Working on a Self-Portrait

I’d like to say that doing a self-portrait is an experiment in self-exploration and navigating feelings of reflection. In honesty, I haven’t painted many portraits before. Working from a photograph gave me something concrete to reference in terms of light and form, but you know that feeling when you see a word write out so much that it starts to become unfamiliar? It was a similar feeling to painting my own face.

Not to say it was a bad experience, and if you have painted portraits before you probably know that it isn’t always what you expect. The longer you stare at a face, the funnier it looks and more features start to stand out from the rest. In this case, I painted and repainted this image three times. Each time, it was like I had aged my face ten years! This is why it ended up resembling my mom, in my own opinion.

Adding narrative and storytelling to the piece was a bit of a challenge, but I ended with the idea of a frog in my throat. Being able to communicate with words and pictures is not always easy, and the symbolism here shows the feeling when the words get stuck and you try to change the subject.

Anyway, if you ever have the time and resources, I’d recommend painting yourself just for fun. It doesn’t have to be great, and you learn a lot from just doing it. I hope to keep painting portraits in the near future, assuming I don’t get too intimidated by fear of failure!