Thursday 10 June 2010

Self Portrait 01

I’ve started work on a new self portrait, I’m trying to get a looser feeling to the brushstrokes with this one. There’s lots more to do on it, but you can get a rough idea of where it’s going. :)

7 comments:

Lorna said...

Cool! I assume it is in oils but what is it size?

Unknown said...

It is in oil and it's 24x30 inches

SueC said...

Is this self? The painting is superb..but its not you.

Ian Gordon Craig said...

I like this one a lot.

Of course I don't actually know how close it is to a likeness (your avatar always reminded me of Mick Hucknall...), but really nice technique here.

Unknown said...

Hi Susan x It’s meant to be self yes, still rough at the moment. The beard is a bit of a mask anyway, so perhaps I’m painting me even more hidden behind it?…really just a bit of an experiment to see how far I can push the looseness of the brushstrokes and accuracy is suffering because of this. I want to do some figurative work once I get the studio up and running (will hopefully get keys NEXT week) I think I’m going to paint those figures in a more “finished” fashion and save the looser stuff for some landscapes I’m doing to try…essentially larger versions of the swirling ones, but using mixed media instead of watercolour.

Thanks Ian (though I’m not sure about the Mick Hucknall comment ;)) As I mentioned above, this one is a bit of a test…I find it MUCH harder to paint in this loose style…You’ve got to make every mark count, which is very hard, still I’m learning a lot as I go, which is the main thing.

Unknown said...

looking good! painted from a photo or mirror?

Unknown said...

Hi NJ. Thanks :) Both in answer to your question.

I took lots of photos of different poses and lighting, then settled on one I liked and took several more all pretty much the same. Then I’m working from all of those along with a mirror which I prop up when I’m working. All of the clothing and main pose comes from the photos, but I’ll use the mirror when working on the face.