My aim for this exercise is to try to create a self portrait in which I look happy and cheerful. This is not my default look. To help create this illusion I will try to paint in a Fauvian style with bright, clean, colours.
This is the initial sketch on a bright yellow ground. I haven’t caught the smile yet. Hopefully when I paint it I can accentuate the joy.
Well I have now completed the painting. I tried to keep the painting fairly loose and to mix the colours on the paper in preference to mixing them on the palette. Below are some of the steps as the work progressed.
I tried to make small adjustments to the eyes as at this point they seem to be crossed.
Hopefully the small adjustments and the addition of background has eliminated this issue. The completed painting is below. I think I have managed to capture a mood, or perhaps an expression, surprise! Additionally I have managed to capture a likeness. I’m not sure whether the blue hair and beard work. It may have been better to have painted this in orange and browns but this would have been less interesting.
The reaction of my wife when she first saw this painting was to breakdown into fits of hysterics. I don’t know whether this was because she had not seen this expression on my face before.
Mark Taylor "Painting 1" 