Feeling a bit lost with my portrait practice recently, I ventured to try something new. I was attracted to the works of the Austrian Expressionist, Egon Schiele (1890 -1918) by his unique use of colors and lines, and his focus on conveying strong emotions. After indulging myself with his art for a while, I have a desire to break from likeness and accuracy and focus on a feeling, a mood, or an air. Hence the following:

A few notes:

• These are not done as studies of Schiele. I personally don’t think his style is replicable.
• I tried to manipulate the mood with different color schemes.
• I deviated from the reference a lot, with invented or exaggerated expressions.
• As always, I found my shaky mastery of anatomy and the lack of understanding of the light effects the biggest barriers to go further in creation.
• I am not sure where I go with this: it is fun to do something different, but it is also a painful reminder that I need to practice the basics more.
• But again, did I say it is fun? So at least once in a while …