Self-Portrait underpainting
Since I missed my oil painting class on Thursday (hauling Seanie off to get his nose messed with by a surgeon takes time) I set up a temporary work space in the summer house. It's essentially an old building in the backyard hastily crumbling into a shack (Seanie would probably disagree with my description, but there are holes in the wall big enough to put my hand through, so I stand by my word choice) that gets used during the summer for barbeques. Right now, my brother-in-law is storing his summer furniture in there. I propped my canvas up against a board on the barbeque, brought out a cup of coffee - it was quite chilly - and started mixing paints. My goal was to finish the underpainting for my self-portrait, and the challenge came from the fact that my teacher had forbidden us from sketching on the canvas. We could do preparatory drawings, but when it came to getting the image on the canvas it was all paint.
I posted a picture of my concept drawing last week. For the painting, I tried to stay as close to it as possible. Some of the facial features didn't quite work - in the painting, my eyes look a little more almond and cat-like, while the nose is less accurate. But I rather like how it turned out:
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After I spent the morning painting, I went over to Kitty's house and played with her daughter, Kairi. It was fun; I got to hang out with Kero and Bandaid, and Kitty attempted to teach us how to crochet (but we were terrible at it). Crafty days are the best!