Self-Portrait
 

Here's another painting.

Oil on canvas, 16" x 20".

Thanks for looking, and any opinions are welcome.

Thank you, Piety.

Piety, grate job! Such vibrancy. Along with this self portrait I also love the painting of your mother. You handle value an color superbly. At the moment I am doing a commissioned portrait, in charcoal, of a family from Korea. I hope to do a oil portrait of them as well.

I truly appreciate you posting your work. I wish I had a chance to see more. It is dificult to critique at this distance. If you would not mind some close-ups. Thank you.

Best wishes,
mischa

Hi Piety -

I really like this. Great color, wonderful drawing and painting skills, nice composition.

There is one thing that bothers me and that is her shoulder on our (the viewer's) left. It draws too much attention, in my opinion anyway. Maybe soften that edge more?

This is a great job. Was this painted from a photograph or from life?

Close-up.
 

Thank you all.
I also think that left shoulder looks too bright. Original shoulder is little darker than this photo, but I should better soften.
It's from photograph. I don't know how to paint myself with this pose.

And here's close-up.

Piety

Beautiful, Piety! I love the pose. Great job!

Piety, thank you for the better view. Your self portrait looks real good. I would not make any change here rather than frame it and hang it on the wall. This should be a study only and a good one. What I would suggest for you to work on next is a self portrait while looking in the mirror. Working from photos can teach some things but working from life is where you will learn much much more and enjoy every minute. Do 10 self portraits with different lighting is better than a hundred portraits from a photo. Why? Because working from life will teach you more than a thousand photos.

I wish you the best.
mischa

Wow Piety! This is so strong. I would leave it as it is.

I've met Piety and I can definitiely say it looks like her.

But this portrait goes beyond being a mere likeness. The whole thing has great balance--I love the way you have placed yourself in the composition. The color, edges, modeling, and level of detail all show so much mastery. Don't touch it! It's wonderful as it is.

Piety -- I just loved how you've handled the skin! (agree that that shoulder is coming forward a bit though. . .) Beautiful work and composition!

Thank you Kim, Mischa, Alex and Terri for your warm encouragements!

I know and agree with Mischa's mention about using a photo as a reference. There are many shortages to be painted from photos. But in many case, we need to use photos.

I liked this pose to be painted, but I couldn't do it from a mirror. I might need several mirrors to make the set to get the reflection of this pose.

Thank you very much for looking and your sincere comments!

Piety