Process and Perspective: Painting a Self Portrait From Life with Anna Rose Bain

Watch as Anna brings a self portrait to completion by taking it through several transformations. Featuring extra emphasis on painting hands and hair, and how to work from a moving target!
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00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:19 Why Self Portraits Are Worth Doing
00:01:47 Starting out
00:02:26 Lighting / Setup / Design Choices
00:05:55 Palette & Brushes
00:08:15 Tips for working back into a painting
00:09:20 About painting a likeness / capturing expression
00:10:59 Working on the Self Portrait / Moving Target

[@joanbauman1571]

Thank you for talking and explaining your thought process , colors your using and brushstrokes. Watching and learning your process and decision making is so helpful. I am inspired to do this!! 😊

[@jonquinn468]

Fantastic lesson! Thanks for posting.

[@user-gy3lf3ig5u]

What talent, just amazing! Thank you for sharing this video!❤

[@DavidFuller2036]

Anna Rose, a beautiful painting of a beautiful person. Your sincerity is glowing with the true light. Thank you .

[@AnnaRoseBain]

Wow, thank you for the kind words. 🙏

[@howardfriedland4633]

Wonderful demonstration Anna! Inspired to try one!

[@bethcrane5780]

What a great video. I learned so much, painting fingers vertically is just one example. I really appreciate the time you take to bring us along on your process. You are a wonderful painter. And with a baby on your lap. So. Real.

[@AnnaRoseBain]

Thank you so much!

[@Tah-V-ah]

You, are one remarkable Artist! The perfection in the eye's is just stunningly beautiful!

[@bonzejustice4029]

Thank you so much for sharing yourself with us Anna Rose. One of the issues many (if not all) young painters struggle with is how to make changes after spending considerable time on a piece when aspects of it just don’t sit right with us. This video demonstrates and even emphasizes the fearlessness and confidence required to begin the alterations/corrections in the ongoing strides toward our ideal completion of a piece (which for me, is never). I wish to thank you for your honesty, sincerity and generosity. I will probably watch this video several times as I believe it is filled with some nuanced gems that will surely help me grow toward becoming a better painter.

[@AnnaRoseBain]

Thank you so much for this lovely comment! I'm glad I can be of some help. :-)

Bravo l'Artiste 👌, à la vue de votre talent,votre chaîne mériterait des milliers d'abonnés. Une très bonne continuation pour la suite de votre carrière.

[@valerijohnson2839]

Beautiful.

[@Blick_Art]

This is terrific! Loved seeing your setup and palette, and learning about your process. We thought the comments about lighting and the subject's features were interesting- there's not just one solution for every face! More artists should do as we see here- working from direct observation some of the time as a break from photographs- to "stay sharp". Great advice!

[@AnnaRoseBain]

Thank you so much! I agree - it's a great exercise!

[@Lisa-gs9ke]

An excellent likeness.

[@AnnaRoseBain]

Thank you!

[@tomhighsmith]

Incredibly good likeness. Surprisingly good I've seen some videos from you and this is really good.

[@davidhuth5659]

Well done! Thanks for the lessons and insite!

[@AnnaRoseBain]

You're most welcome!

[@rdstewart2253]

Thanks Anna Rose. Very helpful to seee your setup. Your explanation is great too. But, have you painted yourself right handed?

[@AnnaRoseBain]

Yes I have! Back in 2012 I severely broke a finger on my left (painting) hand and had to wear a cast up to my elbow for a long time. I did a couple of self portraits using my right hand.

[@SergijRatusnij]

So nice! 😍

[@tecaroli2140]

Maravilha!

[@elskewilton6309]

just love it!

[@ltwig476]

Great piece of work! Now I'm wondering about the mirror? It has been a long time since I did mirrored self portrait. I'm thinking the mirror needs a very light warm gray film over it or just a very dirty dusty mirror? The clean mirror reflection seems so much more photographic than live model.

[@AnnaRoseBain]

Thank you! I actually never noticed that about working from a mirror. My mirrors just tend to be dusty by default... haha! It's not really intentional.

[@markup6394]

This reminds me of that self-portrait of Rembrandt: his face is rather accurately made, but his hands are a wash of almost unidentiable mass. Fingers barely visible and the brushed. You could argue, that he couldnt do any better (which is... well, look at the face: skill was no concern for him...), but I'd rather think he wanted it that way... Rather than making them looking accurate and pristine like the rest of the painting, he seemed to have painted them as if in motion. I'm not saying, go copy his example, but maybe this idea takes away some pressure :)