Into the Mirror

Usually, I like to begin with the post of my favorite recent painting and then give a little recap. This time, however, I feel like I need to admit something I am a little embarrassed about up front. Despite painting in oils through and after college, and despite drawing portraits often in high school, I have never painted a portrait. I've created one quick, far away figurative oil painting in my first semester of Painting 1, but then my artwork departed from representation. 

Last night I did a few sketches of the regular items - coffee mugs, tea kettle, etc. - but they weren't able to hold my attention. It was my last day of the weekend, and with a meeting scheduled for tonight I wanted to have a focused piece. So, I decided to give a self-portrait a whirl! Since I've never had to mix skin tone paint colors before, I limited my palette immediately to one of my go-tos: ultramarine deep, burnt sienna, and yellow ochre. There are a few colors I'll need to add in to the mix if I continue to do portraits, but this helped tremendously for my first go.

February 22, 2016 5.5"x8.5" on Watercolor paper

Palette: Ultramarine Deep, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre,+ White

To my relief, it turned out all right! Not perfect, but a good start. There were a few areas of the skin that started to get rough, since the gouache would only let me work over it so many times. I forgot how fun it can be to paint people (even myself), so I may need to drum me up some models for the future!