Thursday, December 11, 2008

Take Some Risks


A self portrait. I did the pencil drawing about a month ago and then felt crummy about being such a narcissist so I put it aside. It's nice, though, to have some finished drawings that I'm not really attached to floating around for when I get in the mood to just paint and not worry about, "will my precious drawing will get ruined in the process?"

No attachment to drawing = Take some risks = Better painting

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

No attachment to world = Take some risks = Better life

Heh....

Unknown said...

I often end up with portraits of myself in my work. I try to convince myself it's because I'm my most readily available and willing model. Either that or it really is all about me, me, ME.

I think this is one of the most successsful pieces you've put up. It all works without becoming too busy. Plus it's cool to see a subtle bit of Bacon influence sneak in around the figure's right knee.

Peter Herpich said...

Stephen, thanks for the comment. I can't even use the "ready willing model" excuse since I only ever work from memory... I guess I remember my own face most easily though.

Also, I'm not sure what you're seeing as Bacon influenced, but I'd like to hear. Can you explain?

Unknown said...

The figure's far right leg (far left for the viewer) brought up immediate associations with the way Bacon was handling a lot of his triptich figures in the 1970s.

The color palette on that leg-the red layered by the pale gray and blue topped off by the white and black and the way you handled them line are what reminds me of Bacon. It looked like a little nod in his direction and not as if you're trying to ape him in any way.

All that rambled out, the association may just be there for me being a huge fan of his work.

Unknown said...

Ummm.... meant "the line work" as opposed to "them line". Me am not type good.

Peter Herpich said...

No offense taken man. I've just internalized so much of Bacon's techniques (such as the optical color mixing with parallel stripes and the slashy blood-red, black, and white underpainting) that they pop up in my stuff without me even recognizing it.