Self portrait with Robin

Original Concept

The original concept for this painting was going to be one of a series of paintings on how the media affects our perception of famous celebrities. There's a famous UK sportsperson (whom I cannot name, in order to protect the innocent) and this was my 'media-driven' perception of them.

However, I shied away from using any images of that celebrity to avoid any potential litigation or copyright infringement, and instead decided to make it into a self-portrait. Also, the title 'Self portrait with Robin' is a bit of a dichotomy as it suggests a second person in the portrait.

In this first stage I've gridded up the paper into 20mm squares and drawn the cartoon, using a composite self-portrait photograph and a few online images of a robin as my reference material.

Verdaccio underpainting

The stretched linen was prepared with a burnt sienna coloured acrylic primer. (I had read that Rembrandt favoured a 'red bole' primer so I wanted to give this a try using a modern equivalent.) I didn't feel it made much difference when I was painting - I think its probably more effective if you intend scratching the paint back with a sharp instrument, perhaps over the hair, in order to designate some hair strands.

The cartoon was transferred using the oil-transfer method, with raw umber oil paint used as the transfer medium. The verdaccio underpainting of the skin was completed using mixtures of terre verte and titanium white.

I wanted a black background so that the lighting on the subject matter would be more prominent. I used a 'chromatic' black - in this case, a mixture of ultramarine blue and burnt umber and used a kind of criss-crossing brush stokes to apply it. However, I wasn't entirely happy with the effect - there was so much glare from the background and the brush strokes were quite visible which was quite distracting. I wondered how artists got those really dark, even backgrounds where you couldn't really see the brush strokes.

Normal skin

After allowing the underpainting to cure for a couple of weeks to ensure it was safe to start overpainting, the skin tones were applied using mixtures of titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium orange and light red. Having the background and clothing in also helped to establish the value range for the skin.

The base layer of the hair was put in at the same time as the background, so that the edges could be softened a little.

You can see the glare more in this image and the following images.

Modelling the face

By now, most of the modelling of the face (trying to get a three-dimensional appearance from a two-dimensional surface) was completed. Later on, some details and highlights would be added.

The chicks inside the skull were drawn and the empty space visible in the skull was rendered.

I was trying to get a slight blue tinge on the back of the skull which would have been the result from the light passing through my blue eyes.

I find wrinkles are so difficult to do! (and I have a few) 😢

I've made a start on the bird and on the poo she leaves on my shoulder.

And Robin makes two

I do look grumpy; although when I took the reference photo it was intentional. After all, wouldn't you be a bit grumpy if you had a nest of hungry chicks inside your head? (Can't say I remember much about it though, as my brain was missing at the time). 😂

I tried to get that 'five o-clock shadow' on the side of my face with some very light scumbling using ivory black.

I must say, I did enjoy painting the robin. I had to use a rigger brush to get some of the fine details on the feathers and the legs. I might do a series of birds some day.