Olivia - Costruzione

I made a quick start on a portrait of Olivia ... her confident gaze made me stop for the time being. Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Acrylic
Canvas
60 x 60 cm

A Shade of Claudia

Abstracted portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Acrylic
Canvas
40 x 40 cm

Nefertiti Blues - A Shade of Olivia

Abstracted portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Acrylic
Canvas
24 x 30 cm

A Shade of Clyde

Abstracted portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Acrylic
Canvas
24 x 30 cm

Portrait Sketches (imaginary): Transparent painting on a textured underground

Series of quick abstracted (imaginary) mixed media portraits on a textured underground created with tile mortar. I started out with creating a textured layer on the paper and then tried to discover facial features in it and work from there, painting in transparent (watery) layers to let the effect of the texture show through. As the paper tends to get soaked and can start tearing, I had to stop in this stage. Perhaps I'll revisit them later.

Tile mortar, acrylic
Paper
21 x 21 cm

Steve

Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Ink
Grained paper
21 x 21 cm

In response to this portrait, Steve (Huison) used it as his Twitter avatar.

Jerry

Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Ink
Grained paper
21 x 21 cm

Ian

Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Ink
Grained paper
21 x 21 cm

Søren

Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Ink
Grained paper
21 x 21 cm

Claudia

Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Ink
Grained paper
21 x 21 cm

Tim

Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Ink
Grained paper
21 x 21 cm

Pepe

Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Ink
Grained paper
21 x 21 cm

Pepepochi

Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Ink pen, wax pastel
Grained paper
21 x 21 cm

Olivia

Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Wax pastel
Grained paper
21 x 21 cm

Ed

Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr.

Wax pastel
Grained paper
21 x 21 cm

Isabell

Quick and rough pastel portrait sketch, messing around with colours and mixtures and trying out effects. Wax pastel on grained paper (21 x 21 cm). Snelle schets met waspastels. Portret voor Julia Kay's Portrait Party op Flickr.

Reflections on an Artist's Dream

This is my main entry for an exhibition of artwork created using an iPad or other similar mobile tablet device, employing the theme of "Secrets & Stories" as their source of inspiration at West Ox Arts Gallery in Oxford (UK). The Secrets & Stories-based theme behind this work is that of an artist and his passion for and entanglement with his subject. The concept could of course refer to any artist and subject. This work however specifically is about Oxford-based artist and friend Martin Beek, who over the last year has submerged himself in the process of portraying a vast array of landscape views in the Oxford area. I used an earlier iPad-portrait drawing of Martin to represent the artist himself. Then mirrored it with its preliminary sketch combined with a collage of an iPad-landscape drawing I recently did of a sunlit autumn woodland to depict the artist's dream, the entanglement with his subject and the process of getting to grips with it: a mind spinning with images and impressions, an eye both catching and caught by the light, an artists's path, fragmented, anything but straightforward. I titled it "Reflections on an Artist's Dream (A Wider Picture - Martin Beek Diptych)"; the subtitle could of course refer to the expanded width in terms of a diptych portrait, but particularly is meant as a hint to David Hockney's "A Bigger Picture" which over the last year has been one of Martin's sources of inspiration. Mijn bijdrage voor een groepsexpositie met het thema "Geheimen & Verhalen" van werken gemaakt met behulp van een iPad of een ander soortgelijk mobiel tablet-apparaat.

Erica

Quick sketch based on a striking photo of Erica which she posted on Facebook earlier today and which was taken for a photo project with the theme "Colour". Ink pen, wax pastel on grained paper (21 x 21 cm). Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr. Snelle schets met inktpen en waspastels. Portret voor Julia Kay's Portrait Party op Flickr.

Coffee and Memories (Amy)

Quick and rough wax pastel sketch based on a photo and imagination, throwing in some perspective distortion as well. Wax pastel on grained paper (21 x 21 cm). Portrait for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr. Snelle schets met waspastels. Portret voor Julia Kay's Portrait Party op Flickr.

Portrait sketching in Kerkrade (Montmartre style)

For the promotion of the local art school (VAZOM) I participated as a portraiture artist in a Montmartre style street art market, offering market visitors the possibility to have a quick portrait sketch done for free. It soon became a complete portrait frenzy, with market visitors queuing up to have a portrait done (the photo above was made early on when things were still quite calm). I did a total of 22 portraits in four hours, most of them children, often spurred on by their parents. My art classmate Rene standing on the other side of the market did a total of 27 including a dog. Not directly perfect portraiture conditions, with quite lively children, many of them finding it difficult to keep a pose, sounds of whistles and horns (handed out by a market entertainer) sounding throughout the market and from time to time having to grab hold of the drawing board and easel to prevent them from being blown over by the wind. But it certainly was a very enjoyable experience.
I didn't get around to making photos of the individual portraits done at the market. Shown below are two quick sketches I did that morning of a photo that I had lying around to loosen up and get the hang of working with charcoal and conte again. (Stuart for Julia Kay's Portrait Party on Flickr). Charcoal and conte on grained paper (21 x 29,7 cm).
Portrettekenen tijdens "Montmartre op d'r Maat" in Kerkrade voor de Vrije Akademie ZOM. Een drukke middag, veel snelle (gratis) portretschetsen gedaan, voornamelijk van kinderen, samen met mede-cursist Rene.