Self Portrait II with the Zorn Palette

Another attempt of a self portrait using the limited Zorn palette with a little more thought and planning. Sometimes planning and care result in a more successful likeness, but at the cost of spontaneity freshness. Them's are the breaks. I guess there is no 'right' way to paint portraits... more a  case of artistic license?

Final product

Back in my own studio working on stage 1- again a charcoal sketch on the canvas

Careful study in mirror and guidelines as accurate as possible

Mixing the various hues, then tonal values from our familiar limited palette once again.

When the painting is not going quite the way you wanted, its most helpful to scrape all the paint off. It usually improves the work.

The marvellous artist and teacher Lennart Anderson, upon being asked by a student his advice on how she could improve her current painting, he told her she should scrape all the paint off... that it would help unify it... he was absolutely right! What a brilliant man he was.

Today, my painting turned out yuck, so I scraped it... and it really improved! I rather liked it, but of course then I could not resist 'improving, fixing, fiddling...' familiar story?

The 'scrape it off' look...