Whoo. Now we’re going back in time to 2004. 🙂

“Modal, African-American Woman”
Oil on canvas, 2004

“Self-Portrait”
Oil on canvas, 2004

I painted these portraits during my time at Temple University in my Intro to Painting class. It was a long road leading up to these pieces I have to say. It was my first time working in oils, and they are not easy nor low-maintenance. The incessant dipping of the brush in linseed oil, then the paint, then the turpentine to clean it admittedly drove me crazy. So instead, I used my palette knife to paint my canvases, and I had much more success in using the colors to build my images, not draw them on the canvas like a pencil.

To this day I’m really proud of these pieces, especially at how I was able to capture the emotion in the faces. As you can see, I was particularly pensive the day I did my self-portrait since I was staring at myself in the mirror while I was painting. 🙂