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Self Portrait: A Step-by-Step Demo

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Self Portrait: Reworking the Composition

Painting Self Portraits

Don't be afraid to rework a composition.

Image: © Marion Boddy-Evans. Licensed to About.com, Inc.

I decided that I wanted the face at more of at angle, not quite so upright. I used unbleached titanium, which is very opaque and thus has great covering power, to block in the revised face shape.

Before this was dry, I used raw umber to place the the eyelashes (the eyes are closed) and eyebrows. I was working straight from the tubes of paint, placing the a little paint directly onto a brush and then the canvas, not mixing them on a palette. I regularly dipped my brush into clean water to keep it damp and the paint fluid.

Using the raw umber to put in a shadow on the side of the nose and below the eyes started to give these features form, as did the shadow on the forehead and the right-hand side of the face. I used some of the raw umber/ unbleached titanium mix on my brush to place a skin tone on the neck, but keeing it darker than the face.

I cleaned my brush and added a little raw umber to the hair, but nothing was done to the background.

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