Self Portrait Oil Painting Techniques

There are different self portrait oil painting techniques that I use but for this one I’ve used a very time consuming process involving the grisaille under-painting method in the beginning. It’s a very safe approach whereby it allows you to resolve early on and set aside most of the difficulties you may run into down the road while painting.

I started out by using a medium size filbert brush. I try to use a medium to large brush in the beginning to quickly lay in big masses of values (shadings). If I want to make more linear marks, I’d use the side edges of the brush. I use burnt umber, titanium white, and then add black later on for the grisaille. At first, I use pretty transparent thinned out paint of only the burnt umber, then add white as I get more opaque(thick). I look at the big forms first and always think as if I’m sculpting, first throwing on large pieces of clay to start the sculpture. I basically consider painting being sculpting within the 2 dimensional surface, regardless which self portrait oil painting techniques that I’m using.


I start gradually working towards smaller forms, as a sculptor would, adding, detaching, and adjusting smaller pieces of clay, as I’m starting to switch to smaller brushes to get into smaller forms and features. I’ve also started getting thicker with the paints mixing white paint (titanium white) with the burnt umber.

 

I work all around the head developing it at the same level. I avoid the rendering approach where you’d start with a small area such as an eye then render out from there-which is a valid and common method, especially if it’s done after the block in is solidly established, but just not my approach as I very much approach it as clay modeling.

I started getting really into more detailed areas such as in the features. I began using bit of black (ivory black) to hit the darker accents in the eyes etc. After I felt pretty solid with the grisaille underpainting, I started adding colors. I use opaque paints and do not use the glazing approach because I believe in mixing colors and colors being next to each other that gives it lifelike colors when standing back to look at it from a distance. Also I don’t find the texture appealing when glazing is used and doesn’t look as natural or flesh-like to me. But I do use small brushes and build the colors on top bit by bit so I don’t lose the understructure.

From here, it’s just a matter of keep developing and refining the forms till finish, depending on how finished you’d want to make it. Like sculpture, it starts out loose, and the more you work on it, the more it’ll tighten up and be refined. For some other self portrait oil painting techniques or even for painting techniques in general, there’s a separation between a loose painterly painting and a finished quality painting, especially if the approach involves rendering from early on section by section, but if you work in a sculptural way as I do, the painterly pieces are just ones you’ve spent less time on, thus the finished pieces and the painterly pieces are not different styles.

Now I’d like to talk some about the set ups. This would also depend on different self portrait oil painting techniques one’s using but these are only my preferences.

I like to clearly mark where I’m standing so that I will always be in the same spot. Because when painting onseself, you would contantly be moving, turning your head back and forth from mirror to the painting, and also walking back and forth if you like to look at your painting at a distance. So by marking where my feet are, I’d always come back to the same position at least for where I’m standing.

I also set up the lighting so that it won’t hurt my eyes. So I don’t usually use strong chiascuro lighting shining on my face for self portraits, but use overhead lights or very tall lamps where my eyes won’t be in contact with the brightness of the bulbs.

I set up the easel so that I can move it back and forth between close proximity for the details and also be able to push it back far away from my viewpoint to look at it from a distance. I constantly move the easel back and forth instead of myself stepping back from the viewpoint ( where I’m standing). I also like to make it so that I can at some point be able to observe the painting and myself in the mirror side by side for easier comparison. This helps a lot especially with shapes and values. You don’t need to over-do it like the sight size approach but time to time very roughly having the painting and the subject side by side can be one of the neat tricks of self portrait oil painting techniques for achieving naturalistic realism.

Honestly, I didn’t do so well with all the set up I’ve aforementioned with this self portrait, because I’ve started it in a pretty impromptu manner, but it’s only a minor inconvenience. I’d like to think as if I’d be able to paint well under any circumstances.

This self portrait painting is actually not quite done yet, as I intend to make it as refined and realistic as I can. I’m taking a little break from it to share and write about my self portrait oil painting techniques.