Portraits

Recently, you may have seen me working on portraits. This is new subject matter for me. I’ve taken a few classes and, as it turns out, I love doing them! In the past, I had struggled with faces and hands, they’re difficult to make recognizable. I have always shied away from portraiture, preferring instead to paint birds, animal, flowers, insects, and more recently, architecture.

In an effort to get better at this new-found interest, I am issuing myself a challenge and am calling this project, “The Lenten Portraits”. My goal with this project is just to get more adept at painting faces in an artistic style; loose, not photo-realistic, but still recognizable. I have also struggled with painting ‘loose’, preferring instead to paint in all the details.

Lent is all about sacrifice. For many, It’s a good way to grow as a person, spiritually and otherwise. Many people give up a habit or indulgence for the 40 days of Lent. It’s actually 46 days long, but Sundays don’t count, so official Lenten rules give you a day off each week.

For this project, I’m going to paint 40 portraits in 40 days – rather, I’m going to try – don’t Yoda me here. I’ll have Sundays to catch up, right?! I think with a little preparation, I can get this done.

“Where will I find 40 inspo pics?”, you ask. Well, that’s where you come in! I’ll be poring through all the photos of everyone in my friends list on my personal Facebook page. Once I paint the portrait, I’ll post a time-lapse, and the finished piece. I won’t tag you in it, I want to know if they are recognizable as the subject from which they are painted. I’ll let you and our mutual friends tag you.

If you’d rather not be included, please drop me a message asking to opt out. I don’t want to paint an unwilling subject, nor do I want to anger anyone. Conversely, if you’d like to add your name to the list, let me know that too. I can’t guarantee I’ll paint you, but it would help me to know that you wouldn’t mind. If you don’t mind either way, just don’t do anything. You may see your portrait pop-up in my news feed!

I’m not really taking requests, I get to choose the reference photos. I am looking for photos that I feel show your personality, not a typical ‘portrait’ style. I’m not Olan Mills! LOL I won’t be focusing on hair, or clothing; just the facial features. I am aiming to capture your personality in a fun and artistic style while maintaining your unique and recognizable attributes.

I’m going to kick this off with a self-portrait just to be fair. I’ve already tried to paint myself 3 times – and failed each time.. .. so wish me luck.