After Schiele - bodies

"....the urge to look is interconnected with the mechanisms of disgust and allure." From Schiele by Grange Books.

Christmas dress #2

Christmas dress

Lounging on the sofa, having flicked through a book on Egon Schiele. Two more drawings followed which I have yet to paint in.

All I want for Christmas is.....

..... postcards, for my Tate Modern eternal calender, please. The pack came with lots of postcards to use, including some on the back of the months and numbers (there's a funny story about that which I'll tell another day). But they're not all my cup of tea. I already have a postcard from Gesa of her own artwork (bottom left in the calender) which is very special to me.

So I'd love more cards to use in the New Year. I'll put the address in the comments.

Lunchtime doodle

Last week I was making lunch, and sliced a tomato through horizontally. The centre core looked like some kind of muscular organ, and the seeds appeared alien for some reason. It was as though I'd discovered a hidden universe. I drew it in pencil, and ate it. Later that day I went over my sketch in a permanent fineliner, and played around with watercolour. I didn't like the background I'd painted in, so I cut it out instead. Interesting.

Inner critic,

negative spirit,

be quiet!

You're a pest,

and I have bested you.

I see you for what you are;

an attention-seeking, jealous, spiteful sprite.

I will listen to my well-wishers,

who bless me with kisses

and hugs and warmth.

Boo,

Shoo,

Off with you now.

On the first day of Christmas...

This is a snuggly creature I've made for my nephew Tom. He doesn't read my blog, so I'm safe showing it here. My son slept with it last night, and my daughter will have it tonight. Then it'll get wrapped up safely, with air holes of course so it doesn't suffocate, ready for Christmas morning.
My son has christened it 'Harry'. Amazing what you can do with an old t-shirt and other various bits of fabric and yarn.

When the glue dries I will mute and darken the background and map in the rest of my body and hair.

Making progress

This is going well. I switched to cool colours, a grey-lilac, a lemon yellow and an ice blue, and stopped trying to paint my nose, looking instead at shapes of colour and tone. As always, that method worked better than trying to paint my nose. I'm not worried about my left cheek at the moment as I think I want to work on the background next, and my neck and shoulders, before I faff on correcting jawlines etc. Maybe collage for the background? I may make a collage on a separate sheet then cut out my 'bust' and lay it over. That would stop the background laying heavy over the head. Suggestions please anyone?

Previous stages

I have found my earlier posts - looks like I started this in July 2008. I think I used a soft water-soluble pencil to start with. I got into a rut with it, so I scribbled over the part I didn't like. Then I started again in the corner with acrylics, thinking it would make an interesting mixed-media project. But, again, I ran out of steam. So I covered the bottom left corner with a scrap of brown paper (not shown) and left it for a while. That's where I picked it up yesterday, working in soft pastels. I'm off to do a bit more work on the pastel work now, and I'll let you know how I get on.