From the Artist: I've wanted to do a monochrome painting for a while now, and even had a container of chromatic black I had mixed up that was starting to get old... So with some white I did this month's project -- though I did add a touch of blue for the eyes. I started light and kept increasing the amount of black to increase the darkness of the tone. It was different but interest working with only one color and shading it.
From the Painting Guide: I think this is a very striking self-portrait with a great composition. It feels as if I'm in danger of having some paint smeared on my face because you're not concentrating where you're going with the brush but on your canvas!
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Monochrome Painting: Working in monochrome is an excellent way of making yourself focus on tone, on getting the range of tones right in a painting, because you don't have color to distract. Look at how dark the darkest tone in this painting is, how it retains a sense of the brushstrokes and isn't reduced to a flat, uniform, dark shape that would be dull to look at.
The touch of blue on the eyes is tiny when taken as a proportion of the whole composition, but it compels you to focus on them.
From the Painting Guide: I think this is a very striking self-portrait with a great composition. It feels as if I'm in danger of having some paint smeared on my face because you're not concentrating where you're going with the brush but on your canvas!
Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Monochrome Painting: Working in monochrome is an excellent way of making yourself focus on tone, on getting the range of tones right in a painting, because you don't have color to distract. Look at how dark the darkest tone in this painting is, how it retains a sense of the brushstrokes and isn't reduced to a flat, uniform, dark shape that would be dull to look at.
The touch of blue on the eyes is tiny when taken as a proportion of the whole composition, but it compels you to focus on them.