Daily Painting Practice - 30 Self Portraits - Day 29 1/2

I wanted to do something special and fun with the last painting in this series. I had this idea of including a few of my art heroes in the painting with me.

The first step was to get the thought transferred to paper. This sounds easy, but I always have a difficult time with this step. I get the idea in my head picture perfect ( at least I think it is) until I go to sketch.... then reality takes over and the sketches barely make sense to anyone but me. It's good practice to do these anyway because it helps you visualize problems with the idea.

click on the picture to enlarge the image

The Last Self Portrait and a Few Friends
Day 29 1/2
work in progress
11"x14"
oil on masonite

Quite an improvement from the sketches right? If you don't recognize the boys they are, from left to right, Rembrandt, Rockwell,Homer and Whistler. And of course me and the tea cup.

You really need to break down the process into small steps to get the idea to this point. Here's a few of the steps :
1. First, I start taking lots and lots of photos of just me in different poses. This triggers a few ideas for the composition and lighting.

2. Decide which artists to include from the dozens of favorites. Don't worry about hurting their feelings if they don't make the final four. A few I selected but ended up not using included Van Gogh, Edwin Tarbell, Andrew Wyeth and Cecilia Beaux. It would have been nice to include a woman artist. But time and effort and space knocked them all out of the picture.

3. I sketched myself and the studio pieces first on tracing paper then sketched each figure on separate pieces of tracing paper so I could move them around. It would be easier in Photoshop but I am not fluent in photo editing.

4.Once the figures are placed transfer them all to the final surface and start painting. I am starting with a burnt umber under painting.

I'll post the final stages at some later point. Now I'm ready to paint something other than me. I hoped you enjoyed the series.