Self Portraits and Contour Lines

Continuous Line meets Contour Line meets
Wire Style Drawing

journal sketch by Carmen Beecher

It was my turn to lead a challenge with my weekly painting gang.  The moans were deafening when I announced "self portraits" and got even louder when I continued "...in wire-like, continuous line drawings with an emphasis on the contour."  But I passed out practice paper and we all got to howling with our first attempts, believe me, for a group discount we would have marched directly to the plastic surgeons office!

I assured the fine ladies that a likeness was not required..."interesting line" was.  Slowly they began to get a bit more adventurous in the drawings and not whine so much about the wrinkles we have been blessed with.  The idea is that once you place your pen on the paper you do not pick it up again until you are finished...thus: drawing with one long,continuous line.  Another way to imagine it is to sculpt the image as if you had one endless piece of wire.  It's a very challenge exercise.

l to r: Carmen Beecher, Carol Schiff, Mary Warnick, (below)

Kathy Garvey, Donna Vines 

MIA: Dennette Schweikert and Fay Picardi

I have learned that I can teach OR produce OR photograph the event...but rarely all three at the same time.  So my final photos are missing the end products of all 6 of us.  Here's a sample however:

l to r top: Cindy practice, Carol,

Carmen, Cindy

I love doing these, the charm of certain elements give them a Picasso-esque flavor while the eye and hand have to really work on capturing shape.  Hopefully we will all continue to work on other subjects with this same technique.

Continuously Yours,

Cindy

She's an Open Book

Not only is she an open book but she got

mentioned...honorably!

The guild where I paint had decided to have a self-portrait show.  I had a

previously done one under the bed so I decided just for fun to try

and execute an idea I had been toying around with for a while in my head.

I wanted to make a book-like painting.

A painting that was acceptable on the surface but then opened to

several more possibilities.

So this is the result.

I've been working in black and white for a bit so I kept with the theme (and

those who know me well know that adding a little red reveals my interior and

wardrobe colors!)

I used two deep cradled wooden panels and gessoed them well before painting.

The insides were a bit of this and that collage, after all this was just an

experiment.  After adding two hinges ( harder than it sounds) and an

appropriate lock (a real brain teaser) here is what I had.

The left side, below, represents my first 50 years of life: yep, a bit of a loud

mouth, an organizer, someone who wanted to lead.

And the right side of course symbolizes the next fifty years: much more of a

seeker, a follower, trudging uphill and enjoying the adventure of it all.

Well, I had no illusions of a prize with such an irreverent piece but I was tickled that

the judge insisted on awarding an honorable mention as he

found it too creative to ignore.

With that bit of encouragement I have additional more art books on the drawing board...and

this time I will have the kinks all worked out.

p.s. everyone should do a self-portrait, it really makes you think about

yourself and the image you project versus what you wish you

projected....hmmmmm

need I say: this piece is NFS!!