Saturday, October 11, 2008

Self portrait of usha shantharam

Self portrait - usha shantharam


Painting one's own self involves many challenges to an artist. It is easier to paint others in the sense that you can ask a model to pose, and all the 'statue' work is done by the model. But how do you paint yourself?

I chose to stand in front of the mirror, with the easel in front of me, a little to the right. This made it convenient for me to glance left into the mirror and then back to my canvas everytime. Another challenge was to get the right lighting! I could paint only at a certain time of the day when the sunlight came through the window and fell on my face at a certain angle. It took me several months to finish this oil painting.

This is an oil painting of size 14"x9".

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