5″X7″ Oil on board

This isn’t a good likeness, it looks more like my grandfather than my son. Still I do need to paint more portraits.

It has been a very stressful day. My computer has died, or at least its video card has, but it took me all day (and two monitor cables) to figure that out. Now I have to decide whether it is worth throwing any more good money after bad and fixing it, or do I bite the bullet and get that new laptop I have been dreaming of. My husband is letting me use his iMac to post this, very nice but out of my range I am afraid.

5″X7″ Oil on board

I don’t do many figures, let alone portraits so I really need the practice. I used the same limited palette for this that I used for the winter forest scene yesterday, minus the terre verte. I think it works quite well for a portrait, especially one with this sombre mood. The woman who recommended it (I wish I could remember who) called it the “Old Master Palette”, but that can’t really be accurate. The two siennas have certainly been available since the dawn of time but paynes grey is a relatively recent invention and includes ultramarine, which was very expensive until it was sythesized in the 19th(?) century. I need to research this further, I am sure it is all in Phillip Ball’s excellent book Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color.

Edit: Got it, it was Exploring Colorby Nita Leland.

4″X6″ Oil on panel

It has been many years since I have attempted a self-portrait and the intervening years have not been kind. The result is both more and less hideous than the reality and even more humbling than this daily painting exercise is wont to be anyway. Is my face really that long? Probably not, although long and narrow has always been one of its defining characteristics. Nonetheless, I need to do more portraits and life studies and the self-portrait is the time-honoured method for honing that skill. I used a small make-up mirror, I was tempted to use the other side which would have given me a more abstract and even less recognizable picture, I may try that another time. I think I am going to try to do a self portrait every week or so in various different media.

Update on the digital picture frame: I ended up taking it back, it turned out to be a piece of junk. It had a flicker which started after about 30 seconds, I was going to start rolling on the floor and foaming at the mouth. You get what you pay for I guess, and it was cheap.