Thursday, September 29, 2016

Me


This is me. Finally, I have fallen victim to my own brush. It's not exactly how I see myself (do I really look that intense!?) but I was going for it, like I have done with all of my portraits, drawing and painting what I see and letting the moments flow together until I feel like I have a complete portrait. When I start a painting, whether it's a landscape or a portrait, I never know how it will end up. It's what keeps me going - it's an adventure - and the act of painting changes me and I come away with a different understanding and connection with who or what I just painted that I didn't have before I started.
So, I've been thinking, after completing my original goal of painting 250 portraits, how, or even IF, I would continue The Portrait Project. I have gained much from this project, both in terms of improving my skills as an artist as well as gaining a deeper connection to my friends. But I've also realized that by working with photographs - and usually without my subject's permission - that I'm denying their participation in the process of making their portrait. So, here's what I'm going to do - I'm throwing all of the names of my Facebook friends (currently there are 477) back into my "friend jar" (The "friend jar" is a jar that sits next to my desk that has the names of all of my Facebook friends whose portraits I haven't done. I reach into this jar without looking and take a name out when I'm ready to paint a portrait) ((really, I do this)). But this time, I'm going to do "live" portraits - as many as possible - rather than working from photographs. I hope you will all join me on this new and exciting journey.
OK! Let's make some art and see what happens. Should be fun...
8x11 pencil and watercolor. #253

5 comments:

WILDSIDE said...

Handsome guy, but not quite how I imagine you either! I see you with a big smile and laughing eyes, however, can also consider how serious and intent you must be in how well you seem to capture souls with your portraits.

Very intriguing idea you have; I think I'll continue to watch this space to see what happens next!

(OK, Wildside, being a bit too wordy!)

Ken Foster said...

Thanks WS. Yeah, that's more like it. I'm a pretty friendly chap. A friend on Facebook commented that it should be called "Creating Art Face", which she described as a distant cousin of Resting Bitch Face. I thought that was funny. Hope you had a nice weekend...

WILDSIDE said...

LOL! Yes, that is funny.

Is no one taking you up on this latest challenge of yours?

I was hoping to see something new up today.

(No pressure, BTW!)

Ken Foster said...

Haha. The line is out the door.

Nah, just takes me time to get going. Doesn't help that I've been too busy to even draw!

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