Week 24 of Lifebook 2013 - As I write this entry, my eye is staring back at me. The eye that I drew and painted for the emotions theme for week 24 of Lifebook. We were instructed to take a picture of our eyes and then paint a portrait. It took me a while to get up the nerve to do this one. I had given encouragement to a fellow lifebooker who was having a problem getting started. Quietly, I was having a problem also. I took the photo(it really felt strange to take a photo of me) and realized that my eyes were quite a bit smaller than most of the eyes that had been painted by fellow classmates. Oh horror of horrors, small and almond in shape, what was I going to do. You see I first had to trace your eye on transparent paper and then collage paper that would be painted over. Could I have enlarged my eye? Probably, but then it would not have been the real me, it would have been a "photoshopped" version of me. So, after a rather interesting conversation with myself I traced the eye, iris and teeny weeny pupil and began to collage with small bits of paper. It was looking good. Whew I was on a roll.
My fave part was painting the background (learned another cool technique). Prepping the page; wet it with water and then lay on a light coating of gesso. Since the paper was curling, I turned it over and wet the back so that it would lay evenly (think I got this hint from one of my facebook buddies). Once the page was dry, following Kelly's (our instructor) instruction, I wet the page and then painted my flesh tone. Since I am a person of color, I used a deeper color flesh tone paint (can you tell I am too lazy to get up and look for the name), and dabbed it with paper towel to create texture. I love how it came out, I mean love it. Background textures just sing to me. Anyhoo, once the page was dry I glued my eye onto the page with Matte Medium and painted the eyeball, Iris and pupil. To add drama to the eye I used a stencil to add drama and texture in cobalt turquoise and cobalt teal. I also added shading to give more emphasis to my eye since it was so small. The shading around the eye lid gave it depth. The words "The eyes tell the story" are so true for me. I have been told that people can really tell what I am thinking by looking at my eyes.
I was a little heavy handed making my lines in the Iris, need to practice using a lighter touch, but over all I am really pleased with this painting.
I have learned so much in the past six months about painting and myself. My goal for the remainder of the year is to just paint for the heck of it. It has been on my mind for the past couple of weeks that I need to paint and draw outside of weekly assignments and just see what I can do. I am going to make a book to take to China, it should be fun to make. Will post a copy when I am done.
Take care dear reader. Pilgrim
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