Another self portrait tonight. I painted this one smaller, only 5×7 and it’s nice to work smaller sometimes because it encourages me to slow down and work on accuracy in drawing, value and color.
Yesterday’s self portrait wasn’t really drawn well. I was rushing through it and I think the size had something to do with it. At 9×12 it’s not a large painting but trying to only spend around 2 hours on a painting at night I felt rushed.
I also started this painting a bit differently. I drew it out with a brush with a focus on form rather than line. Yesterday’s self portrait was drawn out in charcoal before I started painting.
After the drawing was done I put in a thin wash of all the dark areas quickly with some focus on drawing accuracy but not as much focus as I could have. Then I again departed from the “normal” painting process. Most artists I see always work from dark to light in their paintings but for some reason I really want to start with the lighter areas right away. So this is what I did I started with the lighter areas of the painting with accurate value, drawing and color with each stroke. Maybe it’s an impatient need to get to the fun parts right away.
Overall it turned out well.
