Time for another reflective post on my college art. I mentioned in this post that collage was a big part of my work at college. The other subject I spent a lot of time on was portraiture. Portraiture is still something I enjoy, even though it isn't my main focus right now.
I'd worked on drawing people's faces a lot throughout junior high and high school. Faces are pretty tough, but something about them kept compelling me to continue practicing, even when I wasn't satisfied. By the time I hit college, I'd made enough progress that my portraits actually started to resemble the people I was trying to draw. And then came painting.
After a very brief semester of basic oil painting, we jumped headlong into painting portraits. Looking back on these paintings, I can tell I was still struggling to capture the subtle nuances of each face. But, I can also tell I was starting to make headway in producing an interesting portrait.
Oil painting came (relatively) easily to me. Watercolor, on the other hand, was a much bigger struggle. I took a watercolor class around the same time as my second semester in oil painting and felt completely discouraged every time I tried to make something. Watercolor was so different from oil and I could not figure out how to make it work. Then we reached a portrait assignment and I painted this.
It completely blew my mind that, while my still lives looked horrible, this portrait actually turned out pretty good. I had enough knowledge and experience with faces that I could get the paint were it needed to be. After this painting, I tried my hand at other water color portraits. Some were less than stellar, but others ended up being quite successful.
I still find it amusing that watercolor became such a big part of the art I do now, when I remember how hard it was to learn. I'm actually more comfortable working in watercolor now than with oils. Hopefully, that will change as I continue to do pieces in my water mixable oil paints. (Side note: If you're interested in working with oils, but can't/don't want to deal with turpentine, I highly recommend water mixable oil paints. They've been just as satisfactory as the real thing and much easier to clean up.)
Looking at these old portraits, it's nice to see how much progress I've made. Since leaving college, I've made it a priority to be constantly learning and improving in as many areas of art as possible. And, even though I've spent a lot of time working on other topics, I know I'll always love portraits.
onward and upward,
Bethany
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