Study at your own pace. Online access to your tutor. For all ages and abilities. Improving your skills or furthering your art career? We have a course for you.
Study at your own pace. Online access to your tutor. For all ages and abilities. Improving your skills or furthering your art career? We have a course for you.
Welcome to the amazing results of our latest art challenge. We are absolutely delighted with the response to this weeks theme. We were not expecting students to accompany photos of themselves with their abstract portraits, however It was so wonderful to see. Not only to be able to put faces to names but also to see how the portraits have developed and the reference photo used.
We have chosen Pete Woolgar’s abstract painting as our feature image this week and absolutely love it. Such a great concept, completely effective and it made us smile – we hope it makes you smile too!
We also would like to mention Vera Jouadi’s watercolour which you can see below. It has been beautifully painted, the colours are fresh, the skin tones are superb and the circles were an excellent idea to make the whole piece abstract. Great work Vera!
Student Barbara Schunk created three abstracts for her challenge, a more traditional style first and then following on, each piece became progressively more abstract than the last. We love the thought that students can develop their artwork and build upon their ideas on the completion of each piece.
All of the submissions this week are outstanding, each and every piece has been thoroughly thought out and creatively painted and drawn. Well done to everyone and we would like to give special thanks to our students for allowing us to show their photos on our blog too.
Stay tuned for the next challenge coming soon!
here’s my abstract self-portrait. Not sure it is really abstract, but I had a lot of fun while painting it Véra Jaouadiwhat a cool challenge! I send you a triple as it got more abstract with each picture (even if it is not so similar to the original photo). But I had a lot of fun doing this. Barbara SchunkIt was quite an interesting challenge this week! I decided on trying to copy my photo which I had used the magic pen effect image on photos, and I attach that photo and the original photo too! I used silver and gel pens. Pauline BurkeWatercolour on mixed media paper A4 Lynn LockAbstract self-portrait. “ Abstraction of the mind” I once was in so much mental turmoil that I stared at myself in the mirror and felt so detached from myself than it looked and felt like one side of my face was going up and the other down. This was a quick 40 min spontaneous drawing with my kids felt tip pens and a sheet of A4 of printing paper. I drew what I felt, my memory of it. Becky HarpurThis is my abstract and I believe also figurative self portrait. It was an interesting study. And the result is quite entertaining. Oil on canvas + glitters. Mila ZinzenGuess it’s spot the difference…… Acrylic with more than a helping hand from the Painnt app! Norman TharbyThis is my first post, weekend challenge and my first abstract self portrait!!!!! Am loving the drawing and painting course and as I’m still concentrating on the drawing aspect my picture is in pencil and coloured pencils. My children said “Mummy there’s loads of butterflies and beads.” So I’ve called it that…’ Beads and Butterflies’ started on A4 finished on A2. Included my photo too!!! Claire Cross Coloured pencils. I have taken the idea from the Portrait Artist of the Year 2020, a coloured pencil artist whose style is unique and slightly abstract. Rosalind SpillingMy first, and surely last, abstract self-portrait. Initially entitled ‘the Tulip Portrait’ (because I love flowers), frankly this has more of a whiff of ‘Court Jester’. Well, I like a laugh too. Julie SmalleyThere was a charity party in my old grammar school called “crasy party” (That’s why this hut made by my sister.) Acrylic on canvas. Katalin Zele-KissWhat a challenge this was! Completely out of my comfort zone and a tribute to one of my very favourite artists. I’m not sure it looks much like me but I feel I’ve captured something in the expression…and then I had the urge to go a stage further with the abstraction – had a ball anyway! Thanks for such a wonderful weekend challenge. Sarah EgertonFrida Kahlo meets Andy Warhol….. Gouche and coloured pencil. Serena Gauselphoto I wired from and 4 picture edits before a graphite drawing leading to the painting. Lou Addison-Brown this was definitely out of my comfort zone but here are my two attempts at abstract self portraits. Kerrie Muirenjoyed messing about with GIMP filters etc. a bit of light relief while working on my next assignment.. Liz CollinsWeekend Challenge – abstract self-portrait. I’m not sure that this is very or, even at all, abstract, but here’s pencil drawn ‘selfie’. Clifford HerbertThis one is going to be concept only! Abstract art, I’m not familiar with. Self portrait? What are you revealing or trying to show? Maybe what’s seen is more about the viewers attitudes, preconceptions etc. So ideally I’d do the portrait in pieces of mirror and glass, reflecting the viewer partly back to themselves. What is me and what is you? However this quick foil version will have to stand in…reflecting the concept anyway. Rita FrostMy acrylics inks self portrait “Post Lockdown & all’s well” Carole BusbyThis was really challenging for me, I always feel self portraits are difficult.. I couldn’t make it either. Sharing whatever is the outcome. Madhavi Yelnurkar ChopadeRachel (the diva) insisted that her own abstract self-portrait should be posted… Audrey QuintonThis week´s challenge was certainly a challenge ! Juliana WatterstonMental health themed abstract portrait Rachel PesterfieldWeekend Challenge. I first tried a collage but it didn’t work at all! This is about as abstract as I can manage. After a hair wash! Dinah DarkerGurning contest. Rachel Pesterfield Loving seeing everyone else’s self portraits – had a go with watercolour Gelise McCulloughMy effort at an abstractish self portrait using tablet and stylus. Chris Ryeweekend challenge…when I started the cartooning course with John Byrne I just loved his self portrait at the top of his first welcoming letter. I thought: I want one of those so I immediately scribbled off the sketch below and I have used it ever since: at the end of emails, on the back of greeting cards etc etc The red was chosen because my first cartoons were a bit gory but I now have a variety of colours at hand! Audrey QuintonFor this weekend challenge I’ve drawn a picture of myself as a clown. It’s drawn with coloured pencils. The first photo I’ve taken is the original.( uncut). The second photo is of the same drawing but cut up and arranged to give an abstract illusion Nina PhillipsAbstract self portrait!! Sarah HoganDefinitely a challenge. A quickie Abstract of myself. Taken the opportunity to make myself look younger!! Watercolour and pigment ink pen. Debbie Davidge
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Watercolour and pigment ink pen.
