I thought it would be fun to mess around with some sketching and painting of Picasso and some of his works that I was most attracted to. The sketch above was him as a relatively young man, done from a photograph of him I found on the internet.
Then I found a sketch he had done of his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, that I thought was interesting so I sketched that, along with a self portrait he did of himself when he was 28.
Then I was attracted to a painting he did in 1907 – “Head in Three-Quarter View”. I did my rendering in pastel. His original was done in gouache and watercolor.
Then, I locked on to his wonderful painting entitled, “Portrait de femme” from 1945. My copy, below, is done in watercolor on sketch paper.
You learn a lot about another artist when you do these “copies”. For a while, I was not allowing myself to copy any other artists – but this can be a fun exercise and I feel like I connect better now with Picasso than I did before. I understand better now how he used shape and structure. So once again, I broke my own rule and it was a good experience.
I really enjoyed these so much that I think I will do a few more.
Favorite Picasso Quote: “I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it”