Self-portrait

Worked on the self-portrait last evening, still feel as though some elements are disproportionate, though hopefully all will be balanced in the coming weeks.

Over the past few years, my color palate has generally been weighted by blue tones. Mostly due to a reliance/overuse on mixing Phthalo and Prussian blues. I’m able to achieve deep blacks, though I tend to start working in and out of highlights during the same session, which pulls these darker blues straight through.

The above palate shows black weighted with red, aiming to neutralize blue tones, and eventually open up for my current brown, burnt umber. This method allows me to build my piece with comfortable colors, then round out a black and white image with warm hues.

As working with a limited color palate, it’s constant refinement and learning with your mixing. Also, creating a monochrome image requires most of my colors to be constant from day to day.

Preparing some new canvases this coming week, hope to have up to five pieces going at once.