My first portrait

I haven't painted much in the past few weeks because I've been procrastinating a hell of a lot. The reason for that procrastination is my fear of painting a portrait. I was strongly encouraged by a friend (who is a portrait artist) to paint a portrait for a juried show. Talk about pressure.

For any painting, it is really important to observe things before you can paint or draw them. I've got some experience in observing antiques, still life and antiques but none about truly observing faces.  This is a steep learning curve.

Recently, I attended the revised Cirque du Soleil show Alegria. One of the acts included a fire knife dance performer, who never ceased twirling, throwing, eating the fire and moving the fire with his hands. I decided to paint that amazing artist.

Here is that painting nearly completed. Even though, I am proud of myself with this first attempt, I'm still not sure if I will enter it in the juried show.



Have a great week,

Danielle




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