Here’s a time-lapse of a little self portrait. I like to paint at least one of these a year to document the slide.

Self portraits are still one of my favorite things to do because the model will sit for as long as I need him to. He doesn’t complain, and holds the pose exactly how I need it. Tbh I think he’s a little goofy looking, but it gives me license to push the shapes a little more than I might with someone possessing less severe features. And he works for free so there’s that too.

I’ve noticed after painting him over the years, the skin above his eyelids now hangs differently. It sags more and has almost a paper-like quality starting to happen.  The bags have gotten larger, darker, way more purple in there now. Purples and greens. He used to only have one laugh line on the right side of his face, but now theres one on the other side too, and that first one is muuuuch deeper now.  Hairline has receded a bit. It’s not extreme yet, but I can definitely see it.  He tends to be unshaven, which obscures the landscape beneath, but if I look I can still see how the flesh has changed under there. Nothing too saggy yet, but the shapes are much more defined and extreme. Harder edges don’t feel as out of place now. It’s weird because as time goes on, he looks more and more like my dad.

heres where i left off with it.

 

Turned out ok, but I have to say I prefer the one our 6 year old son Milton drew of me (and our family) a few days before.

Hope you all have a happy holiday season. Thank you to the entire muddy colors community, and of course big huge thank you to Dan Dos Santos for keeping this place going strong and continuing to bring new talent and voices into the mix.