58 Artists&Illustrators
SELF-PORTRAITS
AIM
To make a self-portrait in the style
of another artist, impersonating
the subject of their painting as
convincingly as possible.DURATION
1-2 hours on location in a gallery,
followed by approximately 3 hours
back in the studio, preferably on
the same day.MATERIALS
For the gallery, you will need a
sketchbook and pencil. Back at home
or in your studio space, you will need
one small and one medium brush –
approx. sizes 8 and 4 – and a palette
loaded and ready with colour. I would
recommend using a range of colours
that you are familiar with because this
exercise can prove challenging. You
may fi nd that you will want to add
extra colours as appropriate to the
painting you are attempting to “copy”.You will also need a mirror and one
small to medium painting surface. I’d
suggest using one around 30x40cm
to make it possible for you to include
more in your painting than just your
head and shoulders. It may be wise to
have more than one prepared surface
ready and waiting for you back in the
studio because it’s hard to predict
what might inspire you at the gallery.WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
This is a two-part exercise, ultimately
designed to expand your potential
repertoire of guises without the
pressure of having to concoct a
character for yourself from scratch.
You’ll also hone your ability to observe
and record information without the
use of technology.PROCESS
When I ask my students to undertake
this task, we visit the National Portrait
Gallery in London, but you can do thisexercise in any gallery. We begin with
a short tour where I introduce some
of my highlights from the collection
and discuss images with a particular
connection to my self-portrait class
and our creative aims.
To execute your “Identity Theft”
self-portrait, your fi rst step is to
choose from among the portraits
before you. With the wealth of options
on display in any city museum, let
alone the National Portrait Gallery,
it can be quite daunting choosing who
to be; I suggest that you go with your
instinct and choose someone with
whom you have the most immediate
sense of kinship but ideally are
physically quite different from. Indeed,
I always notice my students becoming
drawn to specifi c works as we move
through the collection.
If you still can’t choose, it might
be useful to consider the following
questions: who is the person most
unlike and removed from you?We are increasingly over-reliant on cameras
but there is no substitute for really looking
EXERCISE 1
ABOVE One of
Roxana’s students,
Minnie Scott,
imagined herself
as the 2nd Duke of
Grafton, inspired
by Sir Godfrey
Kneller’s portrait
in the National
Portrait Gallery