Self Portrait in coloured pencil

Friday 30 March 2018

Walter


Walter

I am enjoying painting Walter’s portrait. It has come along nicely since I started to go over all the oil on canvas portraits using tones of brown ochre and using hints of Venetian red rather than the more orangey light red. 
It won’t be long before I have to paint in his moustache. That will be an interesting challenge.
His clothes are complicated too.
I am continuing to have ten portraits on the go, all sitting on picture shelves. I have two new ones ready to start as soon as I have space to put them. 

I mentioned last week that I had been very interested in the Civilisations episode about religious painting. 
I am a Nichiren Buddhist. Nichiren Daishonin inscribed a scroll with calligraphy of which he wrote: "I, Nichiren, have inscribed my life in sumi ink”. We Nichiren Buddhists enshrine a copy of this scroll in our homes and don’t generally go in for images of Buddhas. 
In another letter, Nichiren Daishonin wrote that he was ”cursed with an ugly appearance”. He had a couple of portraits painted during his lifetime that show he was not a handsome man but they do portray a kind man. 
After his death, statues were erected, and each one is more beautified than the last. 
I have noticed that beautification is common when it comes to painting religious figures.









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