Virtual Studio - Thursday Portrait Challenges

About a year ago, I joined Twitter again... I decided I would only follow artists and game nerds and turn off all retweets, and just not follow or engage with anyone political. It's been a much better experience. 

Not that I'm apolitical... it's... a long story... involving algorithms and mental health and the polarity and divisiveness of politics on the internet today... I just see no point in it on Twitter, because no one, EVER, read a tweet or a meme and said "huh, you know what, I never thought of it that way... I'm going to change my whole worldview..."

I digress... 

Very soon after rejoining, I discovered Virtual Studion (@studioteabreak - on twitter). They post a number of challenges each week; Mythical Mash-up Mondays, Shape Challenges on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a Portrait Challenge on Thursdays. I've participate in most of them at one point or another, but mostly the Thursday Portrait Challenges. 

Each Thursday they post a portrait and invite anyone make their own version, interpreting it in any way or style and share it on twitter. It has been really fun seeing all the different interpretations and styles and media used for these. 

I did a number of them... then got busy with other things and stopped... and am trying to get back to doing them again. 

Here are a few I've done...

This is the most recent - from TODAY - from the Portrait of a Hamal from Moush, painted by Simon Agopyan (1857 - 1921)

This was last week's - from the portrait of Theodora van Duvenvoorde, originally painted in oils on canvas in 1620 by Michiel van Mierevelt - all of my reproductions have been done in ink and/or watercolour in a watercolour sketchbook. 

The rest are going back to August or earlier... 

Old Woman, painted in oils on canvas by Ludovico Carracci in 1590 

I THINK this is the first thursday Portrait Challenge I participated in, back in March! It is based on the self-portrait, painted by Kohno Michisei in 1917 

14 April 2022 - Here is one where I had a little bit more fun with the interpretation... the painted posted was Portrait of a Young Woman with Puck the Dog, originally painted around 1879 by Thérèse Schwartze. When I first looked at it, THIS image of Lucy and Snoopy from Peanuts just popped into my head and I kind of knew I HAD to do it... 

12 May 2022 - From Two Sisters, orignally painted by Cornelis de Vos of Antwerp sometime between 1610−1615 

19 May 2022 - from "Portrait of a Man" (probably politician Robert de Masmines), originally painted in oils on panel by Robert Campin in the 1430s

31 May 2022 - After 'The Umbrella', originally painted in oils on canvas in 1883 by Marie Bashkirtseff

1 June 2022 - from the portrait of Emperor Maximilian I, originally painted by Bernhard Strigel sometime after 1508 

2 June 2022 - from the portrait of Ivan Morozov, originally painted by Valentin Serov in 1910

11 June 2022 - from the Portrait of a Lady in Red, painted in oils on panel by Jacopo Pontormo sometime between 1532–1535 

17 June 2022 - from the self portrait by María Izquierdo, painted in 1946 

23 June 2022 - From the portrait of Saint Rose of Lima, originally painted in oils on canvas by Carlo Dolci, sometime between 1586-1617

30 June 2022 - After ‘A Sudanese Man’, originally painted in oils on panel around 1886 by Rudolf Swoboda

7 July 2022 - From the portrait of Clara Serena Rubens, painted around 1616 in oils on panel by her father, Peter Paul Rubens

14 July 2022 - From the portrait of Margret Halseber of Basel, originally painted in oils on panel by William Key around 1808

22 July 2022 - From Mitsuuji with Mountain Roses, by Utagawa Kunisada (Toyokuni Ⅲ), mid-to-late 1830s 

29 July 2022 - From the Portrait of Eugenia Primavesi, originally painted in oil on canvas in 1913 by Gustav Klimt

Wow... there were a LOT of these!? Not sure why I never got around to sharing them, here, on the blog before now. I'll try to post them more regularly... 

To see more of the stuff I post on Twitter you can find me here:

twitter.com/timinsaskatoon