I was quite unsettled with the original composition that I’d chosen for this self-portrait, so I cropped the canvas down and that’s when things started to happen.
Only hindsight really allows us to see what goes on, and luckily I wasn’t too far into this to be inflexible about my decisions.
Suddenly it seemed like a lot of (for want of a better word) fun. As said, I got the inspiration from Nerdrum’s ‘Self-portrait with red cape’ but didn’t want to
over-work the ear, so that’s maybe a little underworked.
There’s light bounce on the photo but I had a well wicked time playing with the transition from jaw to cheek and trapezius to sternocleido mastoid.
To say nothing of the cloth hat ! This even almost looks like me. Finally. ‘Suddenly The Sun Came Out (Bellerophon)’ 250mm x 250mm Oil on lead-primed fine linen 2011.
09th Jul 2011