Inside/outside

So I think I have finally learnt to do Friday projects on Friday, though because the time I finish is usually around midnight, the projects all seem to have a dark feel about them. The first two projects were spent looking inside my wardrobe, one in pencil (above) and the other in chalk pastels. I initially killed the pastel one by using a heavy blue outline so had to redo, but there is still this slight buzzing blue around it. This Friday, yes, you guessed it, was self-portrait time in the medium I think I find the most difficult to get to grips with, charcoal. I really should have done a head and shoulders shot as by midnight, I had this tiny little bit of charcoal and white chalk trying to figure out my face. I was trying to figure out what makes me, me - what is my distinctive characteristic. What makes the essence of who I am, externally and internally? The day before we were doing portraits of each other in class, and I thought I was getting to grips with capturing people's distinctive characteristics, but when it comes to me, poof. My dad thinks it's difficult because I can't see myself objectively, which makes sense. So any comments on what you think makes me me for future reference would be greatly helpful. I was reading the other day that when Lorenzo Ghiberti was making a sample of his work in order to gain a commission for the doors of San Giovanni, he continuously asked the townspeople and even foreigners what they thought of his

work, which apparently the other sculptors didn't. Vasari is of the view that the advice sought was the reason why Ghiberti executed a model which was very well worked out and without any defect whatsoever. So comments always welcome.

Pastel figure

My figure drawing class is proving somewhat challenging but I'm slowly getting into the swing of things. Last night we worked on 3 sketches of the same pose in pastels. This is the most finished one though as you can see her arm still has a bit of a way to go. I'm still struggling with tones, and mid-tones especially. I recently went to an exhibition of Astrid Trugg at the henderson gallery www.thehendersongallery.com/current.html. I really enjoyed her pieces, especially the boats (and was checking out her use of tones) and the way she collaged pieces of newspaper into her work, which I thought worked really well. I am also very much in love with one of the paintings showing at the moment at the Open Eye Galley but it doesn't look like they have it on the website http://www.openeyegallery.co.uk/. I'll have to find out the artist - I wish you could see it.