I have attempted some self portraits previously with varying degrees of success. What I wanted to achieve with this exercise was a self portrait that had some likeness to myself but also had a bit of character. Additionally I wanted to try to paint in an expressive way.
As a precursor to the painting I set about making some sketches to test out various angles and to get a feel for the subject, me.
I set up a mirror on my desktop easel and made three sketches in charcoal. One with the mirror to the right, one with it in front and one to the left. The third sketch is by far the best of the three. The proportions are better balanced, the shape of the head is about right and the eyes, whilst intense are correctly placed.
I followed this up with two further sketches. The first was a second attempt at the straight ahead view. This resulted in a better sketch but the shape of the head was too thin.
I decided I would try a further sketch with the mirror to the left as this had produced the best sketch so far. I made another sketch this time using pencil which allowed me to get some more expressive lines into the drawing. This produced the most pleasing pf the sketches and this made up my mind to attempt a painting using a similar view.
I decided to make paint on a dark ground and prepared an A3 size acrylic paper and made an initial rough sketch in pencil to map out the proportions.
I also took a couple of photographs for reference but ended up not using these at all.
Having completed the sketch I proceeded to paint using a restricted palette of black, titanium white, Naples yellow, burnt umber (the ground colour), pale pink and pale blue.
I took a couple of pictures of the work in progress.
As usual the big decision was when to say stop. I got to a good point and decided to leave the painting overnight a review it the following day with fresh eyes. Having done this I made a few adjustments before deciding that I had achieved my aim for the painting.
The painting shows a rather intense looking me, I suspect that this is due to the fact that I am concentrating whilst painting. Overall I feel that I have captured something of myself. I tried to keep the painting fairly loose, however it wasn’t as loose as I wanted. Additionally I was trying to capture the light. I had set up a table lamp to the right of me. I think I have expressed this on the right side of my face and beard. By the way my beard is not as full or as luxuriant as depicted in my painting. This either artistic licence or seeing what I wanted to see!
I took a further photograph of this painting in a different light and noticed that it gives a different feel.
Mark Taylor "Painting 1" 