To be whimsical means to be of a capricious disposition, extravagant, fanciful, excessively playful and you see these portraits all over the internet. It has to do with almost a childhood memory to the portraits of characters that do not fit reality yet are provocative in a much deeper level of meaning. One needs to train the imagination to accept the whimsical style of portraits not being fine art and perfect realistic portraits. I know that doing whimsical portraits/characters for literally years, has set me up to have an easier time of it for portraiture. One, though, must know the rules and tips and tricks of portraiture in order to do fine whimsical paintings. An artist needs to know color theory and how to mix colors.
Perspective and scale needs to be known so that one can warp them in whimsical paintings. One needs to know the maths if faces in order to warp them and skew them into whimsical faces. The same with body maths including necks which are often long but put in the proper places. Perspective and scale will be skewed. The artist works magic to draw the viewer into the painting. As well, colors tend to be intense and off-reality but that adds emotion to the painting and in the viewer depending on colors.
Whimsical paintings have a childlike beautiful personality and the painting is animated, and individualistic. None of my paintings are the same. Each have a personality. Each has mixed media that adds to the emotion of the whimsical portrait of whatever character that is done.
Every portrait starts with ovals for face, or face features and then ovals. We tend to use tiny round circles for nose and lips and the eyes tend to, in most cases, be bigger in comparison to the face. The artist builds the portrait the same as fine art portraiture. Layer after layer, the painting comes alive and interesting. Things can be contrary to reality, can be absurd in lengths of necks of body or appendages. It is almost safer to move into whimsical characters because we are usually still building our portraiture skills.
Whimsy is full of symbolism, of each part of the portrait has meaning, as in ‘almost hidden’ swatches of under color, words, and other collage peaking through. The artists viewpoint is subtle yet more openly expressed through use of color, collage, shapes and non-shapes.
Whimsy is a bit of a way to express and have feelings accepted by a viewer’s unconscious enjoyment of the odd shapes and colors and sizes. There are messages of empowerment, of passion, and other messages in the world of the painting. Most times the painting will capture a moment of thought and awakening that is being shared. In whimsy painting, it is the emotions that draws a viewer in and whispers a secret message to them.
©Carol Desjarlais 22.11.20
No comments:
Post a Comment