Self-Portraits and New Orientations
I spent a bit of time today sketching in the underpinnings of a goofy self-portrait today. It's supposed to be based off a Gustave Courbet self-portrait. I've always loved absurd and/or goofy self-portraits with unusual expressions. There's a really nice Rembrandt self-portrait in ink (Actually probably not. Upon closer observation I'd be willing to bet it's an etching.) that's got a bit of an odd expression too. This is gonna (hopefully) be a weird mash-mash of the two, pulling the pose from one and the medium/technique from the other.
The aforementioned inspiration. Both of these guys are wonderful artists, who I love even more for theses goofy self-portraits.
I also had the idea that yesterday's compositional explorations on the forest table concept could use a side-quest into a vertical composition. It's relatively unusual to see a vertical (portrait) composition in a landscape (hence: the name) painting. I love the idea of using the branches higher up to form a bit of an arch at the top of the painting, too. That seems so much a Zech go-to now that I'm kinda second-guessing myself for it, but it's always such a lovely look that I'm gonna explore the arch concept further anyways.
-ZR
