Self Portrait - Oil

[bhuddistmonk]

Hey guys, I finished this 12x16 self portrait earlier this week. It's painted in oils with linseed oil and a little terpanoid as the medium.

In this painting I tried messing around with juxtaposing warm half tones with very cool, neutral shadows. The overall effect, I believe, creates a strong sense of light and life. Also, to draw the eye to the focal point(my eye), I added cobalt blue to the iris and left it out of the rest of the painting. All said, I put about 3.5 hours of work into it.

What do you think?

[asoir]

nice job, not sure on the edges on the right, but im loving the expression and colours

[Kenny_Callicutt]

I think you may have gone a little too grey with your shadow because they feel a little dead. feels like you cant see through them at all. also since your posting this in the finaly finished section Id have to to say that the level of finish in this peice isnt there, You just abandoned the ear. and you have some edge issues along the border of the shirt and the back of the neck and bottom of the hair. Also you should paint back to front meaning.. you painted that stroke in the background over your shoulder, you should come back and paint back through that stroke so the shoulder feels like its in front of the background. a little bit more explanation around the lips would be nice too.

other than that.. looks pretty good.

[Rich Pellegrino]

Nice painting. Yes the level of finish really isn't there. The ear and hair need more love. I do agree with the crits given except for the method of painting the shoulder given by Ken. This is a valid form of painting and is used by many people , it is just a method and not the only way. Lots of people correct there "mistakes" in the manner you painted that area.

However, you should try to block in they BG and overall shapes with thin washes at first to get rd of the white canvas anyway. The problem for me with that area is that the contrast is way too high. The stark whiteness of the BG leaps in front of the pitch black shoulder. This is where you could've varied the edges. A grey soft edge may have eliminated this contrast. Actually, just about all of the edges are hard.

One more thing. Try to fill in the whole canvas, the bits of white are not helping. If you used a colored ground it could actually help with the greyness of the color.

[GriNGo]

Nice job man, I'm sure in real life it looks wonderful. With the photo (or scan?) I'd play with the levels a bit, making it have more contrast. This image of your painting maybe looks a bit too desaturated.

[inspector Lee]

Yeah, Ken hit on one of this pieces biggest problems. The shadow areas are dead and flat. It looks as though you are using the opaque oils to do the job of the transparent ones (whenever you do that, the results will be muddy and flat). These are not interchangeable, especially using opaques to try and paint transparent. (if you add white or grey to them, you can get away with using the transparent ones to paint opaquely)

[retmia]

*Ahem* you really should focus some more on the lighted side of the face, precise de reflects in the air, and refine the ear. because, it cuts too much with the precision of the nose. I think, maybe I'm wrong.

[rockdraw]

would be cooler, if you make the area between the red tone and the blue tone in the face smother ;). you could add more details into the hair too.

[Seedling]

It’s a good start, and it’s a good bit of practice.

You can have strong lights and shadows without pushing the shadowed areas so far into murky darkness. Instead of filling that dark area with mostly black and a little bit of bright highlight, try lighting it subtly with a cool-colored light. You should be able to see all of the details, only they will all hover in a low range of values.

If you’ve got the patience to do a series of one- or two-hour self portraits in oils, you’ll pick up a lot of new tricks in a hurry.

[Blaz]

Im not into oil much and dont know much about it,but what i can say is that it is juist great! Love the light and shadow,and the style!

PS: Glupito,you are a jerk -.- I dont see any of your drawings around!

[Rich Pellegrino]

It’s a good start, and it’s a good bit of practice.

You can have strong lights and shadows without pushing the shadowed areas so far into murky darkness. Instead of filling that dark area with mostly black and a little bit of bright highlight, try lighting it subtly with a cool-colored light. You should be able to see all of the details, only they will all hover in a low range of values.

If you’ve got the patience to do a series of one- or two-hour self portraits in oils, you’ll pick up a lot of new tricks in a hurry.


I can vouch for that! Good point Seed!

[bhuddistmonk]

Hey guys, I appreciate the good replies and apologize for my late response. It's the end of the semester.

The murkiness of the shadows is merely an artistic device that I employed to suggest the mood of the scene. As for the 'unfinished' quality ofthe painting: I reached a point where I thought that adding any more detail would only make the painting diminish. In the painting's current state, if you look at the eye, which is the focal point, the ear registers as an ear in your peripheral vision. There just doesn't need to be any more information to get the point across.

There is an underwash of burnt sienna mixed with ultramarine blue under the whole painting, but the photo doesn't show that for some reason. I guess I need to reshoot this picture.

If any of you are curious, I learned to paint from this guy:

www.greggkreutz.com