[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-virtual-studio-portraitchallenge":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Whenever I need to do a fun warmup drawing, one of my favourite things to do is copy an old portrait for inspiration. Here's one I did last week, based on a miniature painting I saw tweeted by the Wallace Collection (\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/WallaceMuseum\">@WallaceMuseum\u003C/a>): \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/70352_original-c7c2ef5cdf.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nI thought it could be a fun challenge to bring to the Virtual Studio (\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/StudioTeaBreak\">@StudioTeaBreak\u003C/a> on Twitter). I put out a little poll, and the majority wanted to keep going with the \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/shapechallenge?f=tweets&vertical=default&src=hash\">#ShapeChallenge\u003C/a> but do an old-painting-based challenge once a week. (So let's try Thursdays!)\\r\n\\r\nI noticed something cool, by using an image a museum had tweeted, and including them in my tweet with the sketch, they were really pleased and retweeted it. This picture even got retweeted by the incredible Hermitage in St Petersburg (\u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/state_hermitage\">@stage_hermitage\u003C/a>), which made me SO happy. :D \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/70420_original-23cf50105d.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nDrawing challenges like ours, bringing together people of all ages and drawing abilities, totally fits in the educational side of what most museums are trying to do. So when you're tweeting you're drawing, consider not only adding #PortraitChallenge but also the museum's twitter handle, and you never know, you might just get a retweet to all their followers! :)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/70864_original-e312d55af5.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nWhy portraits and #PortraitChallenge? There's something very engaging about drawing someone who's looking back at you. And if you like, you can simplify it right down to something as simple as an emoji smiley face. Or you can have fun playing with the details. \\r\n\\r\nOne of the most valuable projects ever set for me was at college by an old Dutch professor named Charles Stegeman, who had me keep a notebook and every day, find a piece of art that I liked and spend an hour looking at it and writing down all the reasons I liked it. I also made sketches, and got really excited discovering compositional secrets the painters had used. Here are a few pages:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/71127_original-5cfede5a0a.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\u003Ci>Studies of a Giocometti self portrait, 1954, and Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci, 1490\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\nWhen I copy a top-notch painting, the painter has already made a lot of hard decisions for me, so my drawing has a chance of looking more interesting than if I'm drawing from life. But then I find myself internalising the artists' decisions and bringing them into my drawings that aren't copies, and my drawing gets better. \\r\n\\r\nOver the past few years, I've had even better fun being a bit more playful with the images and sometimes turning them into a bit of a joke. They don't always look all that much like the original painting, but it doesn't really matter; the original gave me the idea. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/holbeinhead2_zps43cad077-d6b1b9ff9d.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSometimes I draw myself into the painting, wearing the same clothes. (This one I saw in the Lowry Museum in Salford.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/69317_original-d0bccd1f74.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nTry to record the name of the painter and if possible, the name of the painting and the date. Otherwise there's a chance you'll want to find the original later and spend ages scouring the Internets trying to track it down. Also, it's always good to credit the artist, even if the copyright's way out of date. And the name may come in handy if you decide to write the character into a story.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/mcintyre_hermitage1_photo-1c63f42e51.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nSometimes you might just find an odd way of drawing - like Picasso! - and have fun drawing your friends in the same style. (Here's some portraits Sam Reeve and I made when he was ten.)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/69691_original-a105403baf.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd another of my studio mate, in the style of Dora Maar, painted by Picasso.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/69910_original-7428405c89.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nI had fun turning this famous oil painting portrait of Pushkin by Orest Kiprensky (from the Tretyakov Gallery, \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Tretyakovgal\">@Tretyakovgal\u003C/a>) into more of a woodblock style drawing:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/69438_original-12728218f3.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">\\r\n\\r\nAnd these old rock art paintings, tweeted by \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/africanrockart\">@AfricanRockArt\u003C/a> and \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/britishmuseum\">@BritishMuseum\u003C/a> inspired a cartoon. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/africanrock_bm_zpsuhessiua-a7006ec9d7.jpg\">\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/AfricanRockArt_lj_zpse93wrsyg-61de142a01.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nDon't feel you need to interpret a drawing at all like I have. You may want to simply, add different colours, create it on a plate using food, make it serious, stupid, whatever you like! Here's our first portrait, \u003Ci>The Laughing Cavalier\u003C/i> by Frans Hals, tweeted by the Wallace Collection. (You can use that one, or if you want to pick another portrait, that's fine, too!) Don't forget to add the #PortraitChallenge hashtag and we'll see you at \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/StudioTeaBreak\">@StudioTeaBreak\u003C/a>! :)\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/wallace_laughingcav_zpsnp6k214j-b2b936243e.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n------------\u003Ci>EDIT\u003C/i>\\r\n\u003Ci>Thanks to everyone who took part in the first #PortraitChallenge! Here are some amazing reinterpretations of The Laughing Cavalier:\u003C/i>\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/71641_original-c79dc172c5.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\">","2016-03-31T05:10:00.000Z","virtual-studio-portraitchallenge",[],"virtual studio: #portraitchallenge",1776628728264]