More Concentration drawings!

Concentration Drawings 1!

Progress Updates

So, in the past week I managed to finish another project. Over the next day and the weekend, I should probably do another two. This is a little scary, as I'm crunched for time and sleep deprived. So I'm going to do another portrait of me smiling (cuz thus far I've been too lazy for it) and I'm gonna try to do it in color as well. I'm thinking that colored pencil might be faster than pastel, but I'm notoriously lousy at colored pencil technique, so we'll see.
Anyway, that's this week's plan.

Yay shades of gray...

So, starting next week, I shall play with color, and stop talking like Ignatius from A Confederacy of Dunces. That said, I really shall play with color, because all my art is boring and gray. I don't really have any ideas, I need to take some photos and stuff again so that I can come up with something to draw, but I have decided that blue and purple sound fun. No guarentees that I'll use them, but they sound appealing at the moment.
The piece I've been working on this week turned out suprisingly well. After two weeks of plowing out crap, I actually did something that looks worthwhile. I like the contrast in it, it's a little bolder than most of my art has turned out. I like bold, but apparently I'm bad at it. Anyway, I have plans to complete a half done painting this weekend as well, but that may not work out.

Egads. I've gotten nowhere this week. Okay, so I drew out what I want to paint on my canvas, but that's about it. I have a sociology test tomorrow, so it's unlikely that I'll be getting any painting done. I'll have to do most of it over the weekend, since I'm phenomenal at forgetting to bring my paint and brushes to school with me. Anyway, I have a sketch for my next project in the works, and so far it looks okay, so I am sort of being productive. Sort of. I'm trying here.
Wish me luck. :)

Okay, so here's one of the posts I owe. I've been insanely busy lately, and blog posts kind of slipped my mind.
As of right now, I'm very frustrated with my art. I am so sick of drawing myself, but I don't want to get reinvolved in a breadth project, because then I'll just be even more behind on my concentration. So even though I feel tremendously uncreative, I've resolved to pull out the camera and take some photos of myself so that I have something new to draw. I'm sick of the portrait shots. Anyway, that's about all I have to say for today. I'm now motivated to get off my butt and do something somewhat worthwhile, so ta-da...
I'm off to go find a camera.

Notable Self Portraits

Since I'm working on self portraits, I decided that maybe it would be a good idea for me to actually look at some self portraits done by actual artists. My natural starting point was Frida Kahlo--any time someone mentions self portraits, I usually think of her. Admittedly, Kahlo's portraits have a lot more personality (and color) than my own, and she's far more unique in her portrayal of herself than I've bothered with. That said, I'm honestly just trying to get stuff done--I don't really care as much as I should about whether or not it's in some way interesting to look at. Anyway, I like the intensity of Kahlo's stare, and also her use of color and emotion.
Also while browsing through Wikipedia's article on self portrait artists, I found Gustave Courbet's "Self Portrait (The Desperate Man)", which features the artist with such an intense look that I couldn't help but do a double take. Something about that particular portrait marvelously outdid most of the others on the page. It probably had something to do with the panic in his face, and also the fact that he looks kind of like Will Turner from Pirates of the Caribbean, which really threw me off. (I thought it was fanart or something at first, and wanted to know what the heck it was doing in that article.)
Francis Bacon's self portrait was also very unique. I have no idea what he was trying to portray or say with it, but it was interesting to look at. More orignal than most that I came across, that is.
So, um, I've decided that maybe I should have an expression or something on my face next time I draw/paint myself.