RAITS
Is there something about their
profession or their achievements
which have meaning to you? Did you
once want to follow their career path?
Are they someone who you have
always admired or, perhaps more
interestingly, someone who you
have never felt very warmly towards?
Do they belong to an era in which
you’d wish to travel back in time?
Once your choice is made,
you are going to record it not with
a photograph but by drawing it and
taking extensive notes. I fi nd it helpful
to set a time limit on this, because
the possibilities are endless – try one
hour. Draw the composition, pose
and position of the head and fi gure,
but also make notes on the palette,
texture, brushwork and mood of
the painting.
Pay close attention to the portrait
and record as much detail as possible
while you have it before you; your
aim here is to lay out a series of
instructions for yourself to enable you
to reproduce those elements of the
portrait that are most useful to you.
This exercise is not only a
stimulating step away from our
familiar selves, it is also very effective
in retraining your brain to not simply
defer to a camera. We are increasingly
over-reliant on technology, assuming
that a lens will select for us everything
that we may later need, but there
is no substitute for really looking.
Back in the studio, use only these
notes and sketches to remake your
chosen work with a twist – rather than
painting the original subject you are
going to insert a self-portrait into the
picture. Have your mirror ready and
waiting for you, as you’re going to want
to work on this while the image of your
chosen painting and the information
gathered are still fresh in your mind.
It’s incredible just how much focused
instruction you can give yourself when
you know that you don’t have the
option of using a camera. Continue
working until the portrait is complete.
Although referring to photography
during the painting process is strictly
banned, I always take a photo of the
gallery paintings that my students
choosesothatwemaycomparetheirrenderings to the originals at the end
of the day and it can be instructive
for you to do the same.
Often the results of this workshop
are startling and not simply because
students tend to realise how much
information they can absorb when
they want to. Seeing ourselves looking
back at us in the guise of another can
be unexpectedly exciting, and
sometimes even disquieting. It can
take us through a door into another
time and place and, should our new
identities resonate, into ourselves.
Next month: learn how to paint a whole
new persona. http://www.roxanahalls.comBELOW Nicholas
Hilliard’s 1575
portrait of Queen
Elizabeth I inspired
Kate Linden’s
self-portraitLEFT A painting by
Paul Starns, one of
Roxana’s students,
was inspired by
LS Lowry’s 1938
self-portrait