What's this all about? I hear you ask. Well, it's about me -and about this blog becoming too much like a painting sales forecourt, when it was really only supposed to be about my development as an artist. This is not the first self-portrait I've done by a long chalk. There are many others residing unfinished, in a kind of chamber of horrors in my garage -the opposite of Dorian Gray. I won't be showing them ever but I keep many of them to help me judge my development.
This little one [it's on a 5" x 7" MDF panel] took under an hour. I wanted to keep that looseness and energy that often gets lost as a painting becomes more refined. This is the first time I painted on such a vivid ground, too. Another thing is that I kept away from doing a drawing first; I just massed in tones and added details to bring the portrait out. I have a natural tendency towards detail and finessing and I'd like to be able to deviate from it sometimes. I like the effect that letting the intense blue background gives.
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