Working on a New Self Portrait

Okay. Here is what it looks like right about now.

It’s a running joke that I paint so many self portraits that I am my best subject. This is the first self portrait since this one. Just for the record, I have been painting other things.

I’ve become aware of how these portraits work as personal reflection / confrontation. To that end this current work is very much a search for a new sense of identity in a new city, Philadelphia.

The painting is perhaps %75 done. And it has come a long way. At first it was very muddy (corresponding to the feeling of sorting out Philadelphia), and then I took a razor and actually cut the form out of the mud.

I’ve been painting in the mornings, and the sky has been switching between blue and grey. I’ve been trying to keep up.

Parts that need work, the values inside the room. The outside values are extremely bright, so I am constantly reminding myself to darken the inside values.

I also have to fix up the mouth. It’s not sitting on the jaw properly.