proportions are generally out of whack (see previous post). normally i have an okay eye for color but, again, my approach tended to work better with pencil than with paint. with colored pencils i put down the light colors first and then build in the darks. and since no pencil is exactly the right color there is lots of layering and tweaking of the colors that i've already put down. using this same technique with paint makes a hideous mess and always ends in disappointment (again, previous post). i decided that since my approaches weren't giving me the results i wanted, maybe i should try someone else's technique. i checked out a couple of books from the library and i can already tell that they are really going to help.
this quick little self-portrait, even though it looks like crap and still needed a lot of work when i stopped working on it, has taught me so much! it felt so strange to approach a canvas in a whole new way and there were a couple of moments when i nearly gave up and wiped it all off. but i toughed it out and i think i might have actually learned something.

getting really tired of drawing my own face!