For this weeks traditional task we had to do another coloured pencil portrait from life but this time we had to use a mixture of both warm and cool colours. I thought carefully about here the different shades would be on the face whilst also carefully picking out the key tones from the still life model. The coolest shades were around areas that were lower down on the face around the chin area. the warmest areas were around the eyes and cheeks as there is a lot more blood vessels on a human face in those parts. Yellow tones were more prominent around areas of thinner skin such as the forehead.
Again since this piece was in coloured pencil I wasn't able to do a pencil sketch beforehand and therefore I started by sketching out the face using some yellow and skin tones and blocked in some of the most prominent shadows. I had to finish this piece at home because I ran out of time hence why some of the darker areas do look a bit wrong. I am pleased with the resemblance of the piece however I wish I had been able to finish this in the lecture using the model as a refence the whole time. I used an image online o a similar model and lighting setup to influence my finishing touches to the piece.
As expected I was quite challenging blending in the warm and cool tones together and there are some areas in which this wasn't as successful due to my limited time. I think next time I could like to include more lighter blue shades around the nose and mouth and anywhere that has some veins nearer the surface of the skin. The cooler tones I picked were more cool purples and browns rather than blue which is what I usually use for colour pencil portraits. The hair was not as successful as I would have liked as this was one of the areas that I had to do with no refence I was struggling to work out where the shadows and highlights would tie into the actual position of the hair strands.
Overall I am pleased with some elements of this piece however I would like to further develop my use of coloured pencils to create light and dark tones based on a warm and cool colour pallet. I think the facial anatomy for this could have been better represented through the shades too.
Contextual task
This weeks contextual task I had to choose an impressionist portrait and discuss some of the features of it. I have chosen to look at this painting by Manet in 1872 it is called 'Bethe Morisot with a bouquet of violets'. I chose to look at this piece as I was immediately drawn in by the colour pallet that the artist has chosen. I find the very dull and muted tones of the browns and harsh black really impactful and it definitely creates a dull and serious atmosphere. The woman herself looks quite pleased with a resting normal expression in contrast to the almost sad looking colour pallet that has been used. There is a strong light coming from one side of the face make the colours loom slightly more saturated than those on the right side.
I was really drawn in my how dark and big the eyes of the subject are and how this really utilises the contrast of the very dark shades against the muted greyish browns of the hair and skin. the sombre atmosphere maybe suggest that the subject could have been going to a funeral. The background of the pieces heavily contrasts that of the foreground since it has been done with a light greyish and cream colour making the sharp black figure in front stand out considerably. The brush strokes are quite big and loose using only sharp bold strokes to create details such as the hair and the shape of the hat. The artist has very cleverly been able to captuer a lot of expression and features using less detail and more broad movements.
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