More portraits

Self portrait
oils 16 x 20
copyright Jeanette Jobson

I have many projects in my head and some in progress and I'll spread myself out a bit more to fit them in. Sometimes I am bursting at the seams with ideas and there's not enough time or enough of me to go round to even put a hint of them on paper.

I offered to tackle another portrait in the swap, as I'd finished the first. The second I've decided to try with coloured pencil on Colourfix paper. I haven't done a lot on this paper, but the surface is interesting and I like the graininess that it gives the image. This is the start of it and I'll build my layers from here.

I've also worked off and on with my self portrait. Its giving me grief. I paint the eyes. I remove the eyes. I adjust the mouth. I remove the mouth. And on and on. At times it pleases me, at other times I want to paint a big X through it. But I will complete it. I'm out of practice with oils and now I wish I'd staying with them. Years and years ago I worked so much in oils. I think my children grew up on the fumes of turps and oil paint when they were quite small. But now I need to practice it more and when really frustrated, retreat back to pencils, charcoal or coloured pencil.

There is something very satisfying about conquering a medium and seeing the stages that a piece goes through until it succumbs and does what I want it to do.