Week 4: Face-ing the Facts

For this week, I mostly focused on learning how to paint facial features more dimensionally (based on my first piece, this was clearly necessary), as well as how to perfect my proportions. I quickly realized that there aren't many tutorials on how to improve proportions specifically with oil paint, so I was only able to watch one. Although my proportions aren't the most realistic, I think if the facial features I paint become more realistic, the proportions will naturally follow.

Most of the anatomical videos I watched focused on eyes. One tip almost all the videos touched on was painting the eye sockets before the actual eyes. This will cause me to worry less about the details of the eyes at the beginning of my painting and focus more on blocking in the colors of the face. Another topic that was focused on is ensuring that the sclera (whites of the eyes) is never pure white.

You can see here that no part of the eye is pure white, including the highlight

Even though this is pretty obvious, I found this part of my tutorials very helpful. I tend to always just make the sclera a pure white, which makes the piece appear flat and lifeless. The final tip that stood out to me was to constantly cross-reference your eyes, meaning working on them at the same time as well as constantly looking pack and forth between your painting and your reference for accuracy. Without doing this, the eyes tend to become uneven or lopsided, which doesn't really go along with my goal of realism.

In terms of other facial features, the videos also detailed how to outline things like the nose and the lips before starting the painting. I learned that it's best to start by blocking out the significant planes of the face first so that the specific features and details fall in place more easily. For the video on proportion (fourth link down), the artist suggested to view the planes of the face as shapes so you can more easily fill in the areas while keeping them accurate.

For this week, the tutorials I watched are below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IAaomGpvEA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQmcoih_Na8&list=PLaOE-OZ6Dah-QZkLVh29aZGY6lWRDPYTs&index=26

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgW4-gBdOD8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7H7HDALf7dg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtsEOXmqm1k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkexgkU-tBA

I'm really excited to implement what I learned this week into my portrait next week. Stay tuned!

P.S. For this week, I commented on Sloane, Sam Greene, and Victoria's blogs.

Weeks 2-3: Trials and Tribulations

Long time no see!

I've already learned so much since the last blog. While I definitely gained some helpful techniques from the YouTube videos I watched in Week 2, most of this learning was through making mistakes. And trust me, I made a LOT. But let's rewind here. I promised you my baseline painting in Blog 1, and I must deliver. 

It's...a start. It really could use more shading and accurate proportions, but it'll do. A baseline isn't supposed to perfect. I did have difficulties with this piece, though. For one, I had yet to learn how to properly use oil paints. Oil paint is very thick and is best used with lotttts of medium/thinner. I didn't know this and smeared it on the canvas like any other paint. And due to its viscosity, the thick layer of paint became muddied as I added color to the portrait. It ended up taking five days to fully dry 😬. But it's all a part of the process. As Bob Ross so famously said, "We don't make mistakes, just happy little accidents". 

For Week 2, I followed YouTube tutorials from seasoned artists on how to paint using perspective and light/dark.

Here are the ones I watched:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLjzEmP4534\

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVJAJTk2uNI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=736EHKQWjGY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrqwaWh5z0k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzHt7RrTyhc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgE-ZKlV0ko

I found all of them very helpful and took notes on each as I watched them. My key takeaways were to identify the horizon line and mark everything where I wanted it to be on the canvas. I also learned to not paint details until the end and rather focus on blocking out shapes. Finally, with all my paintings, I should generally start with the darker parts of the piece and gradually move to the lighter ones.

With my newfound knowledge I began to work on my Week 3 landscape. (The baseline was a struggle, but oh boy, was I in for a treat with this next piece). It started out fine; I had picked a reference depicting snowy mountains on a lake with the moon peeking out from behind. I began to paint, but I forgot one crucial thing: the thickness of the paint. Once again, I coated the canvas in hefty layers of paint and was unable to incorporate any shred of realism into the piece. This was incredibly frustrating considering I had spent a good chunk of my day working on it. Nice going, Keira. 

I was so close to giving up and just posting my second grade-esque painting on this blog. But I didn't. The whole point of the Genius Project is to make progress and improve. By not putting my best effort into this painting, I would be defeating the project's purpose. So I set my painting aside, pulled out a blank canvas and rewatched one of the tutorials. I knew I had it in me to make a nice landscape piece, and I did. The key to my success was outlining each object at the beginning and working my way from background to foreground. And this time, I went heavy on the paint thinner. Because I kept going and pushed myself to keep trying, I now have a painting I can say I'm proud of.

These were a very eye-opening and learning-filled two weeks. I'm really starting to have fun with this project and can't wait to see what the next few weeks have in store.

P.S. I commented on Weston, Sonia, and Diala's blogs for Week 1

Week 1: The Beginning

I've been creating art for as long as I can remember. Literally. 

This is an art class I took when I was six!

I cannot imagine what my life would look like without art. When I was little, I would make art with any medium I could get my hands on: watercolor, acrylic paint, clay, pastels, crayons, pencil, almost anything you can think of. But the one significant medium I've never used is oil paint. 

Oil paint is traditionally used in realistic paintings and portraits: the center of my project. Since I have no experience using oil paint, I have no idea what I'm getting myself into. I obviously know that within these next few weeks, I will be nowhere near the level of a Gustave Courbet or a Rosa Bonheur: that's a given. I mean, "The Gleaners" by Jean-François Millet took two years start to finish! My one hope for this project is to be able to create paintings that somewhat look like their references. I also want to get better at painting hands. Like AI, I've never been able to get those right. 

This brings me to my goals. I'm aiming to:

• Understand the use of values in paintings and how to apply them
• Become well-versed in various perspectives, including one-, two-, and three-point perspective
• Improve anatomical accuracy and proportions
• Show a noticeable improvement in my artistic ability through my work
• Be able to create realistic portraits and landscapes

It's lofty, but I think I can pull it off. As for mentors, the only artist I know is my aunt, who I will 100% be calling for advice on my paintings. She paints still-life paintings and landscapes in her free time that my family has hanging around our house. Otherwise, I'll be relying purely on YouTube art tutorials. I may use other creators throughout my journey, but as of now, this is who I'll be learning from:

https://www.youtube.com/@SIMPLIFYDrawingandPainting

https://www.youtube.com/@FlorentFargesarts

https://www.youtube.com/@zarinasart

https://www.youtube.com/@DrawMixPaint

Now that I have goals and online resources for my project, I need the supplies. This is where the trusty craft store Michael's comes in. It's a big store with all the craft supplies and other knick-knacks you could dream of, so it's easy to get lost and overwhelmed. I needed to do some preliminary research on what I was buying. I knew I needed basic painting supplies: canvases, paintbrushes, palettes, etc. But as I've said, I know nothing about oil paint. Which quality do I pick, and how much should I splurge on it?

This led me to an art subreddit that had a specific discussion on oil paints. I know, not the most credible source, but bear with me. By quickly scanning through the thread, I noticed most people recommended Windsor & Newton's Winton Oil line. The set I found at Michael's was about $32, which seems like a lot until you compare it to professional sets that cost upwards of $90. I also picked up oil paint medium to feel like a true artiste.

So let's talk timeline. For week 1, I'm starting by collecting all my supplies. I'm also painting a baseline portrait to gauge my current skills and to compare my final piece to (the finished baseline piece will be in the next blog). For the rest of the process, I will learn a skill one week and apply it in a painting the next, culminating in one final mega-painting for my TED Talk.

I've got a lot of painting ahead of me, and this is just the start. Until next blog!