Round 4 Moleskine Cover, SP with Biker Buddy

Self Portrait with Biker Buddy
"tentative final"
click this and all images to view larger

Yesterday, my new Round 4 Moleskine arrived in the mail!  YAY!  I'm so excited.  Biker Buddy and I went out and took a self portrait photograph from which I painted the cover of my new Moleskine. Acrylics on gessoed Moleskine cover.  OH--I took pix of the stages again.  I will post them below.

I need to get back to work on my Fellowship application.  No more art until I hear that this round has officially started.

gesso and pencil sketch

blocking

underpainting and first coat

adding highlights and first details

Round 2; outside back cover

I wanted to complete my Moleskines BEFORE I took a video of the finished Moleskine.  I'd intended all along to make a painting on the back of my Round 2 Moleskine, so I did that tonight and the book is now, finally complete.  I will attempt to make a video of it at my earliest convenience, BUT I am still working on the Fellowship application.

This is a self portrait.  I painted it from a photo my husband took of me at a restaurant in Slovenia.

I took some pictures of the steps, but I will post the scan first.  Acrylic on Gessoed Moleskine cover.

Click images to view larger.

"final" (maybe--I always like to fiddle)

(Step 2) Blocking in with pig markers
I forgot to photograph the pencil sketch

(Step 3) Underpainting
(first coat)

adding detail

Self-portrait Time

Lately I've wanted to paint myself. By way of background, I hate seeing photos of myself. I'm always putting my hand in front of my face when someone tries to take a photo of me. And when I see the image, I think to myself, Is that how I look? Really??

So I have this idea that if I paint myself over and over, I'll overcome the disconnect I feel whenever I see a picture of myself. That's my theory anyway.

This weekend I worked on another self-portrait for my third Moleskine piece in my own book. Oddly, it started out kind of looking like me but the more I worked on it the more it ended up looking like an elderly woman that owned a card shop where I worked when I was about 13.

Taking Aya's cue (of photographing herself with her journal) I snapped a shot of me next to my self-portrait. The good news is I don't look like Mrs. Kinney--yet. The bad news is, I'm still not so good at doing my self-portrait. :)

Self-Portrait of the Artist as a Shaman at an Autumnal Poem

My last piece in Mike Kline's Big Book, and I hope to mail it off tomorrow.

The last self portrait I made was younger and prettier than I really am these days. This one I look a bit haughty, but I am supposed to look as if I am examining the viewer with a skeptical, careful eye.

Getting Stuck into the past

Caravaggio. St Matthew and the Angel. C1602
and Titian. The Worship of Venus. 1518-20

Pontormo. Portrait of a Lady with Dog. 1532-33
and a Self Portrait of Me with Bird.

Nicolas Poussin. The Ecstasy of St Paul. 1649-50

www.baggelboy.com

biting the bullet: "detail" from first sketch

Are we supposed to be waiting for specific instructions? Are we having themes or anything? I just bit the bullet and did my first sketch. I was kind of afraid to get started, so I just plunged in and did a self-portrait. It was sketched from a photograph at the State Fair in NY taken by my daughter. It doesn't look quite like me, as likenesses are hard for me. And I made myself look younger than I really am, LOL! And it didn't scan all that well. I only included a detail since you will all see the actual sketch when the moleskine gets around to you.