Bad *Pet* Portraits, Stobo Style
So, if you live where I do, you’re probably already familiar with a local artist named Mandy Stobo. (If not, you can read all about her on her website here.)
Long story short… a fun women’s group in town (Camp Hoo-Ha) had offered a virtual workshop taught by Mandy, and after the online event, participants were posting the “bad portraits” they had created using her technique. They were totally awesome!!! I succumbed to a bad case of FOMO, feeling as though I had missed out on something really great… so I went in search of *anything* to provide insight into what these ladies had learned.
I totally lucked out and found a great guided drawing lesson offered by Mandy via Jube School on YouTube (click on the text link rather than on the image below if you want to check it out for yourself).
Mandy’s enthusiasm and encouragement were infectious, and I decided to give it a whirl… in spite of HUGE reservations about my skill level (or my perceived lack thereof). To take some of the pressure off of myself, I decided to tweak my endeavors just a bit. Instead of doing straight up portraits of people, I would attempt animal portraits instead. After all, animals tend to be far less critical… at least when it comes to art. Plus, I felt like I had at least a little bit more experience working with animal forms than with human ones, being a nature girl and all. 😉
The experience itself was both terrifying and freeing at the same time. After spending SO many years paying close attention to detail in photographs, it was strange to create general shapes using unplanned contour lines. Full disclosure: I couldn’t *completely* look away for these portraits – every so often I would quickly glance to make sure my pen was at least somewhat close to where I wanted it to be. 😉
My eldest immediately snagged the bird painting for his room, and I HAD TO put up the flowered opossum in my office because it just made me smile so much. 😉 Then I moved on to other things for a couple of months, until I took a second run at Mandy’s technique using some different watercolours this time (i.e. not the cheapo set from Michael’s). I also decided to stick with a “flower crown” theme…
The paints were a little less chalky this go round, which I much prefer… but they’re still not quite as rich and transparent as I want. I picked up some tube/liquid watercolours to try next. Though… I still feel as though I’m drawing rather like an 8 year old – maybe it’s the colours I gravitate towards, or maybe it’s because at heart, I am still quite childlike. ♥ Either way, I’d like to try something at least a little more refined next time, I think?
So, yeah. I just thought I’d share. Personally, I think these would make lovely additions to a child’s room… or even your own office, if you’re anything like me. 😉 Until next time… think of Mushroom the opossum and keep smiling!
