I did 2 new portraits in my Diary of Faces this week.The first is my version of Swiss artist Ferdinand Hodler’s (1853 – 1918) An Italian Woman. I loved the colors in this one.

Then I tried a cropped version of South African artist Irma Stern’s Portrait of a Girl Eating Grapes, 1933. This one really needs a little more work but I’m out of painting time for the week so she got signed anyway. I’m really loving working in my Diary of Faces. The pages are sticking a bit so I’ve ordered some Dorland’s wax to see if that will help. I tried a spray on matte finish varnish but it didn’t seem to help much.

Sharing with the Paint Party Friday gang tomorrow. 🙂

Bulgaria was the country for my Diary of Faces this week.  I chose to paint a crop La Melancolique, 1909, by Jules Pascin. Pascin suffered from depression and commited suicide at the age of 45 after a series of unfavorable reviews. A sad reminder that we should love what we create but not worry too much about what other people think of it. Do not let others judge your worth as an artist, or as anything else.

Sharing with my friends at Paint Party Friday.

I didn’t have time to post my first one earlier in the week, so I’m posting both new portraits today. These are both acrylic paint in my Diary of Faces. The first is after a portait by Italian artist Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo (1868-1907). I couldn’t find a title for the original. I’ve gotten lots of wonderful comments on how pretty she is, but I think it is a young boy, LOL. They wore their hair long like this then, didn’t they? And a girl’s  from this period would probably be much longer.

The second is after Giovanni Boldini’s (1842 – 1931) portrait of French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. He looks so snooty,  I can’t help but smile. He was fun to paint.  Don’t forget to visit my new Facebook page, if you’d like to chat or to keep up with my posts.  Sharing this with the  Paint Party Friday artists.

This week, in my Diary of Faces, I painted this young lady after Head of a Young Woman by Girolamo Nerli (1860 – 1926). He was an Italian painter who worked and traveled in Australia and New Zealand, helping to move Australian and New Zealand art in new directions. He worked in oils, watercolor, and pastel. This one was watercolor. My version is mixed media, including acrylic paint and watercolor pencils. It was a challenge to try to get the soft look of watercolor this way, but I can’t use watercolor in my book, with it’s slick pages. I’m very pleased with it! All the portrait practice is paying off. It is taking me less time to do the drawings and I think I’m improving.

Sharing with Paint Party Friday tomorrow. 🙂