Selfies challenge

[StephKunze]

There is a beautiful portrait I would put on my wall Steph! So lovely with that beautiful gentle lighting. Just gorgeous, not stark like mine. That’s a true gentleness, even to your application of paint whether to your face or to the background. You should just finish it up and there’s not much you have to do. It deserves to be on your wall.
A stigmatism in one eye has got to be quite unique to have to work around. I have it in both, but it gets corrected.
I’m enjoying seeing people joining as well!

I'm very curious to know what you mean by corrected, as I would love to see better in my left eye. I don't know what I would do if I didn't have my right eye. Often times when I'm working on a really detailed area in a drawing I will have my left eye closed just so I can clearly see what I'm doing

Well I'd say a more accurate word than stark is bold. Your portrait has a deep presence and mood to it. I feel something there, it held my attention right away, especially the second version, which feels like a combination of moods and thoughts from both your past self and current self.

I'm not sure if you ever use vine charcoal or charcoal pencils, but sometimes those can help for getting more fine details with charcoal! One of my drawing professors always said charcoal is the hardest dry medium to work with.

 

[PaintBoss]

Thank you, Steph
The stigmatism in my eyes are corrected in my prescription for glasses and contacts. In fact, I always make them tweak a little bit more than what they want because I like things so crisp which they say is difficult for the eye. But I mean, I still really notice it at night if it’s raining and you don’t have the lights on the street. You’ll know all about the streaking you can get. Apparently people who don’t have stigmatism don’t have that!
On the eye exam when they’re giving you all the lenses to pick between a and B once I get finished with that if you have an astigmatism. They take a lens that slides left to right now. My uncle had a much worse stigmatism. They tried to correct his glasses and it just didn’t work for him.
But I also had it in both eyes at the same time although as I’ve gotten older, the prescriptions have changed for both eyes. I think you’d really feel it in one eye only.
Thank you for your lovely comments about my portrait. I almost thought it was too depressing to post!
Yes, we learned with vine charcoal in University. A few years ago I found some but boy did I ever have to go on the hunt to find it. I have it somewhere in my studio, but I didn’t have the strength to go searching through drawers. I barely got set up with the basics. I thought to myself later it may have helped. Great suggestion and important for people to realize there is such a thing. It is so light, a very soft gray, very nice to use. The art supply stores people who were in their 20s/30s had no idea what I was talking about! I couldn’t believe that.

 

[MurrayG]

Oh I'm excited to see this thread expand with more self-portraits. These are so interesting to look at (and read about), they feel personal. I love the variety of colors and styles too.

I rarely do self-portraits myself, especially from life. I have a bad astigmatism in my left eye, and it gives me problems with proportions when working from life. I threw away the self-portraits I did from life in college as the proportions were just off. The last time I attempted a self-portrait was back in 2020 when I was super into aqua oils. It was referenced from a photograph of when I was in my mid-twenties. I started it but never finished it. But also never threw it away, so that's something!

View attachment 47541

I'm with Paintboss and think this is a lovely interpretation. Soft lighting works. In a way I'm perfectly happy with the unfinished appearance, it brings focus to the main subject. Very nice work.

 

[StephKunze]

Your post is making me realize how much I need an eye exam, Paintboss lol. I have a prescription for my left eye, but like your uncle it does not do anything for it unfortunately. My left eye is slightly lazy, but not noticeable except in certain pictures or when I'm really tired. I haven't had an eye exam in about 5 years so I'm thinking it's time I go! I always felt it was something I would just live with, but next time I'll speak up more about it and see if can get a prescription that helps. And oof, sad about the art supply workers not knowing about vine charcoal - I always thought of that as a staple as far as art supplies go!

Thanks so much MurrayG

 

[PaintBoss]

I would definitely go check your eyes Steph. See where you’re at. My post was a little jumbled. I meant to say even with corrected vision at night when it rains you see a lot of streaks and that is astigmatism which I didn’t realize. And the equipment they used to check your eyes which you are familiar with when they’re changing the lenses and saying do you prefer a or b, once that part is done, there is a little switch on top of that machine that they will slide a little bit and that is correcting for astigmatism. I hope they can do something for you. The thing is if you know you have it it must mean that they mentioned it to you, which means they are aware of it. Perhaps it is like my uncle where he cannot wear contacts because of it.

 

[StephKunze]

I would definitely go check your eyes Steph. See where you’re at. My post was a little jumbled. I meant to say even with corrected vision at night when it rains you see a lot of streaks and that is astigmatism which I didn’t realize. And the equipment they used to check your eyes which you are familiar with when they’re changing the lenses and saying do you prefer a or b, once that part is done, there is a little switch on top of that machine that they will slide a little bit and that is correcting for astigmatism. I hope they can do something for you. The thing is if you know you have it it must mean that they mentioned it to you, which means they are aware of it. Perhaps it is like my uncle where he cannot wear contacts because of it.

Yeah, I first learned I had it when I was in high school, so it's been a life long thing. I haven't needed to wear glasses yet because my right eye has much stronger vision, but I know one day I will need to. I know what you mean about rainy nights! Not fun for driving.

 

[PaintBoss]

I would be interested to hear what the eye doctor says so please keep me up-to-date when you get there. My one eye is stronger than the other, or one eye that worse is more than the other. By now, they might be able to give you a light prescription for the Eye. It might be worth it to see although I’m sure you’ve grown somewhat used to it. it would be wonderful if you didn’t have to have that annoying you

 

[PaintBoss]

Also, my daughter came home this weekend and she’s never seen any of my university work. I didn’t say anything about the portrait. But I left my door to my room open. She walked by the room, looked in and jumped. It is a rather large portrait. She yelled Oh my God! There’s a person staring at me! Then she looked and said, Oh it is you when you were younger. Yes. . She said it was a strange shock seeing a face looking out the room at her!
I recommend doing a very large unsmiling intense portrait of yourself and do it in charcoal so there is that bold, confronting look, put it somewhere in your place. Where others will walk into it. Do not say a thing. Even better if they turn on the light unexpectedly, and the portrait is staring at them! Lolol I realize this is a funny party trick now.

 

[StephKunze]

I'll let you know what they end up finding!

Haha, that's really cute. You should keep it up permanently, then once she's grown up she'll always remember that hallway as the hallway with the giant serious face looking back at her, lol. Portraits are just funny in a way that because they're of a face, we tend to respond to them more viscerally. I'd love to see what the face looks like in the hallway if you ever decide to take a picture of it!