Self Portrait – An Anxious Man (after Courbet) – Critique please

[NicBritt]

Hi guys, this was painted recently: I was trying to represent something about the feeling of anxiety using Courbet’s fantastic Desperate Man painting as reference. I’d love to hear some thoughts about it. I wanted to experiment with breaking the form and abstraction – speaking about real/not real and of me/not of me.

oil on board . Cheers. Nic

[André Girão Tauffer]

Wow, amazing light effects! I could say I couldn’t quite grasp what’s going on in the right hand and in the left forearm. Is that suggesting anxious movement? If so maybe the onde in the right hand could be more subtle

[NicBritt]

Thanks for your critique – yeah they’re supposed to be abstracted faces. the merge with the tattoos – they both exist/don’t exist. supposed to be visual representations of innervoices. i didnt want to make them “obvious” but to reward a more careful examination of the painting. BUT I think maybe the right one in particular disrupts the reading of the form of the arm and could benefit from being more subtle?? Id love to hear what other people think too

 

[Annie Survis]

First,  I want to say that I think this is lovely. It’s a great homage to the original. I think that the abstract face on the right of the painting works really well, but the one on the left of the painting is harder to read because of the colorful tattoo and the abstract lines below the face/arm. Also, I keep getting distracted by the almost-face in the negative space made by the arm on the right of the painting, the face, and the collar/shirt. I feel like if yoyu changed that space I could concentrate on the other faces that it’s your intent for me to be looking at.

[NicBritt]

Hi Annie, thanks for your critique -its really interesting I hadn’t noticed the almost face in that negative space! shows the value of having other opinions and eyes! i’ll have a think about what i could do about that space, I originally left the ‘raw’ wood surface showing by designbut perhaps i could add a background and darken the value of this area?

 

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