What Is A Portrait?

I think that, in its rawest idea, a portrait is an expression, weather it be an expression of a person, or a place, or a time, it is a view into the artists world, it is probably one of the most honest ways that an artist can express themselves because they are opening themselves up to the world for everyone to view. And even if the portrait isn't of the artist himself, its all still the same, the artist is still doing the same thing as if the portrait was of himself.
1 2 3

4 5 6

1.Shiva at Whistle Creek 2.Self Portrait by Jacob Lawrence 3.Georgia O'Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz

4.Portrait of Dr. Gachet by Vincent Van Gogh 5.Madame X by John Singer Sargent 6.Portrait of Gorg Gisz by Hans Holbein The Younger

I didn't know which 3 to pick because I like so many, so I picked 6 : )

1, 3, and 5 are all fairly similar in the composition, the person who the portrait is of takes up most of the picture, or, if there is other stuff, its just there to make the painting seam not totally empty(#5). In these three portraits, the main focus on on the subject herself, not on all the other random stuff around her. They are trying to show some type of emotion of the woman pictured, or maybe just her beauty as the main subject in all three. Numbers 2, 4, and 6, on the other hand, all have background objects and various things. These show the main subject in his life, or even in a single moment in his life. With there being other things to look at in the paintings, I dont think that it takes anything away from the main focus of the men in the paintings, it kind of adds a new level of being able to look at them and understand them.

The clothing that each subject is wearing also sends a different message. #1, the woman is probably naked, this is different from #5 is her elegant black dress, and that's still different from #6 in his elaborate dress.

Pretty much every artist has stuck to the idea that a portrait is some kind of view of the artist himself, or a view of another person. Some are more traditional looking, #6, and some are more modern looking, #1, 2, 3.

Surface And Texture

This is my setup for the surface and texture painting, I don't have the pictures yet, but they're coming : )

A Sence Of Place

These two paintings have very different moods. The mood in the first painting reminds me of a parent struggling to convince their child to do something, like play that cello on the floor, and the child is struggling to resist this lesson, both people in the painting seam a little frustrated with each other by their body language, his elbow on the table thing, and how she is angled towards the window with the cello aimlessly laid on the floor. This painting has an "ughh" mood. While the second painting is very different. The woman in the painting is leaning against the wall with her hand holding her head. She seams to be struggling with something, maybe something bad just happened and she is wondering what she has to do about it? And because the theater is empty, and it is probably after a show because all the lights and things are still on, is she thinking about her life? Does she want to be where she is, singing or acting or whatever shes doing there? This paintings mood is very gloomy and sort of sad.
The thing that the paintings have in common would be that the characters are all seemingly struggling with something.

White Objects Painting

I'm really excited about this painting, I really like how it turned out. I think that the final composition that I chose from my sketches was a good choice because one of the things I like most about it is the top-heavy composition. I would have definitely like to have worked on the fabric some more to really develop is as fabric, not just as a fabricish background. But overall, I like how it turned out.

Reflection On Studies In Smallness

I was really glad that we did a smaller project like these 3 paintings before we dove into actual paintings, that really helped me get warmed up and also used to the materials and tools. The paitnings themselves werent hard to do, but I did take longer on them than I should have.
Overall, they were really helpful and useful.

Where Am I At?

I'm really liking the course and all the painting that were doing, its really nice to be able to paint in the middle of the day: )

For me the most challenging part of the course so far has definitely been with timing and being able to work at a pace that makes it so that I am able to finish my work on time. This has been hard for me to do because I'm so used to working at my own pace that changing is tough, but I'm working on it, so hopefully ill be able to get a little faster.

I feel that I have progressed over all in my actual painting abilities. Ive been painting a lot before this class started, but I feel like since I have been in class, Ive gotten better at it. I'm understanding how to use colors better and all the different tools and techniques which is really great because these skills will stay with me and Ill be a better painter outside of class. I'm really excited about the class, and I hope that Ill continue to progress.

Looking at paintings throughout history affects us as painters today because it shows us all of the different things that the painters before us went through, all of their different experiences, and because of seeing this we learn from the things that they did, we try to improve on the good things that they did, and try not to make the mistakes that they made. It also affects us as painters today because we can see how various styles of painting developed and this helps us understand out medium and even personal style better.

Water Lilies by Claude Monet

Water Lilies by Claude Monet is a painting that changed the way that painting was done and the way that people viewed paintings in terms of realism. Claude Monet was the founder of French impressionist painting. This is a style where the goal is to give an impression of the nature of the object that your painting about, not to do and exact replica. Water Lilies is a painting where the brush strokes are much larger and the paint is much thicker, this all adds to the impression of a pond with water lilies. the main colors in the painting are blues and greens, which reflect the actual way that a pond covered in water lilies would look. The composition of the painting is completely the pond and just the pond. Thought its interesting to see the reflection of the trees above and also how the water lilies get bigger in the foreground and are smaller in the background. this painting is important to the history of painting not only because it represents a newly developed style of painting, but also because it shows how the culture changed along side the style.