I initially had no idea we had to do a Master's Study... which is always a fantastic start. I was so busy in the middle of my group project that a lot of other stuff got pushed to one side, but once most of that was out of teh way i set a day aside to work on this.
I decided on looking at Rembrandt, mostly because he's an artist that often pops up while researching other artists... that and the fact that I knew I wanted to do a self-portrait and his work focused a lot on that subject so I thought it'd be a good artist to focus on.
The piece above is one I studied and used to compare to my progress a lot.... this stood out to me as most of Rembrandt s works are usually very stark in contrast between the shadows and sparse lighter areas, which he uses to great effect to highlight the areas and features on the face. I also like how this particular piece was very bold with its brush strokes that they became very apparent how each one was done: it was this approach I tried to adopt when making my own portrait.
Progress Shot: This is the near finished version I painted digitally alongside a photo reference of myself. You can definitely tell its me, but the angle of the head is too straight on my piece as well as the head being slightly too narrow. My right eye is also a little off in its shape.
~ Final Piece ~
I think overall, as a self portrait this painting is rather successful, but as a masters study it fell short quiet a lot from what i was trying to achieve. This being my first proper digital painting/masters study, it took me awhile just to adapt to treating the digital canvas like a traditional one and just paint with rough strokes to make up the much larger picture. I think I grasped a good understanding of how Rembrandt used his strokes to great effect, but by the time that realisation sunk in id pretty much finished... I think that this is definitely a piece I am going to revisit once I have more time on my hands, so that I can address the issues.
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