Sketchbook: Self Portraits (M5 Chpt 3)

I spent a day working on portraits before referring to the coursework notes and realising I should have been working on artist's self portraits. Aah, felt a bit of an idiot and my enthusiasm was diminished. After module 4, working with crayons, pastels and colouring pencils I realised in general I preferred these working mediums rather than painting, so it was a bit of a job to look around and find self portraits that were inspiring and achievable and also gave me scope to look at mark making.

In terms of self portraits there was certainly a lot to choose from, some of my favourites being:

Edward Hopper

Grayson Perry

Stanley Spencer

Charley Toorop

Van Eyck

Sofonisba (looking very similar to Greta Thunberg)

When it came to looking at self portraits to work on I looked at two. A self portrait by Holbein and a self portrait by Hokusai. They represent two completely different approaches to self portraits. Holbein's portrait is a serious look at himself in a dispassionate calm observational way and the second an exuberant vision in brush work by a very elderly man looking at himself as an observation and showing his enduring vitality and self awareness. Whilst neither of my portraits are particularly inspiring I was able to key into their method / techniques used.

Holbein's Self Portrait that's not his self portrait!!!!!

I downloaded this thinking it was a self portrait and just checked to find it was one of a number of Holbein's portraits I saved. I did wonder about the eyes a bit.....

However this was the portrait I worked with. Firstly I gridded up to make an accurate image to work with

Adding a little pre-shading on the face

Getting stuck in with base colours:

Starting to add layers of colours:

Finally going in with colouring pencils to add texture. I used a paper with a strong texture and this worked in my favour adding gentle and subtle hues, although I think I could ahve been braver.