Year of Painting, Self Portrait.

Over at Painting Friends, its the last of the Year of Painting - 

Number Twelve, Self Portrait

Personal Goals for this Painting:

The goals were for me to make four thumbnails again and paint all four, finishing this year of painting with a flourish.

Here are the four thumbs.

After I finished these, I thought I'd start with the pencil portrait as that would undoubtedly take the longest. The basic shapes were there when I thought, ah, go on, paint this one. So I did.

When it was finished I called it “Prime Time”

Prime Time

Challenges Faced

Painting the portrait came quite easily, especially because I had chosen to be quite kind in my depiction. Near the end I started to get emotional, as I always do with my dog portraits when I think I have the likeness. 

Then the name popped into my head “Prime Time” and I got really upset. 

 I'd chosen a double portrait, me and my dog, because I am really uncomfortable with painting myself alone. 

It struck me then that this photo was taken in our prime time, that for both of us there was more behind than there was ahead. 

That realisation brought me up short and I was choked.

I put the painting in my folder and I couldn't paint any more of the thumbs.

Share Personal Goals and whether you felt you Met Them

My goal was to make all four thumbs into paintings.

The emotion of painting Prime Time put paid to that, so no, I didn't meet my goals.

How I created the Painting.

I had a line drawing to begin with.

Then I started by painting myself as the background figure, followed by Missy in the foreground.

Not photorealistic, but reasonably realistic. I didn't bother with wrinkles, sure I didn't see any!

Size of Painting, Medium, Palette and Brushes.

The painting is on Arches 140 Rough 11” x 8”

The medium is pencil for the under drawing and watercolour for the painting.

W&N artists quality paint.

Palette colours used : yellow ochre, aliz crimson, permanent rose, french ultramarine, sepia, burnt sienna, cad red.

Brushes: round 12, round 6, round 2.

Hashim Akib's demo and my self portrait!

Friday night, I met up with fellow blogger Sharon, and we went to watch professional artist Hashim Akib demonstrate how to make portraits in acrylic.

It was a fascinating night, He painted a portrait from a male model who was sitting in front of him, in under two hours!
All through the demo, Hash ( as he likes to be called) talked to us and told us some snippets from his artistic career. How he used to paint in a very realistic fashion, but was turned down flat by galleries who wanted more "gutsy" paintings.

He told us not to make a drawing - it encourages you to be logical and realistic - and then you fiddle. Look for interesting tones and shapes instead.
He told us to use flat brushes, and be bold in our strokes, so we would not fiddle.
He told us that photos flatten colour, so try to paint from life - it adds passion!

His acrylics were laid down thick - impasto.  I did wonder if I could utilise his technique in watercolour - and I determined to give it a go!

So this morning, while all else were abed and couldn't laugh at me, I attempted a self portrait. Like Hash - no drawing *eek* that bit is scary!
Here it is:

For a first attempt, I'm pretty happy with this. Yes, there are bits that could be improved - but I'm not going back in to fiddle. No, its not spot on to how I look, but its reasonable. This was done to try out the technique and see if I could use it on watercolour. I reckon I could - and even take more risks yet.