Dear Koen,
I am writing this letter to tell you about two painings I have made during art class. They are self-portraits. We were supposed to paint the self-portraits in Van Gogh style, with a lot of brush strokes. We also had to use complimentary colours, colours which are the opposite of each other. They are supposed to tell two different sides of myself. I think you can really see the different emotions in my paintings.
Anyway, let’s talk about the paintings more detailed.
I now see a lot of things which I could have done better. My neck is very long in both paintings, and the shadow in the neck is also on the wrong side, because the shadow on the nose is on the right, the shadow in the neck can never be on the left. Except for this I like my sad painting.
I hope you’ll write back soon, and tell me about what you have done in the several years I haven’t seen you.
Your friend,
Manon.
I am writing this letter to tell you about two painings I have made during art class. They are self-portraits. We were supposed to paint the self-portraits in Van Gogh style, with a lot of brush strokes. We also had to use complimentary colours, colours which are the opposite of each other. They are supposed to tell two different sides of myself. I think you can really see the different emotions in my paintings.
We had about four lessons to paint our two self-portraits. One for the backgrounds, one for the clothes, and two for the faces. For the first two parts I think we had enough time, but to paint the face and the expression you need much more time, because there is supposed to be much more detailing in there. I had put a lot of effort in the first painting, so I quite had to rush the last one.
Anyway, let’s talk about the paintings more detailed.
I’ll start with the one on the left, this is the sad one. It is supposed to express sadness, desperateness and loneliness. I am crying on there, I have dark circles under my eyes, and my skin looks a lot more matt and pale. The background draws me back, because the orange stripes closer to my head are larger than the ones which are closer to the edge of the paper, there is also more space in between them.
The painting on the right is supposed to be the happy one. The colours are brighter, my eyes are open and I am laughing. It is supposed to express happiness and joy. But I don’t think I really succeeded that, because my eyes look empty, they don’t speak as in the sad painting. Also my laugh looks very unreal. I now see why, but I’ll talk about that later. The background brings me forward, because the stripes are closer to each other and they are also thicker when they are closer to my head. This is something which did succeed in this painting.
The painting on the right is supposed to be the happy one. The colours are brighter, my eyes are open and I am laughing. It is supposed to express happiness and joy. But I don’t think I really succeeded that, because my eyes look empty, they don’t speak as in the sad painting. Also my laugh looks very unreal. I now see why, but I’ll talk about that later. The background brings me forward, because the stripes are closer to each other and they are also thicker when they are closer to my head. This is something which did succeed in this painting.
I now see a lot of things which I could have done better. My neck is very long in both paintings, and the shadow in the neck is also on the wrong side, because the shadow on the nose is on the right, the shadow in the neck can never be on the left. Except for this I like my sad painting.
In my happy painting my eyes look empty, because there is no shadow behind them. It looks like they are on top of my face, while they are part of it. My laugh looks fake, because there are no laugh lines. I knew there was something wrong with the mouth, but I couldn’t find out what it was, but now I know.
That’s also why I’m not fully satisfied with my paintings, because I know what to improve on them. I do like the sad one, like I have said several times before. And I think, if I had had more time to paint the happy one, it would have looked a lot better.It is also quite a problem that I know beforehand how I want to look my paintings. An idealistic view. But this never comes out, so I am not satisfied easily.
That’s also why I’m not fully satisfied with my paintings, because I know what to improve on them. I do like the sad one, like I have said several times before. And I think, if I had had more time to paint the happy one, it would have looked a lot better.It is also quite a problem that I know beforehand how I want to look my paintings. An idealistic view. But this never comes out, so I am not satisfied easily.
I hope you’ll write back soon, and tell me about what you have done in the several years I haven’t seen you.
Your friend,
Manon.
