Still one of the most difficult things: painting a self portrait from a mirror in natural light. It's not easy from a technical point of view, but also from a psychological point of view. I've already gone through a lot of strain with this one. The only cure is to keep working until something falls into place.
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I've started painting the underpainting for my new dog painting and my new self portrait. These two paintings will probably be progressing at different rates since the dog painting is more intricate. I'll show them side-by-side for now.
It's also really apparent now that all my paintings seem to have the same style of ebauche. It's only clear because I've done many paintings, but I always wanted to have my own 'style'. But seeking a personal style is only accomplished by physically painting and not by sitting around and thinking. You can tie yourself into knots thinking about style/technique, but at the end of the day, the painting is what matters. These early stages of the painting are still rough to traverse. It's disheartening to see a painting in such a premature state, but I always tell myself that a painting takes many many layers to be 'finished'. I couldn't help myself from starting this self portrait. The light's fading in the studio quickly, but I was able to lay in some basic tones.
It's exciting because I really feel that I'm developing my own process of painting based on accurate value and academic technique. I feel lucky to be colorblind and have a sense of lightness and darkness, without being bogged down with particular colors. I'm also thankful for being able to deeply study Bouguereau's technique. Technique is so important and these self portraits are stepping stones along my way. I just transfered + inked + varnished my outline for my new dog painting (The Mockingbird) and a new self portrait. I'm really excited about my new dog painting, which shows a golden retriever who's looking up to see a mockingbird calling on a fence post.
My new self portrait is going to be a traditional self portrait, painted from a mirror and showing me, head and shoulders, in my working clothes. The other good news is that Dog & Horse Fine Art will be offering prints of my painting "The Butterfly" very soon. I'll write a post when they'll be available. |
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