Art?

[El Kabong]

Here's my progress on my Van Gogh self portrait...let me know what you think @Greenbeanz

[El Kabong]

I'm not working on the same exact scale of course so the details seem a bit off as does the color, but I will just go back over those spots again and eventually it will look better. I have some ideas for other paintings I want to do after I finish this one and I am very excited about those.

[Beanz]

Here's my progress on my Van Gogh self portrait...let me know what you think @Greenbeanz

If you are enjoying it then that is enough. If you love doing it you will do it more and improve each time. It is difficult without seeing the canvas to ascertain technique, particularly impressionistic effects like open brush strokes. Van Gogh himself started by copying prints but these he drew and drawing when you are not in class, even if this is just dodling figures and teaching yourself things like perspective, will help your painting immeasurably. You have blocked out the colour and subject well but need to employ a much smaller brush next and take note of the halo effect that he has used as well as the direction that he applies each stroke with. He worked fast but with years of practice to draw on, using colour very expressively. Replicating his palette is probably unnecessary right now but it and the cheap board and tightly knit canvas he often worked on are also important features of his style. Thanks for being brave enough to share your work mate. Good luck and have fun with the next stage and your future pieces.I look forward to seeing them.

[Andre]

Here's my progress on my Van Gogh self portrait...let me know what you think @Greenbeanz

I like it ,he has Marty Feldmans eyes.

[Andre]

Found a decent chunk of art in some music this morning. Not for everyone I imagine, but it got me in.

[Andre]

[El Kabong]

My progress on the Van Gogh

[El Kabong]

Oi @Greenbeanz you cunt! Rate my painting!!!

[Beanz]

Oi @Greenbeanz you cunt! Rate my painting!!!

There is a lot of anger and unresolved rage in it. The underlying theme seems to allude to firearms and the dispersal of bullets. Where the originals luminosity bathes the viewer in a mood of awestruck reverence your interpretation is more like a vortex of hate, sucking the viewer into a debate. Vincent posed questions to himself, and the viewer, with his work, often seeing himself as if anew, his pointillist brush strokes using colour as an emotional conduit in the service of a feeling. You have taken the blue and pretty much shouted it onto the canvas, scaring the krap out of the pigment and backing it into a retreat that has ended with it spread across the background behind your subject. It is as if you have applied the paint from behind the painting, firing a huge dumdum bullet which has exited leaving a huge wound around his left eye. Without being cruel I would describe it as lacking in finesse. It is indeed bold as a pair of bright chequered golf trousers but I fear a subtler pair of trousers and a smaller stitch would have reduced your handicap somewhat and put you on more of a par with old one ear himself.


Seriously though, I can see where you are going. You have started to introduce a much subtler rendering of light and shade and endowed the portrait with a much more solid shape and sense of perspective. You have done well to recognise the shadow falling over the right eye on the original and have replicated that in your own version but don't forget it falls on that whole side of the face. You want to get some green into the background, his face and jacket. You have sensed this already by applying it to the tip of his nose and under his chin. Start with a smaller brush next and concentrate on a small section. If you have paints at home you can practice with them and experiment with different sides of the brush and ways of applying paint. Without an original painting in front of you it will be hard to replicate the brush strokes but your tutor should help you, but the best way is to go to a gallery or museum and find some work done in a similar impressionistic or even post impressionistic style so that you can draw some inspiration form a true 3 dimensional rendering of visible strokes and use your eyes. Look and look again.

Great work mate. For a novice you show real promise.