Self-Portrait by Brenda Orton

From the Artist: In this painting (my first ever self-portrait and my third ever oil painting) I tried to capture an expression but am not sure it comes across in the finished painting. I found myself sat in front of the mirror not being very happy with the reflection I saw! That is the sad down-turned look of my mouth! I wanted to add more color, however to try and convey my somber mood I felt somber colors more appropriate.

From the Painting Guide: It's quite often the case that a self-portrait ends up with a somber facial expression; it's a by-product of concentrating so much and worrying about the result! To me it's a facial expression of someone who's just looked at a painting and seen something that was going horribly awry. A look of "huh, what did I do that for?".

Things to Consider When Looking at This Painting:
Color: To me the colors are muted or low key rather than somber. For seriously somber I'd use more gray and the green from your shirt in the shadows/darker tones, to move the skin tones a few steps away from realistic.

Shadow: I wonder if you shouldn't make a greater tonal difference between the mid-tones and shadows on your skin. At the moment this is quite subtle and if you squint at the painting the hints of shadows mostly disappear.

Picky, I know, but I think there wants to be a hint of shadow on the neck of your shirt to it stands away from your skin a little. To my eye at the moment it looks as if your skin changes color, rather than it having a shirt on top of it.