Self-Portrait

[Chris Saper]

This is a pastel, done on Sennelier's La Carte Sanded paper...a great surface, but it is impossible to lift pastel completely (even mostly)...

And of course, there is a tale to go with it...I was under the gun to produce an image for my brochure, and had at hand only an automatic, self-focusing camera. I set it on auto-timer and quickly ran around, and of course the camera focused on the background clutter behind...one of the worst, most out-of focus source photos ever. However, I figured I could start with the parts I could make out, the figure, hair and part of the face in light, and that then just finish up with a mirror, which I did.

When I completed the face it simply was WRONG, and difficult to figure out why..but eventually it dawned on me that I had painted two right sides of the face, and had achieved the odd look you get when you place a mirror on half of a photographed face. The right side became left in the photo, but remained right in the mirror. So now the first side had to be repainted with the mirror. I got a thumbs down critique at home, and started fussing with the easel, and the painting fell across my back, obliterating the face, and leaving those odd little scrape marks behind the neck in shadow. Although beleaguered, at the least the edges were improved.

Never did like it well enough to put in a brochure,and went with a photo instead.

Chris