Classical Inspiration!

Hello my Bloggy Friends,

The bonus lesson for week 20 of Life Book 2016 was another one with the lovely Pauline Agnew, who showed us how to create an Expressive Mixed Media Portrait inspired by a sketch by one of the Old Masters. I had never thought of doing this, but now I can't wait to try another one!

Here's my finished portrait - can you guess where my inspiration came from?


I think my version looks more resigned than enigmatic. My hubby said, " oooh that reminds me of that famous painting by eeerrrr .... that bloke .... eeerrm ..." which I decided to take as a massive compliment! John always tries to say something kind about my artistic efforts, but I can see sometimes that he struggles to think of something positive when I show him what I've been doing for the last four hours in my little room.

Anyway, back to the point Claxton! Pauline showed us how to create an interesting base for our portrait, by covering the paper with random splodges of colour before sketching with water soluble pencils, then going in again to add more colour, shading and detail.

I started with a piece of watercolour paper I'd been using as a test area whilst practising techniques and colours a few days ago. Then I used Inktense pencils to draw my portrait ...


Next came the scary part ... we had to mist the picture with water - eeekkk!!! but it was fine, she didn't end up with mascara running down her face :o)

Leonardo da Vinci is one of my heroes and I really enjoyed creating this portrait inspired by one of his great works. I believe that's one of the ways artists used to learn - by copying the masters. It was certainly an interesting and useful exercise, which I will definitely be trying again.

Thanks for visiting today, see you again soon :o)

Annie X xx

Comments

Brilliant Annie! The shading is superb and I immediately recognized her! My husband, and my son for that matter, have no problem telling me what they think, LOL. It's OK, I'm used to it. Men, what do they know? Enjoy your weekend :)