Self-Portrait

Palatine, Illinois

This is the first self-portrait that I have executed in 10 years or so. In my youth I used myself as a subject by a large majority, and have a large unfinished piece that consist of an array of self-portrait facial expressions. Perhaps I was slightly tentative to work with models, and it was easy to simply grab a mirror an go. Eventually, I did break form this and did portraits of my friends, one of which I still regularly ask to sit for me.

In this painting, I used two sources of light coming from either side and made sure that much of my face remained shrouded in shadow. I reserved this low key area for reflective highlights in cadmium red medium which has an orange leaning. Red is one of my favorite colors to use in the shadows, and although this is counter-intuitive to cool colors receding and warm colors projecting, it seems to work for me.

I used green and blue hues in the mid to light tones and carried that through to the shadow cast on my white t-shirt. I think this technique ties together the cloth and face quite nicely. Also in the mid to light tones I used orange and pink hues as sort of a mediator between the the red shadows and the bluish green areas.