So, I had an idea and for it to work, I need the help of my online art friends. A couple of weeks ago, I was visiting Ileana of Arroz con Mango and saw that she had completed another amazing portrait, this time of a friend of hers - she has such a gift for portraiture. I left a comment about it and said that maybe we could do some sort of art swap where we do portraits of each other. Honestly, it was an off the cuff comment purely because I selfishly want her to do a portrait of me but then she replied and said that she would be interested in participating in such a swap and that, yes, she would do my portrait! I've been mulling over how it would work and so decided to test the waters by mentioning it here (hijacking Paint Party Friday, sorry Kristin and Eva!)
Now, I’ve taken part in a few blog hops and used the blog link thing but I have no idea how to go about setting up such a swap. But before I get bogged down in the technical details, I thought I should put the idea out there and see if anyone else was actually interested in joining in.
The general idea is sort of like the whole concept of 'Pay it Forward' except this is more of a 'Paint it Forward' and being about portraits I thought I'd call it 'Face Forward':-
1. People initially leave a comment on this post saying if the idea tickles their fancy.
2. If the response is positive I then find out how to set up a link that people can join and a set a closing date for participation.
3. Either the participants can be paired off so that the same two people paint each other or it can be even more random so that you might not necessarily paint the person who paints you - let me know in your comments which you would prefer and we can decide from there (of course for this to work there sort of needs to be an even number of participants!)
4. Folk can each then contact their Face Forward portrait subject and arrange to email photographs to each other to work from. They can be done in any medium/style/technique - there are no restrictions so if you want to go all Picasso, make a collage or turn your portrait into a caricature or whatever your own artistic style is, then feel free!
5. Once everyone has been paired up we can then set a deadline for the portraits to be completed by, then post them to our own blogs and link them back here so everyone can see the results.
I’m not normally a people portrait artist. I have done a few although as anyone who reads my blog knows the faces I draw tend to be covered in fur! Still, I'm looking forward to challenging myself by doing a portrait of a face I haven’t yet seen - if you're like me then you choose what you're going to paint/draw based on your own interests and inspirations. I thought this would be a good way to stick to a set subject but still give free rein to your own personal artistic style. There are so many different types of artists out there and I think it would be interesting to see what folk come up with. Plus it's a good way to get to know other online bloggers and we all end up with a portrait of ourselves!
Let me know if you think this is a good idea or a rubbish one and please tell me if you can think of any way it might work better – I’ve never done anything like this before so all helpful comments will be gratefully received.
By the way, we're off to London on Friday to visit my sister (and Kayak down the river Thames - trying to avoid falling in and getting dysentery!)so if I don' get round all the PPFers at the weekend I'll definitely visit next week!
By the way, we're off to London on Friday to visit my sister (and Kayak down the river Thames - trying to avoid falling in and getting dysentery!)so if I don' get round all the PPFers at the weekend I'll definitely visit next week!
