Study

[Marina Dieul]

Allan,
you're right, there's something wrong in the nose. In the beginning I drew it too frontal ( because I forgot to turn slightly the head .Ah! those wiggly models!!!) so I had to correct it, but apparently not enough. The mouth seemed Ok to me but I will check.
I had very similar values on the chin and the neck, and tried to separate them, increasing the contrast. Once more not enough.
It's funny how I don't like to make some deliberate changes from what I see from life, even if I know that it will help having a more harmonious painting. When I work from a photo, I don't care : the photo is an interpretation so I can interprete more, but real image from life looks sacred and I don't dare. Lack of practice, I think....
Thanks for the nice words.

Alex,
yes, it's certainly more revealing of me : I didn't want to prove something or to show something , I just wanted to pactice, so I took the mirror, decided how many light and how many shadow I wanted, and I began. I didn't play a role like in the last self portrait.
Maybe it's the good way to do a honnest self-portrait, but it's difficult to paint yourself by surprise!

Mischa,
Do you really think it's too dark? I have a tendency to make too strong contrasts, but as I know I always do that, at the end I reduced the contrasts, and lightened the dark accents.
Should I lighten it much more?
When I chose this lightening, I was afraid that the shadow side looks flat, so it's possible that I'm still too strong in values.
I can't check now, because it's too cloudy, so I have to wait for a better meteo...
Thanks for the explanations, the image is helpful.

[Michele Rushworth]

Marina, this is terrific!

[Chris Saper]

Marina,

What a fine piece of work! A successful portrait and time well spent. (Yes, we do have more sympathy for our models after mirror work)

If you make revisions (or decide not to), I hope you will post a fresh image in the Portraits from Life section.

[Marina Dieul]

Michele, Chris ,
what great honor for a little study not very well drawn !

I'm going to rework this : learning from your mistakes is good, but it's even better to learn to correct them...OK, I will post it in the Portraits from Life section.