"This is Karen" a drawing for an artist in training

This is Karen, the completed work documented in my earlier 'wip'  in the series "Faces I Remember".  It is finished.  During the process that brought the work to this point I was continually critiquing the work.  I kept trying to get the eyes above the one third, but my inclination was to keep cutting the 'shape' down.  This morning I finally decided to find the center of my canvas.  Wouldn't you know it?  French painter Pierre Bonnard's words critiqued the work, he said:  "There should be nothing in the center of a painting."  Then portrait artist Helen Van Wyck words critiqued the work:  "In a portrait the eyes should be around the one third point."  then I said:  The Hell you say!  I'm still in training!  This is Karen and this is the way I do it.  I broke the rules, yet it works.  why?  because it is didactic and self referential.
so, there.

"This is Karen"  a training drawing
copyright debbie clarke
gloucester ma 2010
mixed media on canvas 12x16"
$275 including shipping, no frame
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3-4 weeks for delivery.

The WIP: Faces I Remember

two pics, same work.  top with white balance, bottom with automatic setting

My friend Paul Frontiero aka Capeannpainter recently posted about taking pictures of his artwork.  His issue is the photos lean towards blue.  One of his readers suggested he use the white balance feature.  I have never tried the white balance, so I did.  My simple $100 kodak digital has a white balance with three simple settings: daylight, florescent, tungsten.  I used the daylight setting, with close-up.  The white balance worked!  the top pic reads true.  I also tweeked the contrast a bit to get the pic closer to the drawing. 

 media for this face with no name (for now) is gesso, conte crayon and aluminum leaf on canvas, 14x16".  The composition is simply two shapes that i am in the process of complicating.  I use this same composition to start landscapes, standing figures, still life.     I have accumulated quite an inventory of these faces during the past three years.  some with names, some without.  This one has been on the drawing table for 3 weeks, and may or may not be done.

click the pics for close-ups.

best,

deb.

Seurat Drawings

Seurat Drawings at The Museum of Modern Art 2007

I always remembered Seurat drawings as being litho crayon on paper.  I was wrong!  He preferred conte crayon with some mixed media from time to time.  They have the 'feel' of a litho crayon drawing.  I think I will do a conte drawing and a litho drawing this week to compare the two media. 

The drawing is Seurat's "Pierrot and Columbine".