I haven’t painted in a year. I haven’t attended a painting class in 1,5 years. That should explain the lack of updates.

I haven’t been painting in some months and it feels like forever. I paid for this spring term to be able to use the Saturday atelier, but I’ve had to skip it so many times and I feel like having some free time as well. Besides, I don’t have any clear ideas for what I’m going to paint next, so it’s no use going to the atelier. I find it impossible to think of ideas when I’m there. It’s the place for action, not planning.

Last autumn I painted two portraits of my boyfriend. The first one turned out great and I was inspired to paint another one from a different angle.

Ergo:

I didn’t spend as much time and effort on this one. I like the cartoony eyes, but the background bothers me a bit. Yellow doesn’t look so good with the purple on the left side of the head, I wish I’d painted the whole background in one color.

The likeness is close enough:

(Isn’t he really cute and handsome?)

The tilt towards the viewer isn’t quite the same and the corner of the mouth that’s away from the viewer is such a bitch to get right every time.

Both of the portraits are framed by now, but I could still paint the background if I’m careful..

So there’s not much going on on the painting front. I have some aspirations for learning to paint structures and buildings among landscapes, or just indoor views. The problem is that I feel like I need support and feedback and guidance to learn that, since I have barely painted anything of that sort. Perhaps I can participate in one of my previous painting teacher’s classes next autumn.

I’m so out of blogging shape. I think I will blog about my latest book purchases next. Or about knitting. My highbrow activities in general.

I haven’t blogged about painting in a while. I have finished another portrait of UncleEnsio, but I felt like posting an older painting first.

It’s about a year old, or maybe I painted it last spring term, can’t quite remember. Visually it seems to be ancient. I feel like I’ve come a long way since, as far as my skills. Then again, I wasn’t as invested in this one as I was in the Ensio paintings… strange that.

So this is a portrait of Dichen Lachman, an actress who made her breakthrough in Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse, a tv series that I absolutely loved. Too bad it got cancelled. I like science fiction so much, especially when it’s kind of semi-realistic.

Dichen is Australian with a Tibetan mother, so she has a beautiful Asian look.

I didn’t really do justice to her with this portrait, but I like how the hair looks quite natural. The face is much more yellow in reality. I’m kind of annoyed by how different my paintings, the colors in particular, look when I take a photo of them, in contrast with the real thing. I always have to tweak the photos, but there are only so many options in the MS Office picture editor…

Anyhow, I have a strong intention to start painting again before the end of the year. I’m still keen to learn some landscape painting, especially with an urban exploration theme, but I feel like I’d like to get feedback for that. I feel like a toddler learning to walk when painting anything else but faces. I’ll just have to see about it.