From the Artist: This is a loose representational painting I made one afternoon while I gazed in the mirror. I wanted to capture a hint of the irony and ambivalence I felt about gazing at myself for three hours. It is not really a comfortable task. You scrutinize each and every wrinkle time has laid upon your skin and think about the way you looked when you were 18 and how you'll appear at 88.
From the Painting Guide: The intense studying of oneself can indeed feel a bit strange; I think it's harder in some ways than studying a professional model. And it's not like the photos on the covers of magazines where wrinkles are all edited out! I think this is a painting with a lovely sense of mood and introspection to it.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Tone vs Line: Look at how form is built up using color and tone, with very little line. Squint your eyes and you'll see the darks and lights more clearly. Look at how tiny bits of white are used on the face for highlights as light as the shirt. And how the whites of the eyes aren't stark white, which would make them pop out and appear unnatural.
Background: Look at how color is used to construct a background that is visually interesting, that keeps you looking at it far longer than a background of a single color would. It picks up color from the figure, but at the same time doesn't compete with it as the focus of the painting.
From the Painting Guide: The intense studying of oneself can indeed feel a bit strange; I think it's harder in some ways than studying a professional model. And it's not like the photos on the covers of magazines where wrinkles are all edited out! I think this is a painting with a lovely sense of mood and introspection to it.
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Tone vs Line: Look at how form is built up using color and tone, with very little line. Squint your eyes and you'll see the darks and lights more clearly. Look at how tiny bits of white are used on the face for highlights as light as the shirt. And how the whites of the eyes aren't stark white, which would make them pop out and appear unnatural.
Background: Look at how color is used to construct a background that is visually interesting, that keeps you looking at it far longer than a background of a single color would. It picks up color from the figure, but at the same time doesn't compete with it as the focus of the painting.