Self portrait in process

 For artclass we had to make a painting with the theme "mirrors". I didn't like the theme, I did not want to make a painting with a person and its reflection, because you are focussing too much on the differences between the two.
So I decided to treat the theme mirror literally: a painting of a mirror and myself in it.
As I had to work on two different locations, I had to use a photo. So I decided to show that I used a camera as well. Besides, I like the idea of showing the hands, makes the self-portrait composition more interesting.
To make life more difficult, I decided to use oilpaint, for the first time on a serious painting.

First picture is the underpainting, made in acrylic on a 70x90cm canvas frame, based on a charcoal drawing.




The second picture shows the mirrorframe, painted in oil.
I realised that the portrait part was not useful as underpainting, it was already too detailed. An underpainting should determine composition and shadow/light aspects.

 Here I adapted the face, in acryl. Note that I changed things like the length of the wrist.
I also started painting the background of the face, ochre on top of the yellow-green underpainting, to give the ochre a deeper effect.

In this phase I worked on the face and hands again. It was a first time in oil, and I found oilpaint works nicely, you can push the colours into each other. But I also realised that I was working too detailed, with all kind of different touches and tiny colour transitions. Even though it comes closer to the photo, it drains life out of the painting. I already added some broader strokes, but it was too late to change the panting around. Next time I have to keep more distance
Also note that I have not yet painted my glasses, they sit on top of my face, and for that reason should be painted later (after the paint dried somewhat)
To be continued....