Narrative Figure

For the Self portrait, I decided to get a picture of myself and go from there. The values range from a high 2 to a low 10. For the negative space i decided to use the ultramarine blue and the turquoise because its my favorite color. Although i was told it looked dream-like it kind of pops the figure out. It probably wouldve been more popped if i subdued the negative space a little bit. I think i did a great job on the cast shadows because i usually paint light and have small shadows but i was coached by another student and my teacher and they steered me in a new direction of depicting shadowing. I made the high chroma areas in the areas where light was intense and lower chroma in the areas of darker value. I showed volume by roounding the figure at the edges. The forehead looks rounded because i suggested subtle shadowing around the hairline and build up different planes. I showed good depth in the figure but not so much in the negative space. I think thats one thing i could continue to work on. For me, variation of brushstroke is a hard thing for me to do because i am a painter that likes the more realistic approach then the impressionistic approach, Therefore I didnt have that much variation. At first i didnt know what scumbling was until a girl in my class suggested that i scumble the edges of my sharp,unfinished, 2D looking painting. Scumbling is when you kinda dry blend the color in the figure and the color of the negative space together to make it look diffused. It looked really good when i added the turquoise into the hair to make it tie into the background. When i dont work on a certain area, it tends to get dry and muddled so after i am finished with fine detail, i tend to go back over areas to make them look freshly painted with no effort.