Artistic Goals 2011

1. Paint 20 paintings by December 2011
2. Host an Exhibition
3. Spend at least 50 hours on each painting
4. Paint at least 10 hours a week - Monday: 7am-2pm,  Tuesday: 7am-1pm, Thurday: 6.30pm-9pm)
5. Blog at least Once a week
6. See at least 1 artistic show every week (Tuesday Evenings or Saturday evenings) and do a review on it

 

JANELLE MONAE: Honey, I’m HOME.

Right…so what have I been up to? Well…

I am my Words

There are lots more but I won’t bombard you just yet. This one really was inspired by the knowledge that we create everything we are by the words we believe and have spoken and that we can become anything by words. It’s amazing knowing that I have full control over how my life turns out. I chose JANELLE MONAE because there was something compelling about her, yet to find out what it is though but if when I do…

I’ll keep you posted on the other paintings and  I hope you’ve made lots of progress,

Love; Emma.

Progress?

Hi All.

Just to give you a quick heads up that my laptop Screen BROKE! And I’m working on my new studio so blogging has not been as frequent as it should be. I have lots for you though. Technique learnt from Pros and lots of hand made crafts. I can’t wait to actually put them up and I’m getting a Mac so look out for the videos of how to make the crafts. I’ll be back in force by the end of September.

Till then…

Keep Progressing.
Love always
Emma.

Liv Tyler

 

Confession: I have a favourite.

Somehow I found myself more drawn to this picture than the other two I was also working on. I’ve halted the other two for the time being as I’m working on a painting as well as this drawing. Just a quick question, have you ever felt you’ve improved, or that something you’re working on is good but not good as you’d like? That feeling has been so strong most recently, my desire to be better has never been this strong. I’m sure that soon we’ll reach my desired level in art. Till then we’ll keep pushing.

I’ve got a little surprise on the way for YOU! You’d love it.

 

Love,                                                                                                     Emma

Capturing emotion in Portraits

I asked myself again and again why I felt emotionally connected to this picture. I came to realise that to reproduce the feeling in the picture I had to first feel what she felt when it was captured. So feel the picture, it is important when first learning to draw to get pictures that you like so that you can easily get to feel what you’re drawing.

The challenge still continues and I’ll post an update on the other pictures in consequent days.

Love.

Emma

Drawing Technique: Observation

Drawing what you see, its as simple as that, but to be very good at this you’ll have to be determined to improve. 1st TIP: Draw consistently.

These are the steps for drawing from observation:

• Select a picture that you find aesthetically pleasing. I personally draw portraits because I think faces are beautiful and interesting.
• Study the picture taking note of the key features .
• Start with the key features.
• Using the key features you can use your eye to gauge how far each other feature is from one another.
• From one feature to the other complete the outline of the picture.
• Don’t be afraid to draw and rub out again, do this as often as you feel necessary to get your required picture.
• Shading the details in after all the outlines have been completed.

I’ll expand on each point tomorrow on how to go about doing them.

 

Hope you’re making progress,

Love. Emma

Update: Three drawings Simultaneously

 

Least favourite: I‘ve spent too much time rubbing out on this one and it’s making progress a little slow! Not the most exciting thing ever. I really want to finish the face before moving on the the hair but the detail on her hair is too tempting to leave till last.

 

Hat Detail: when I finish this drawing, it’ll be the most detail I’ve ever done in a picture. The hat has a net on it and drawing over 1000 tiny lines made me think twice on choosing my next picture. I’ll work slowly and steadily on this so it actually turns out good otherwise the results just be mediocre.

 

 

Emotive: Most recently I’ve had the urge to draw portraits that are emotional and reflected some the discussions I have within myself about life, and what it brings with it.

Tomorrow I’ll post the first drawing technique.

 

Love, Emma

Challenge: Three drawings simultaneously

1.

 

2.

 

 

3.

 

How long will it take? No Idea. I’ll set a target for myself later on today. I was a little apprehensive upon approach of this challenge as I’d like all three drawings to be as detailed as possible. Can you work out who they are yet? I’ll give you a clue, just for the first two. The are the same person, hopefully as time goes, the resemblance will be more blatant.

Throughout last week I’d explored a range of techniques for drawing portraits as I wanted to know which best suited me. So in due course I’ll post them so you can use them in improving your drawings.

 

Love. Emma

A moment of Weakness?

 

 

Sometimes we find ourselves wishing the day had more time but after seeing this time display at Canon station in central London, I’m glad each day is 24 hours, any longer It’ll feel like a strain. So I’m ceasing to make any excuse that I didn’t have enough time in the day. Imagine a 72 hour day?No, thank you. Planning! Priority now. I know that when I don’t plan my day just seems to pass by not very productively either. So as soon as I complete this post I’ll be doing some projection planning. Especially for the rest of this month and my daily regime.

The most recent drawing you saw has been put away, I was challenged. For a while I’ve not really seen other drawings done by very talented artists and yesterday whilst browsing the net I came across some perfect pencil portraits and taking a second glance at mine I could not continue. So, I’ve decided to spend some time working on my outline as I feel that’s the weakest part of my drawing so far, so I’m going to spend most of today doing lots of face outlines, turning that weakness into a strength.

 

Keep Progressing.

Love, Emma

What is Perfect Art? What is perfect anything?

As you know this blog records a journey to perfect Art, most recently I’ve been contemplating what truly IS perfect? How can perfect be quantified? Does the fact that I see something as perfect and someone else does not, does that mean it then is not perfect?

Soon enough with all of those questions, I came to a conclusion, that perfect is whatever I deem to be perfect, If I honestly know that “this” is perfect, then it is. It matters not that someone else disagrees with that. So until the point where I think this is utmost perfection I will continue to improve.

I started a new drawing today, the drawing is on someone very famous but I’ll keep her name hidden, I want to see she can be easily recognised by you. And I realised that I’ve improved technically. Have you ever seen people draw without first drawing the outlines? I always wondered how they did that. Guess what? I started doing that today, initially I started drawing outlines but I soon saw the picture I was drawing differently, instead of outlines I saw shade graduation. It’s paying off the regime is paying off. I had not really planned to improve that quickly, I feel so happy! Usually when I find myself improving I tend to slow down a bit but this time I’ve got push myself. So tomorrow a post will be uploaded about a new regime, One that will challenge me further. What stops us from being excellent at something we love? Nothing.

Keep Moving forward.

Love, Emma