portrait day one spring 2016
TRANSCRIPT
Exploring the Portrait & Self-Portrait
Glenn Hirsch
Portrait Concept
“The highest aim of portraiture is to capture a fleeting moment of lifelike emotion.”
– Rembrandt
Portraiture freezes a moment in time forever.
Portrait of Eutyches c. 50 BC.
Portraiture freezes a moment in time forever.
John Heisch
Pamela Bennett
If portraiture freezes a moment in time forever, why paint? Why not use photographs? This is a huge black and white painting, not a photograph. What does the media - and the size - do to our perception of a 'portrait?'
For 30,000 years in Paleolithic caves, the face was taboo (there are no faces in the caves).
The earliest realistic portraiture.
Portrait of Queen Nefertiti, 1450 BC
The Egyptian concept of “beauty” was similar to “glamour” photography today – high cheekbones.
How many artists have worked in the tradition of the ‘self-portrait’?
Anonymous, 1402 (detail from an illuminated manuscript in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris)
This is a detail of a larger painting. Renaissance artists often included their own portraits in larger work.
Self-portrait by Botticelli (1476).
Rembrandt did 80 self-portraits, using them to explore technique (lighting & texture), as well as theatrical characters.
Jan Van Eyck in 1433 –he asserts his authorship, his idea and voice; not a mere craftsman anymore, Renaissance artists made new claims for their art.
'Self-portrait in a hat' In this assignment - hats can give you costume and a shadow across your eyes.
Keiko Randolph
'Personality' comes from the Greek word persona, which means mask.
James Ensor, 1899
Frida Kahlo focused on self-portraits to explore dream, identity, and the imagination.
Each student selects a master to study in pastel and then the student does a self-portrait in the style of the master just studied. (Joy Stroehmann)
'Self-portrait at home' assignment - you in your surroundings.
Elliot Glass
Self-portrait in a dream assignment - "detail is the life of dreams.”
Jane Willson
Models pose in most classes.
Here is a portrait of the model with imagined background (the sea).
In portraiture, clothes are important too, they say a lot about character.
Minh-son Dang
Painting of the model - posing in costume.
Peter Demarest
Our models always pose in costume.
(Vine charcoal.)
Peter Demarest
Portrait of the model in pastel.
There are many styles in art – students are encouraged to experiment when a model poses.
Mike Dewey
Oil painting of the model - posing in costume.
Dan Browneye
Acrylic painting of the model posing in costume.
In portraiture, clothes are important, they say a lot about character.
Stephanie Lowe
Final project: portrait of someone you know.
Angela Pryor
Drawing takes
practice
Van Gogh before and after. He started the study of drawing as an adult, worked hard at it for years. Above we see his progress after the first 18 months.
Gesture and body language
Gesture drawings - 60 second drawings on newsprint as a warm-up in which you gain practice quickly finding the orientation of the head in space
Gesture drawings.
Practice describing the orientation of the head in space quickly.
Start the drawing by positioning the head as an oval ("egg") in space.The tilt of the head and the shoulders are sketched in before detail.
Imagine the head is an 'egg,' which direction is it pointing?
Giorgio de Chirico
Imagine the head is an 'egg,' which direction is it pointing?
Raphael
Imagine the head is an 'egg,' which direction is it pointing?
Renoir
Body language
The tilt of the head gives added interest to a portrait.
Auguste Rodin
Anatomy
Anatomy reveals structure
we study anatomy by drawing it
memorizing the 'landmarks' which will guide us when we draw from life.
study of Vincent Perez
The shape of the skull
The shape changes dramatically depending on your view
Front? or 3/4?
Find the boundary between the side of the face and the front.
The skull in 3/4 view (the view in which you most often see it in life).
Directional light from a single source helps to define the planes of the skull.
Otto Dix, 1913
The boundary between the side of the face and the front.
Raphael
The boundary between the side of the face and the front.
The boundary between the side of the face and the front.
Robin Groesbeck
Light and shadow on the eyes, nose and
mouth
- Eyes are in shadow;
- The upper lip is in shadow;
-There’s a 'ball' at the end of the nose;
-The chin is rounded.
Lucien Freud
Facial expression
Renee Kelley
Contour Line
Variety of line = "beauty"
'Searching line' - draw and redraw until you find what you want - this is what the masters did.
In this Leonardo drawing, the baby's legs are drawn several times.
Leonardo
Variety of line = "beauty"
fast/slow
thick/thin
light/dark
Leonardo
Variety of line = "beauty"
fast/slow
thick/thin
light/dark
What does the line say about character in this self-portrait?
Complexity and strength!
Jerry Giefer
blind contour exercise
Blind contour drawing is drawing without looking at the paper, an exercise to build sensitivity to pressure and speed, creating more variety of line (and beauty).