One of the absolute joys of The Diary of Faces course is the art history opportunities to discover new artists. I am blown away by so much that I have found.... I have put into my Pinterest enough inspiration to keep me painting until I'm 200!
Grigorescu was prolific and I was interested to discover that like Chen, he studied in Paris and was a contemporary of Millet and Corot. Much of his work is quite dark and brooding but I found several that I wanted to attempt too.

My sketch

I left this one as a sketch as I liked the different tonal values.
The background on the painted version was very gloomy and the hair tended to get lost. I looked at some tips about moulding the hair around the head and took longer to layer my pencil strokes and can see a small improvement.
In the original she has an almost secret half smile and I think I've captured that?. The eyes are slightly different sizes in retrospect and the left one needs moving over a fraction.

Grigorescu Head of a Girl

My favourite painting is entitled 'A flower amongst flowers -Miss Millet. It is so pretty and light. I took a photo of the undersketch before I painted it. As I will be applying sheer paint layers to shade, it is really more of an outline,laying down, hopefully proportionately, the main features. I think in the original she is possibly lying down in a meadow and I found it difficult to give that impression.

My undersketch of Miss Millet

I was interested to discover that Grigorescu was in love with Millet's daughter but it 'didn't result in a happy conclusion'. I havent yet found out exactly why?

She's certainly gazing at him in adoring bliss....
Whilst I think I captured the delicacy of her features I like the soft focus feel of the original. I am puzzled as to why her forehead looks so white as it doesnt on the actual painting. A light trick?

Detail Miss Millet

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Nicolae Grigorescue

This was the week two focus for Sharon Tomlinson's lessons. Initially I wasn't especially inspired by the choice of portrait. It is extremely dark and difficult to work out the placement of the headscarf etc.I'm not keen on how the right eye is obscured and it is too impressionistic for my tastes.

Grigorescu Girl in Scarf

But I had a go....... I sketched it first and actually learnt alot from the process. The nose is relatively short , the face and lips full, giving it a youthful feel.
I used artistic licence with the headscarf and the eye! I drew a type of hajib I've seen some of my younger pupils wearing that is easy for them to put on. I think this portrait has good contrasting tones and was more pleased with it than I expected to be!

Grigorescu inspired sketch

I think she appears grumpy rather than pensive.....

I tried to stay with Sharon T's Acrylic version, making myself put away my other mediums as I need to develop my ability to apply glazes and work this way. I produced a
painting of which I was really proud, trying to make more of a scarf but failing miserably with cloth folds!
I liked the head tilt and the features and was pleased with the muted tones chosen, although not as dark and abstract as the original.

My girl in a headscarf

More Asiatic faces

Delicate Japanese girl

I didnt quite capture the almond eyes in this one but was happy with the titlt of the head. I was drawn to the delicacy of the features and contrast between the porcelain skin, red lips and black hair. The latter again needs much more practice.

I chose Yamaoka's work as a contrast- she has such a strong and striking face. I was amazed to read that he produces these works using an art software on a tablet. I'd be interested to try.....

Inspired by Seiko Yamaoka portrait

I've been busy honing my portrait drawing and painting skills and find myself attempting to replicate faces I wouldn't have even dared or known where to start. Georgette Chen's work led to a fascination with Asiatic features, the obvious almond shaped eyes, porcelain skin and distinct bone structure. I liked the following work of Chen's and copied it using Neocolour II's.

Georgette Chen's portrait of a young woman

My mixed media version

I was pleased with the shape of the eyes and face. The colours are obviously brighter but then the medium used was different to that of the original.

I looked at many different Asian portraits during my research and chose a few to try to draw. I liked this Malaysian beauty with her huge eyes and pouty mouth, deciding to leave it as a pencil sketch. I love the way she is looking skywards and has a dreamy expression. I need to do alot of work with recreating hair in pencil!

Malaysian girl pencil sketch

Diary of faces Georgette Chen

I've developed a real desire to become better at creating faces and found Sharon Tomlinson's online course 'A Diary of Faces', which gives detailed tutorials in producing realistic portraits. Using examples from artists, she examines how they create faces, teaching how to draw profiles, 3/4 views etc, as well as how to shade and layer paint and medium. Its more technical than some classes I've viewed and seems to suit where I'm at with my art.
Research is an element of each project and has given me a good excuse to brush up my art history! The first brief was to study Georgette Chen, (  1906-1993) a painter from Singapore, who broke the mould by becoming one of the first acknowledged female Asian artists.
This is the original I worked from:   


The eyes had very distinctive iris shapes and the nose presented its own challenges.I found the coiled hair quite tricky too. I followed the recommended palette but in retrospect probably should have made my own choices as I found the greenish tinge in the underpainting a little overwhelming. I still find working from dark to light counter intuitive after using watercolours!
I enjoyed finding out about other Chinese painters and discovered some great art in the process. Contemporary artist He Jia Ying and Pan Yuliang were two of my favourites.

The painting I've done has more depth than this photo suggests.
It appears here looking alot more washed out. I think I captured the steady gaze but the left eye begins too far from the bridge of the nose. I need to remember to photograph my sketches, so that I can
work further revisions from them.

This was my own composition as part of a journal page entitled Summer. I used the techniques learnt in Christina's tutorial but exaggerated the eyes and made the face longer and more chiselled.
I think the face is a little more contoured? I  wanted to create a goddess 'feel' in celebration of the Solstice and decided to give her a wreath of ferns, clover leaves and tiny daisies. I painted in a background halo shaped wash in 3 different greens and then over- stamped with leaf motifs. The daisies were painted in with white acrylic.
Again I used Neocolour watercolour crayons for the skin and facial features. The hair was coloured with Stabilo carbothello pastels and highlighted with Luminarte H20s. I was especially pleased with the violet wash I used under the skin tones and around the eyes and through the hair. An unusual choice but it worked giving her an ethereal glow.
What would I improve? The left eye is slightly larger! I loved doing this and am so inspired to practice further......

Learning to Draw

I've gone off at another tangent and have developed a yearning to improve my drawing skills. I have been playing around with Carla Sonheims 101 faces but to be truthful am not happy with button type eyes. I want
to be able to create bone structure using shading and eventually produce more of a likeness..... I spotted this free tutorial by Christina Zinnia on You Tube and thought I'd have a go.

I used a 3B and a 6B pencil to produce this; a torchon to blend and a kneadable eraser to add highlights. In retrospect, the face is a little wide and they eyes a touch to wide apart, but for a first effort not too bad. I was a little nervous about colouring it so preserved the sketch with a photograph.











I used Neocolour water soluble crayons and Aquarelle pencils to
finish my piece. The hair is a bit stripy but I'm pleased with the skin tones.