Eyes, Nose, Mouth Exercise

Purpose: To demonstrate understanding of the structure for each feature: eyes, nose, & mouth; To practice using black & white charcoal to render a drawing, using brown paper as the middle value.
 
For the mouth, I need to remember not to blend the colors, and to use the brown as the middle value, and make the light part of the shading more prominent. The lines that I draw need to be darker. I also need to shade the cupid's bow better and make it more accurate.
For the eyes, I need to remember to let brown through as a middle value. I also need to shade under the eyes more accurately and add that glimmer in the eye that makes it seem alive. I also need to work on the curving of the eyelashes and make them curve the right way and the right length.
For the nose I need to make it bigger, and less narrow. I also need to shade around the nose better to make it look like my nose is coming off my face and not flatly pressed into my skin.

2-4-15 Portrait Homework

Part I: Biographies:
Alice Neel: Neel was born and grew in Pennsylvania. She was a descendant of a Declaration signer. She graduated high school and took business courses after school, then takes the civil service exam. She then worked as a secretary for the Air Force Corps while taking art courses by night. When she leaves her job with the air force, she declines another secretarial position at Swathmore College.
Robert Shetterly: Was born in Ohio, graduated college from Harvard University with an English Literature degree. He taught himself drawing, printmaking, and painting after moving to Maine. Did the editorial page in The Maine Times Newspaper for twelve years and illustrated a children's newspaper called Audubon Adventures, as well as thirty or so books. He is well known in the US and Europe. His painting has tended towards narrative and surreal, but has also engaged in a wide variety of political and humanitarian work. Robert Shetterly lives, with his partner Gail Page, a painter and children’s book writer and illustrator, in Brooksville, Maine.
Rembrandt van Rijn: Born in Leiden in 1606 and was the son of a miller. Although his family was somewhat poor, they thought education was important. He first studied at Latin School, and at the age of 14 he was enrolled in Leiden University, but his studies did not interest him. He soon went to study art, first with his local master, then in Amsterdam. When he finished, he then started to teach art. Had four children, but only one survived. And she ended up dying soon after at the age of thirty. Died in Amsterdam in 1669.
John Singer: Son of an American doctor, born in 1856. He studied painting in Italy and France until 1884. Was England's leading portrait painter.
Part II: Similarities:
They all used some amount of color, not just black and white. A solid wall of color behind the person being drawn. They could all draw/paint ears better than I can. No one in the paintings are smiling. Can't see pupils of the eyes in any of the portraits. All people had wrinkles/creases in skin. All of them used shading to some extent.
Part III: Differences:
Most paintings had one person, but one of them had two people. Different amounts of color used (painting four was mostly shades of black, white, and brown while painting three had many colors like red, yellow, blue, green, and purple). Paintings one and two go down to the shoulders while three and four are full body. Some people look more formal/dressed up than others.
Part IV: Purposes of Portraiture:
Wikipedia Definition: "A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, or even mood of the person." (Wikipedia). I agree with this for the most part, but I do not believe that the face needs to be predominant. Like in portrait four by John Singer where the girl is turned away from the painter, that itself can show a characteristic of a person being solitary, lonely, isolated, or shy. It also shows an elegance of the woman being painted in the portrait (portrait four).
Part V: Copy Drawing:
Picture I am going to copy-draw: (Margaretta Drexel, Countess of Winchilsea and Nottingham by John Singer).