one painting in one hour

Since the beginning of the Everyday in May projects, and shortly after painting in church in under a hour, I thought that I should try to do some more paintings in a short time, just to see how I do.

So, after some thinking, and some listening to an old episode of the Creative Mom Podcast, I decided that a self-portrait should work well for the job.

I had pre-sketched myself the other day, but I wasn't very happy with the drawing, so I decided to just put the background color over it, and start from scratch.

Before doing anything, I had to "straighten up" my boys' book collection which was all over, in order to have a space to set up my easel. The studio space we're trying to put together still has a long way to go, and if I set up the easel in there, there will be no space to actually more around. So I opted to bring everything out to the living room, which then took more time, as mentioned above.
I then found a way to hang a small mirror from the easel, so I'd have some way of looking at myself while painting.
I then painted a the orange background over the back and after giving it a few minutes I set my timer for an hour, and started to paint. I "drew" directly with the brushes, and attempted to look at myself while I was painting.
The set up for the mirror got in the way, as far as painting the left side of the canvas, plus I did not get a look at my whole face at once, which I knew it would lead to distortion, but that didn't bother me.

Working quickly for an hour, checking my countdown a couple times, I managed to come up with the painting you see above. Those of you who know me personally might be a bit confused, as to say it doesn't look like me, . Those of you who don't know me, might say that it's a distorted face. I suppose all of you are right. As the artist, I don't think it matters.
I actually am really happy with the result. I wouldn't say it captured me perfectly, but it accomplished what I wanted to, with this painting. I did manage to make a face, with no prior drawing, show up in the canvas within an hour. I like the impressionist brushy style it's in. I like the colors, and I like the confidence it gives me for the next quick painting I will do. I learned some of what works best. I learned a bit more about dealing with acrylics, and I learned a bit more about how not to place the mirror next time.
Regardless of how I look, what do you think of the painting on its own? If you didn't know it was a self-portrait, or that it was done in an hour. What would your response be?


16x20 acrylic on stretched canvas