Self portrait
 

Hi everyone, I plan to do a self portrait next in oil, this will be for promotion etc. These photos were taken by a professional photographer a while ago, and are really very clear. I ended up taking a picture with my digital camera instead of scanning because I am still learning how to use our new scanner and Photoshop Elements, and am very frustrated right now. Old brains and new tricks!

Please comment on the poses, and any other problems that may be evident from what you can see. I plan to change the color of the t-shirt to a light blue. If I use the three quarter pose I would add more to the bottom so that my fingers aren't cut off and would change the belt (yuk). I'm available occasionally to pose so can also set up an appointment easily with the model!

One more question, this photo is 10 years old, can I get away with using an older image to protect my vanity?

Jean

Me again
 

And the other one. Simpler straightforward.

Jean,

What attractive pictures! You are quite lovely. Have you obtained a release to use these photos for reference from the photographer? Even though it is your image (to which you retain certain rights), the photographs themselves are copyrighted. If you plan to use works painted from them as promotional pieces, and might possibly reproduce them or web post them for this purpose, you could be in violation of the photographer's copyright.

In addition to the very real copyright problem mentioned in the last post, it sounds like there are too many things you have to change to make these photos worth using.

Changing the belt, adding fingertips that you can't see in the photo, etc. will make things tougher for you than having reference that is perfect the first time.

You mentioned that the original photos are very clear. If they are anywhere near as soft as what I see here, I wouldn't use them. Do you have closeups of the hands? That would be important to have. Shooting closeups of faces and hands is a key part of every photo shoot I do.

You could easily recreate the pose and lighting and reshoot these yourself. You'd learn a lot about setting up photo shoots by doing that, too. Even though these were taken by a professional photographer, I think you could do better yourself and the learning experience would be well worth it.

However....if you want a great sample "for promotion", as you said, here's what I would do instead:

Make the perfect standard portrait sample, one that will get a lot of clients' attention. What I'm about to describe to you is what almost every portrait artist gets asked to paint, and will draw in the largest number of inquiries. This is assuming you want to do children's portraiture, which is two-thirds of the portrait market.

Borrow a friend or neighbor's adorably cute four-to six-year-old girl. Much younger and she won't hold a pose for you, much older and she'll be past the cutest age. Offer her mom an 8x10 photo of the completed painting as a thank you. (Of course, she may buy the painting, which would be ideal!)

Put the little girl in a classic, simple white dress with a white bow and bare feet or simple but pretty shoes. Pose her next to a window with no other sources of light. Position yourself off to the side of the window. Shoot a hundred or so shots of her. Go for an introspective but pleasant expression, not a big grin.

Don't change your position at all once you start photographing her. This is so you can combine hands, faces, etc. from different shots. Shoot lots of closeups of her hands and feet and face. Zoom in rather than getting physically close to her so you don't have distortion from the wide angle setting on your camera.

Do a bang up job of painting this and plaster it all over your promotional materials!

Michele,

You are a great marketer, sometimes I think rather than taking more painting workshops, some of us should hang out with you and learn your promotion techniques.

Jean, I think Michele has made a good point as far as what attracts the most customers. If you don't nail the likeness to a "T" on a self-portrait, you might get: "Is that supposed to be you?" I think that would make for awkward moments.

Hi all!
 

To answer some questions. First, the photographer is a personal friend of mine, so the copyright issue is not a problem. They were taken to go on a brochure for my art quilting business.

Second, they are much clearer than what is shown here due to my photographing a photograph. In trying to use this scanner I did something and ended up using all the available memory on the hard drive. Don't have a clue why this picture takes up mege gigabytes. Must have scanned every single freckle at the highest resolution :D . We're still infants to some of this technology.

When I said promotional use, I only mean it to be used on a brochure etc. (avatar). Michelle, your idea is the best, and I've already rounded up a little girl, adorable. It seems that a portrait artist should have a portrait of themself done by themself, I've noticed many here have done one.

Why use this picture? Cause its 10 years old, and I have wrinkles now. (heehee)

Now for the final question that hasn't been asked yet. Why not paint from life? Answer, I used to wear contact lenses, now glasses, I'm blind as a bat without them. If I take them off, I can't see anything. With them on, glare and frames bug me. I always laugh when I read the hint: squint at your source to see value and shapes. I just look over the top of the frame, instant blur.

I'll think about doing a new shoot, it would be a good learning experience. (But I'm 10 years older now, complain, complain.) Michele, I agree that there are too many changes to make on the three quarter pose; since it's me, I might as well make it easy on myself.

Thank you all for your comments, hubby is kicking me off the computer.

Jean

Hi Jean,

I would like this one, with the following crop.

I think you could make the background a bit more exciting with the use of the colors used and values.

Don't you just hate glasses? I think it is my biggest complaint about getting old!

Good look!

My two cents worth - I don't think there is anything wrong with a good photograph for marketing purposes.

Good idea, Beth
 

Yes, I like that crop. I have the transparencies and everything from the original shoot, so could easily do that crop and still get detail. I may never look that good again!
Glad you understand about the glasses (excuses, excuses, excuses).

I'll let this rattle around in my empty brain.

Jean

Dear Jean,

You've been posting for months without a photo and so I must say how nice it is to "meet" you.

Self-portraits are tricky. It seems to me that their main value is that you have an always-present life model on which to practice all your life painting skills. Surely, a professional "glamour" photographer could get a more flattering photo of an artist for the artist to work from. You have to ask yourself whether your main artistic concern is brutal honesty or whether it is dashing, romantic, glorious splendor. (I'm thinking of a male artist's self-portrait as I write this, by the way.) What you chose will say as much about you as a person as it does about you as an artist. Maybe the best method is to paint one brutally honest one, and another one as the person you always WISHED you could have looked like.

Like you, I'm very frustrated with my eyesight (eye surgeries, etc.). I've worked hard to try to re-train my vision and for me this means working from life. I work very loose to start with, with my glasses dangling from an ear; then I put the glasses on to work the detail. It's a little like manually focusing your camera. It's a clumsy method and it sure looks stupid, but you can't let vanity get in the way of where you want to go.

Michele gives excellent painting advice as well as marketing advice. (Thanks, Michele, for reminding me to zoom in on features, since I sometimes forget to do that.) The 8" x 10" photo is a good idea - you shouldn't give the painting itself away unless you want to make a very special gift to an exceptional friend.

Best regards,
Linda

I can't claim credit for thinking up any of the marketing or photography tips I post (or any of the painting tips either, for that matter). Someone else either taught them to me or I read them in an art or photography book somewhere.

I just read as much as I can from all sources and post on the forum the tips that seem to make sense, or have worked for me.

So many artists would like to avoid the marketing issues, but they are essential to running any business, whether you're a painter or a veterinarian!

Brutal honesty
 

Linda, I find the phrase "brutal honesty" to be very intriguing. As a portrait artist, do I have to choose whether I create fantasy, wishful thinking, or true realism? Brutal honesty seems to cover the entire range of the soul itself. All the pain and ugliness, all the joy and beauty. What a profound experience. Can a portrait artist realistically portray this in a single work? And would one even want to "bare the soul" to such a extent?

Jean

Hi Jean,

When I think of "brutal honesty" I think of the (now deceased?) painter Alice Neel, who painted her first self portrait at the age of 80, in the nude.

So far, I have painted self portraits when I've been unsuccessful in talking clients into "unorthodox" portraits that I'm just dying to paint. For example, nobody seems to be as thrilled about kimonos as I am, so I painted myself wearing one. I personally believe they are a timeless garment in which to be painted, but most people seem to think they are just old bathrobes.

Other must-paints (for me) include giant hats, turbans, long gloves, bizarre animal skins, and half-in-and-out-of-water poses... though maybe not all in the same painting. Also, wouldn't it be interesting to be painted, as, say, a centaur or a harpy? The mind boggles. I may have to just get models for this kind of thing.

You are very attractive in your photo, so I guess I'm just encouraging you to push the envelope a little. But heck - who needs to be "attractive" to push the envelope, anyway? [Insert long, harranging screed about society's false notions of "attractiveness".]

I can't leave off without posting a self portrait by one of my favorite artists, Gustave Caillebotte. I had to be pulled away by the arm after I stood in front of this painting for 20 minutes a few years ago. He just knocks my socks off.

I think I'll paint my dog
 

Hello,

Linda, his eyes look like they could pierce right through steel. No hiding anything from him. No wonder you were transfixed.

When totally confused and overloaded, I often discuss things with my husband Tom (I've drawn and painted him many times). We met 10 years ago, and our 9th wedding anniversary is at the end of April. He would like me to paint the crop that Beth did as a gift to him. These pictures have been "hidden" in a drawer all this time, he's never seen them till now so this question has been resolved.

But.... My list of projects has grown significantly. A fantasy portrait, a nude from life (haven't told Tom about that one yet), a wrinkled kindly gramma covered with flour, a 7-year-old tomboy, a 19-year-old rebellious hippie, and let's not forget the 4- to 6-year-old adorably cute litle girl in the white dress with a bow!

Jean

ps. "Bizzare animal prints?" This brings an image to mind!

Dear Jean,

Linda has some great ideas and her suggestions of "props" should make the self-portrait really unique and different.

My self-portrait is as a veiled middle eastern patriarch after Jean-Leone Gerome's "Caucassian Lady". I chose that pose, garment and background all because I found it decorative, as well as being a statement of my heritage and personality.

The pose is commanding and fills out the space and the look is stern, yet I am sort of hiding behind the veil.

Visitors to my home can't miss it, since it hangs in our formal room. Some recognize me in an instance and with a big grin ask: "Self-portrait?-others keep looking back and forth at the painting and then me, wondering if they should dare ask.

A self-portrait allows you to take liberties that you might not be able to take with a commissioned piece, so have fun with it and push the envelope!

I just think as a promotional tool you can open yourself up for a lot of direct critique, whereby using a cute "girl in a white dress" does not.

Can't wait to see how you choose to portray yourself.

Self portrait
 

Hi Enzie,

I went to your website to have a look at your self portrait. You do look very "commanding". :bewildere Is that a whip in your hand?

Tom and I decided to do a photo shoot over the weekend, and we came up with a pose that says everything about who I am right now. I'm not going to post it, but will post the final as an "unveiling" (appropriate term).

Off to work.

Jean