July Challenge, The Half-Face Makeover

This month we were challenged to cut out half of a face, glue it to a support, then do the other half in a creative technique of our choice.

The Cheeky Chick

When I first saw the photo of this young woman, I thought Angles, Angles, Angles. Just look at the parallelogram formed by the sides and bottom of the cheekbones and the chin. And that ain't all, baby. There are obtuse rectangles everywhere! 

So I started cutting out shapes. Angled shapes. And things just feel into place.

I had meant to create a futuristic looking face, using metals and angular shapes. But as I look at her,

 I see images of the Byzantine Madonnas or Modigliani's women. Iconic. What fun!

Fay Picardi

I have long been fascinated with Matisse and in particular with his portrait of Madame Matisse.  Why did he paint her in colors? Was that how he saw her or was she a woman of many moods.  Was she young or middle aged when he painted this?  It always reminded me of the Picture of Dorian Grey.  How he never changed but his picture did.  Is that what was happening?
When I came across this beautiful photo of Joan Crawford, yes Joan Crawford minus eyebrows and big shoulders.  I thought about how lovely and innocent she looked when she was young and for some reason it made me think of Madame Matisse.  
I glued half of the photo of Joan onto a support and painted the other half as Matisse painted his wife.  I thought how wonderful it would be if all that had happened to her showed in the painting and she could be the same inside.

Madame Matisse

Joan Crawford

Picture of Joan

Donnavinesart.blogspot.com

Donnavinesart.Etsy.com

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by Kathy Garvey

Once is never enough. Since faces are totally out of my realm, first I had to experiment in my sketchbook to see if I could work with the idea.

Then I had to try it out on my inexpensive 6x9 watercolor pad.

Only after that did I attempt it on a good piece of watercolor paper.

I'm not going to do anything with it as it is because I find the contrast between magazine paper and watercolor a little jarring. But, I did have fun softening that into the version below in Photoshop. 

 

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I did the challenge in oils, pasting the photo half to canvas and finishing the other side in blocks of color.

Color My World, 8x10

I notice that everyone else so far has done the right side of the face. My theory is that right-handed people tend to do that. I'm not left-handed, but my reason for creating the left side of the face is quite simple; it was the side with shadows, which made it easier to create different values defining the face.

This technique was so much fun that I think I'll do a whole face this way next. 

Carmen Beecher

carmenbeecher.blogspot.com

carmenbeecher.com

The first challenge was to find an interesting face that the view was straight on. Here's an ad with a pouty girl. Her expression caught my eye. So I folded it in half, and decided to see what happened when I tried to match it in watercolor.

It was pretty dark with not much detail, so I had to elaborate.
I worked on this while in the Keys, so I was inspired by a sea turtle we saw while out in the boat.
That's the fun of being an artist. Everything is dependent upon interpretation!
Jean Thomas
Pieces of Eight

"Symmetrical"

 

 

Denette Schweikert