M2M Day 57: Upgrading to painting
This post is part of Month to Master, a 12-month accelerated learning project. For December, my goal is to draw a realistic self-portrait with only pencil and paper.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this month, British illusionist Derren Brown originally inspired me to start drawing portraits. In fact, to acknowledge this inspiration, Derren was the subject of my first portrait.
However, Derren didn’t inspire me with his drawings, but rather, his paintings, like these…
Of course, these paintings are built on a prerequisite foundation of drawing, but they also introduce a whole new skill set that I would love to cultivate.
Watching Derren paint, it seems like there are clear parallels between shading a drawing and painting a portrait: He sets a mid-tone color, adds the lights and darks, works his way towards the middle, and then adds detail.
There are also clearly major differences, like evaluating and mixing colors, general painting hygiene (letting paint dry, etc.), and best practices I’m probably not yet aware of.
And while this seems like a major leap from my drawing studies, I now have the artistic confidence to attempt a painting like this, without any (or very little) additional instruction.
In the coming months, I plan to start sketching a portrait on canvas, and then experimenting with paint.
Read the next post. Read the previous post.
