Can I blame the shift to more current musical choices this morning for the change in colours? Maybe. Can I assume that the sip of bourbon, a taste I’ve only really acquired over the last few years and didn’t have in the 1980s to the change? Maybe. Can I say that being mindful of where I am today and a deep desire to express my voice TODAY for the shifts? Probably.
I started with dry brushing unbleached titanium, occasionally mixed (on the palette) with tints and tones of the other colours all over the composition. I just kept blending in the lighter tones then building contours with darker colours, before blending in the lighter ones again. I resisted using white, so as to not flatten the planes too much, but it worked beautifully to add texture to the shirt and tease imperfect highlights on the skin.
The thumb was supposed to be touching my lips and I only realized I had put it on my nose after much work was done. I just didn’t feel like painting over the error and decided to add more volume to the hand and pull it forward in the image… it is in the foreground and my face is in the back… when I stepped back, I saw that the positioning of the arm felt more natural this way, so I left it.
I think I’d call this an attitudinal portrait of myself. because it feels like me, but doesn’t look like me. It’s a mature version of a “Joe Cool” cartoon I drew as a kid; a human version of Snoopy’s iconic alter ego.
Dimension: 12” (30cm) x 10” (25.5cm)
Materials: Acrylic on recycled canvas
Prints & more available at Arts MPerron
