Lesson number 1: Don't draw family!

After speaking to the printmaker at uni, and some of the speakers at creative futures, you need to always be drawing and improve your skills. Especially when i'm trying out a new (craft-based) media, keeping and building on my drawing skills is important. My goddaughter is getting christened next week and so I thought i'd take on a personal project to do a portrait of her and her siblings as a gift. Pressure!

Now I wouldn't say that I'm particularly good at drawing people, although I do have my moments and always willing to challenge myself to improve.

  

 I obviously had to gather quite alot of reference, and had to collect pictures separately so that it looked the best way. I actually enjoyed doing this project alot, even though I sometimes got frustrated because I was trying to get a similarity in looks, I learnt alot doing it. I learnt to step away from it after a certain amount of time spent on it and then go back to it instead of rushing it and to look at it in a different way. Something I should apply to my university work in order to get the best results.

I started out with drawing out the separate portraits before pulling them together over the light box, something that shows how university has made me approach things more professionally. I then coloured it using prismacolour pencils, something that I don't usually work with but worked best for the purpose of the project. This media let me experiment with colours, blending, tones and shades, something that I don't often think about when in print. I'm learning that just because you specialise in a particular area (print) it's useful to also be capable of working in others too for different jobs. Although I do like finding ways to integrate printmaking into my work in a way when it's suitable.

I then also reverted back into my comfort zone by using graphite and charcoal to produce a tonal portrait, just to see which worked better (I like to have options).

 

So, after many hours of debating whether it looks like them, alot of frustration and numerous changes, I finally reached a point where I felt enough was enough and that if I went further then it could turn out over worked (another thing i'm slowly learning through uni). Obviously it has its flaws, looking at it I sometimes prefer the line work as opposed to full colour, and it was never going to be super realistic due to the nature of my style but I am happy with how it turned out and the things i've learnt whilst doing it. Not sure as to which i'll decide to give as a gift but glad that it's finally done!