The Face

Graham Little

This first artist I am looking at, Graham Little, works beautifully here to portray the face in such a unique way. He uses his composition to display the woman’s face in numerous angles with mirrors and it works brilliantly. I think its a unique and interesting take on the composition of face and how we can explore her beauty from different angles. I should really think about my approach to the composition of the faces I draw, like incorporating reflections to suggest themes or to create an interesting composition for a portrait.
His technical approach to the face feels quite soft and delicate, no harsh colours or lines are used, its very blended with a pastel, light skin tone. And this approach contrasts nicely with the modern, sharp décor of the scene. All of these bold colours such as black and a bright yellow contrast well with the soft delicate white and peach tones used on the girl. Every choice of colour feels intentional to highlight the face of the girl. This is further pushed by the composition where her face, forward facing, is present in the middle mirror in the centre of the painting drawing the viewers gaze in. The use of colour in her face is blended well, not blocked in, and makes for a very real feeling face.

Elizabeth Peyton

In this piece, Peyton approached with similar pastel colors for the skin, but her technique makes the piece look very different from Graham Little’s work, as blocks in tone and the features and shapes of the face. I like the idea of blocking in tone with colour, but I do not like how simple and lacking in detail the face is. It is not a stylistic choice I particularly like, however a softer colour palette might be ideal for looking at skin tones and the face.

Johannes Vermeer

This historical approach to a face is very similar to the techniques used in the first painting I looked at, very soft colours blended together, however Vermeer has used interesting lighting to add a dramatic flair to his piece, as the light casts big shadows across the face. It’s made me think about how I should pay more attention to the lighting and playing around with casting shadows across my models face for a more interesting drawing tonally. The composition is rather simple with a plain black background for the shadows to blend into which keeps the focus solely on the woman and her colours. When leaving my backgrounds plain, which I have done often so far, I should look into what colour to leave them instead of just white, as something darker like black may work even better.

I want to create interesting drawings of people, and to to do that not only do I need to think about my technique and colour palette but also my composition and the lighting. If I choose to have a background I want it to interact with the model, like the first painting did and play a part in enhancing the portrait. I’d like to look at playing around with reflections more, especially with the female body, and play around with the themes of vanity that John Berger discussed, but I might save that for Part 5 with my personal project. I should look at colouring my plain backgrounds with a colour that will enhance or contrast with the other colours of the piece. There is a lot I can experiment with here.

References

Image 1- Untitled (Reflections) – Little, G. (2014). Untitled (Reflections). [Gouache on paper] Available at: https://www.alisonjacquesgallery.com/artists/26-graham-little/works/13704/ [Accessed 7 Jan. 2021].
Image 2- Daniel, Berlin – Peyton, E. (1999). Daniel, Berlin. [Watercolor and synthetic polymer paint on paper] Available at: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/38717 [Accessed 7 Jan. 2021].
Image 3- Girl with a Pearl Earring – Vermeer, J. (1665). Girl with a Pearl Earring. [Oil on canvas] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring [Accessed 7 Jan. 2021].
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