Oil Painting Self Portrait on Canvas - with Process Photos!
Hi everyone hope you are enjoying your weekend, today I am sharing a recent self portrait I did in oils on canvas and the process that went with it.
This was the final result.
I wanted to practice painting portraits from life so I thought practicing painting myself would be the best way to start as I was willing to sit long enough.
I first did a light brown/orange coat on the canvas and let it dry. I used white spirit to dilute the oils. I did this as it is easier to pick out the correct tones under a more neutral background compared to a pure white one.
I used a mirror in front of me and a charcoal stick to draw myself on to the canvas. I had one light source from a lamp next to me and some natural light when I first started. Therefore, I would have to paint roughly the same time of day everyday for the natural day light.
I then painted the most basic tones of the portrait on to the canvas. Detail is not important at this stage it is all about covering the whole canvas with paint with the correct values.
Next, the detail came in. I added more detail primarily in the eyes as I wanted this to be the focal point. I continued painting as it became dark so this affected the over all colour values leading to a darker background and stronger light source from the lamp.
I was reaching towards the end but noticed something wasn't quite right. I had drawn the portrait from two angles without noticing. Part of my face was showing when I was looking directly at the mirror and the other when I was looking at the canvas. This made my portrait to wide in the face.
To make it look more like me it involved making the right side of my face thinner and hiding my right ear. I added some final details and blended the tones slightly and this was the final result.
The over all style I was going for was slightly impressionistic like Rembrandt. I did not want to hide the brush strokes as it adds more character to the piece. I may come back to this piece in future as I can still see some parts to improve on however, it was still a good learning experience.
Hi Ian, once again you are back to Oil painting, I love portraits in Oil this medium has rich color pigments and you can really manipulate the work without worrying much that you spoil something. I like to see the steps of your work and it is amazing to see how the features of face developing, the final adjustments made the portrait looking like real. Thank you for the process steps :)
Yes, I do enjoy oil painting it's just always a little daunting when looking at a blank canvas to start with. I find oils give the best colours and texture compared to acrylic and watercolours have their own place. I have primarily been focusing on improving my drawing as that's the foundation to good painting but I do want to move towards improving my painting skills too. :)