Painting my first self portrait

As an artist, my favourite go-to medium was always acrylics, until the last couple of years when I discovered my love of watercolours for painting pet portraits and other bespoke commissions. However, I knew when painting a face, that watercolours would prove tricky for me. I've found a fantastic way of working, when producing my paintings, where I add lots of colour, work quickly, blow the paint to create a splatter effect and produce a very expressive effect. 

I felt like, being so new to human portraiture that I'd have to approach it a bit differently, working more slowly and methodically and building up the layers if I was going to attempt my face in watercolours. 

Anyway, here's the result of my attempt. Still being in lockdown and on full time child care duty I didn't have as much time as I would have liked as I had to snatch some painting time in the kitchen whilst the kids watched a film. I definitely overworked it by the end in trying to build up the layers of colour and I always find it tricky knowing when to stop!

So, as soon as I could find another child free moment, I set to work in acrylics, using a different reference photo. I love how forgiving acrylics are. You can build up layers and they dry quickly and are fairly opaque so you can cover mistakes easily.

Once again I worked from the breakfast bar, rather than my studio, whilst the kids watched a film and in a couple of hours I managed to paint another self portrait. It’s amazing how productive you can be when you have such limited time. It pushes you to work faster and not overthink. I was also working I’m tricky light, with the sun streaming in from the window on my right. 

I loved working with the bright vibrant colours that acrylics offer and feel like I really managed to capture a good likeness but also some energy through the visible brush strokes and speed at which I painted. 

The painting is A4 sized and used acrylics by both Culture Hustle and Daler Rowney.