Let's Face It! - Week 30 on Egon Schiele

Week 30's instructor led us through a great exercise of getting to know our facial bone structure (a way in which Schiele painted). That is what the first two images above are about.

Using a paintbrush with our dominant hand, the other hand was used to feel the facial bones as we painted what we felt with our eyes closed.

This was done three different times with a different color each time. These were considered warm-up exercises to get into an expressive mode of painting.

The images to the left are separate paintings done from the same photo after the warm-up exercises. The figure on the right is in acrylic; the one on the left is in watercolor crayon and markers.

What I learned is not to be afraid of work that looks unpleasant or strange, or fearful of applying paint with free-form brush stokes. and that painting and drawing loosely has its own character and charm.

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Cay Denise

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