SELF-PORTRAITS
76 Artists&Illustrators
AIM
Kickstartyourself-discoverywiththefirstoftwopaintings.
Thechallengehereis toseeyourselffroma newangle.
DURATION
2-3hours
MATERIALS
Choosea limitedpaletteofoilcoloursthatarefamiliarto
you.You’llfindthattheseexercisesgiveyoua lottothink
aboutandsoyouwillwanttofeelcomfortablewiththe
EXERCISE 1
paints you are using. Opt for a canvas or board
approximately the size of your head – say around 20 to
30cm. You will also need two mirrors – one can be wall
mounted, the other will need to be propped onto a chair
or, preferably, on an easel. You will also need an oil
paint medium, one medium brush (approximately size
8) and one smaller brush for more detailed work.WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
You’ll be taking a whole new view of your own
physiognomy and considering how we can see ourselves
afresh as exciting new subject matter. The effect of
trying to move your eye from this unfamiliar reflection
over to the painting can be peculiar and you may take a
while to get accustomed to looking at yourself this way.PROCESS
Set up a very basic “hall of mirrors” by positioning one
mirror facing another. Make sure that both mirrors are at
head height and vertically parallel to one another, with
enough space to stand or sit between them.
Change the position of the moveable mirror until you
find an unexpected view that interests you: maybe a
three-quarter angle, a profile, or as if staring at the back
of your own head. With a wealth of options, you may
prefer to make some simple sketches first before
deciding which to paint.
Set up an easel with your prepared painting surface
at a comfortable distance and spend around 2-3 hours
on a simple oil study of your head. By the time you are
ready to put down your brush, you’ll already have an
enhanced understanding of yourself. You may even find
as you walk down the road that you can picture walking
behind yourself as though you were strangers.permanently available to ourselves, we expect no modelling
fee, and we have the freedom to paint any image we please
without fear of offence. But such freedom can seem
daunting rather than liberating at first. Often the most
constraining impediment to self-discovery is sheer
embarrassment: to really scrutinise oneself without an
ameliorating filter or pose can be excruciating, but to do
so is the first step on our travels.
When introducing students to the possibilities they may
find in the mirror, I begin with a two-part exercise that I will
share with you. It is designed to guide students, initially
seeing themselves as new and unfamiliar territory, and
then breaking their inhibitions as they depict themselves
in undesirable, even absurd poses.
I’ve considered these two approaches critical to my
practice and both have led to my creating extended bodies
of work. When I first painted the back of my own head 20
years ago in the 1999 self-portrait, BACK, it felt revelatory;
how could it be that there was a part of me as yet so
unknown? The “Unknown Woman” became an enduring
subject for me and images of unidentified figures
perpetually refusing our gaze have recurred since that
modest early experiment.
This is a technique I also employ with my students and
it can prove very disorienting to recognise that such an
intrinsic part of your body is so unfamiliar. This sense of
unknowing could be described as “uncanny”, a term
defined by the neurologist Sigmund Freud as an instance
when something can be familiar and yet alien at the same
time. While this sensation can be strange and unexpected,
the recognition that through a simple visual sleight of hand
one can become a whole new realm waiting to be
discovered can also be inspiring.
My entire Laughing While... series stemmed from my
2012 self-portrait Laughing With My Mouth Full, most
recently exhibited in the Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize
exhibition. In contrast to the implied constraint of my
palette and clothing, I regard the viewer with my mouth
agape, exposing its livid contents. I painted this picture
entirely from life, painting for several hours a day for a
total of around 10 days, staring in the mirror at my
exaggerated features. To spare my aching facial muscles
while working on the peripheral elements of the picture
(such as clothing or hair), I would lapse in and out of this
expression, but all the time keep my head in position. My
mouth is actually filled with raspberries, which I only added
to my painting – and indeed my pose – on the last day.
ABOVE How you
might set up your
easel and mirrors
for exercise one
ABOVE RIGHT
Paintings from
new angles by Art
Academy students