The Art of the Selfie

Self Portrait Painting 

I took a selfie with my phone the other day and I was pleased with the photo (not pictured here). I pixelated the image in Photoscape and then created a small painting from the image.  I then took the painting to Art Critique where it was a colossal failure - there was not a positive word to be said about it, a disappointment to be sure. I strongly wanted self portrait advice other than "Use a mirror and paint yourself." These days, with photo selfies, I want more advice on painting the self portrait, there has to be a new normal! And if there is not, why not? What are the new art norms for Self Portraits? If there aren't any there should be - I do not want a self portrait of me with a frowny mouth (which is how I think many mirror self portraits turn out). Meh! So a new Journey begins...

My first "new" Self Portrait

 I have been thinking about creating self portrait for awhile. Would you believe there is not much online/searchable for self portrait artistry? I was hoping to find some self portrait ideas online. I didn't find much, but I did find one bit of inspiration at art critique. A fellow artist at Critique said, "I am gathering all my old paints and using them, that led to this painting." And that led to me gathering up my old paints (not in my current palette) and starting my self portrait journey.

My 2nd and 3rd self portrait

I laid out my "old" paints (not my usual palette), with lots of orange and purples and found an old photo and started working on a self portrait. In a few hours, I had a rather nice result. I kept putting out wild colors and kept mixing them to reasonable skin tone! Yes, you can get bright orange and punky purple to mix with whites, reds and yellows to get accurate skin tone. Some colors in this "old" paint palette included: Cadmium Orange, Manganese Purple, Indian Red and Sap Green - all colors that I have at home but don't take out each week for art! This was good in that I was fearless with paint application.

My 4th & most accurate self portrait

And, I painted the self portrait again And again ( using different photos; 5 Self Portraits thus far) each time trying new things. I did try to use a minty green - I wanted to create a wildly colored "Fun" portrait -- but I wiped it out as the minty green was too white and cool, it really  bothered me! Bright orange and pink, bring it, but that cool blue-green just did not speak to me - even though my intention was to be wild and against the grain!

Hey, I can mix accurate colors and skin tones - from some wild colors. I feel strong in this area!
You can surprise yourself, I love color but I am not wildly creative with color! In my mind I wanted a purple, red, orange wild self-portrait and yet when I laid out all those colors, I fell in love with Phthalo Turquoise! I proceeded to create an entire portrait painting Phthalo Turquoise & white--a Monotone Portrait painting! I pulled the extra colors off the palette and saved them for later.

My 5th and Phthalo Monotone

I am soliciting for self portrait ideas and links. Let me know where and if you see any modern Self Portrait articles and inspiration! Thank you!

Finding ART Workshops: It Shouldn't Be This Difficult

Give Me a Good ART Workshop

I am art-ambitious and I like art challenges. Nothing has been more fun than taking art workshops in which I learn new things and in which often my art brain is challenged. I love art workshops but why oh why are they so hard to find?

Blame the Internet?

Maybe.
I haven't met too many Google searchable, website, savvy artist promoters. When I first moved here a few years ago, I searched constantly online for art classes and instructors. I found only one place to take classes and that was after vigorous desperate searching. Needless to say, there is a community art group in almost every town here - I have no idea how people find them because they are not finding them online! One group I have joined sends out postcards each month which is nice, but they do not update their website or facebook pages often enough. Social media is more important than ever and I expect to see updates, often!

My next issue is distance!
For a few months now I have been searching for an art workshop. My issue is that I want to find a workshop that is drivable for me. I have a ton of art supplies and even taking only paints, brushes, canvas and easel -well you see the dilemma it is a lot of stuff to take! I found a workshop that I would want to take but it is a 2 day drive --I do not love driving that seems so far! Much too far since it would be 2 day driving there and 2 days driving back. Ugh I am tired already!

Last issue - I Don't Know You

I found a few art workshops that  would be a few hours drive. That seems reasonable, although I am unfamiliar with many of the artists teaching the workshops. One important note is that not all artists make great instructors! A well known artist with beautiful work does not equate to a great art instructor. I always ask my art friends about art instructors and classes and workshops - insight and knowledge are invaluable.

What is the BEST art workshop that you have taken? Who was the artist who taught the workshop?