Size: 24 x 36
Oil and canvas
While standing in between two paintings at the Art Institvte of Chicago, I became aware of the contrast between my 2018 small black woman self, in front of huge, important paintings by white men from the 1500s. A lot of these 1500 white men used self-portraits to track their artistic abilities and physical appearances over the years, So I decided to do the same.
Step 1 : The Reference Photo
A selfie in front of aforementioned paintings:
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/87077f3f-249a-4162-ad61-27b1105eec09/1361a8ce-571d-42c3-aa21-ac12d380f84f_rw_600.jpg?h=69bfb2fb4074f49e8d6b5817d74f9a79)
Step 2: Wash
Light green wash over the canvas. My skin is brown and the background paintings are gold/yellow. Brown, yellow and green occur together naturally so it worked.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/87077f3f-249a-4162-ad61-27b1105eec09/0c19341e-1c46-4b72-8363-2382fd59f34d_rw_1200.jpg?h=6bdd5d203cd85ff075ebce3099c6a6e0)
Step 3: The Sketch
Two sketches- first on a smaller piece of canvas to test the color work and the second on the actual canvas
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/87077f3f-249a-4162-ad61-27b1105eec09/bf35121a-fedf-47b2-8483-9769217c6afd_rw_600.jpg?h=75bd804b5651c0097cf189908154e4b8)
Step 4: Second wash & Highlight
I put on a second wash for the skin (pink to match underlying skin tone) and added white to the nose, chin and cheeks -typical high spots.
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/87077f3f-249a-4162-ad61-27b1105eec09/f23e5431-38ac-42c2-927e-cb2b0afb4e49_rw_600.jpg?h=1b9525ff02fd682686aa8ad5ec02a3b9)
Step 5: Fill in background details
The paintings behind me are really vague in the reference photo, so I filled them in with my imagination
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/87077f3f-249a-4162-ad61-27b1105eec09/0c271cbf-872e-4a93-8347-1cea16e0cd2a_rw_600.jpg?h=a3131913f74296284fc018d603b284d6)
Step 6: Details & Finishing up!
![](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/87077f3f-249a-4162-ad61-27b1105eec09/ca96dc58-e81f-4ef2-9636-cc5211905a3a_rw_600.jpg?h=feca130d19c5cc4638aa02378eee3faa)