Lavinia Fontana of Bologna
by Serena Barton
oil on canvas
20" × 16" (51cm × 41cm)
“I didn’t set out to develop a particular style. As an adult I studied my favorite painters of the Renaissance and other periods to see how they achieved light and shadow, facial modeling, etc. My earliest faces showed a lot of life and emotion, which resulted from my long interest in faces and how they show people’s inner lives. As my technique improved, I began to miss some of the liveliness in my early pieces that came about from less-than-perfect drawing. To keep my portraits alive, I now allow some asymmetry to remain in the eyes, mouth or other features. Most of my portraits depict women artists of the past, so any clothing, jewelry or hairstyles relate to past eras. I tend to paint loosely and to leave something to the viewer’s imagination. I like my portraits to be a little mysterious.”
—Serena Barton
“Well, the answer you’re trained to say is, ‘All my life,’ and to some degree that is correct. I see threads that trace back to the Moon Monsters I was drawing in preschool. But where I started seeing a consistent stylistic pattern was probably my third year of undergraduate work.”
—Michael deMeng
Queen
by Kate Thompson
plaster, acrylic and ink on vintage fabric
10" × 81⁄2" (25cm × 22cm)
“Yes, I do. I like to use a lot of pencil lines on top of my work, and I’m told my portraits look like sculptures, that they are molded. I did sculpture before and really focus on the planes of the face.”
—Kate Thompson
“My signature style incorporates color and even neons within the face to achieve a dimensional feel. It took about a year of painting nearly every day to nail down my style. My faces do keep evolving and changing slightly with shape and texture, and I’m excited to see how they’ll change in the future.”
—Mindy Lacefield
“Yes. I venture all over the place due to my moods, but, when it comes down to it, most people can identify my work.”
—Jane Spakowsky
The Balancing Act
by Katie Kendrick
acrylic, graphite, charcoal and pastel on 140-lb. (300gsm) watercolor paper
9" × 11" (23cm × 28cm)
“I do seem to have a signature style, at least other people tell me I do and recognize my work. In a lot of ways, I feel like I’ve always had it. Because I’m self-taught and didn’t study art academically, I wasn’t exposed to many influences and just played around with simple faces. They slowly got more intricate as I practiced more and had more experience and skills to draw from.”
—Katie Kendrick
“I do have a signature style, although it changes from time to time. When I started painting faces, I called them ‘Pretty Girls’ because they were! Now my style is more what I refer to as ‘Ugly Girls.’ I can find more humor in a not-so-perfect face, and it gives my work a looser feel. I can pinpoint three distinct changes over the seven-year period that I have been painting faces, the third occurring presently.”
—Sunny Carvalho
Your Eyes Reveal Galaxies
by Cindy Silverstein
acrylic, paper and ink on canvas
16" × 12" (41cm × 30cm)
“It was about four years ago that I started paying closer attention to how I was creating my faces. This was a direct influence from Pam’s teaching. I began to challenge myself to draw faces with more depth and expression. This required greater focus, presence and practice. Change and progress came quickly when I adopted this approach. Within a year, I saw a unique style emerging, seemingly spontaneously. I felt more confident putting my work in front of the public, which gave their most enthusiastic feedback to the paintings that included faces.”
—Cindy Silverstein
“Yes, I think I do. I love the power of a line and a mark, so I make my faces very imperfect and scribbly. I found some artists to emulate and kept working until I got better. I feel like I’m still learning and working at it.”
—Dina Wakley
Cake Walk
by Cynthia Stroo
acrylic, black ink and Stickles on canvas board
12" × 16" (30cm × 41cm)
“Yes, I feel like my signature style developed after making hundreds of drawings. Time and practice are needed.”
—Cynthia Stroo
“Yes, I definitely have a signature style to my work. It’s vibrant and colorful. The faces I draw are raw and not structured or ‘perfect.’ They are colorful and created with a mix of collage, paint and mark-making. I also create faces using a mix of handwork and digital techniques, using either Photoshop or various iPad apps. My artistic style has developed over the past twenty years since I studied graphic design in college. I started drawing faces in my art journals and in my art more consistently about thirteen years ago. I continue to experiment with new techniques to push my style to evolve.”
—Traci Bautista
Blossom
by Jane Davenport
watercolor and colored pencil on mixed-media paper
12" × 9" (30cm × 23cm)
“I have taught thousands of people to draw, and, even when people think they are copying me exactly, their own style is shining its light. So I think your own style is with you from the start. Learning to see it and trust it takes time and a lot of drawing.
“I also think your style is constantly evolving, which makes being an artist even more exciting because, even though it’s your artwork, you are still never 100 percent sure of where you may be going as you create. I can see elements of my current work that span back to childhood drawings.”
—Jane Davenport
“Yes. A few years … but it continues to change, which I love.”
—Misty Mawn