Portrait of the Artist. As a Zombie. Ew.

This was my favorite DPW Challenge so far, and my favorite painting ever in my entire life.
Behold: me, zombified.

 8"x6"
Oil on board
Not for sale, but you can view it here.

This is based on a photo my husband took of me last summer, with his phone. He's got some kind of app that zombifies your photos. It's actually pretty amazing technology - a free (or maybe 99¢) app that performs the kind of digital effects that IL&M used to have rooms full of computers and programmers to do. My, how times have changed...

I had a wonderful time with it. I employed a bunch of weird paint colors that I rarely use — Gamblin Radiant Green, which is a fabulously beautiful color, but it's very unnatural looking. It looks like the color of Frankenstein's Monster's skin in a cute cartoon version. I mixed that with white for my skin, and with some Cad Orange for the darker (rottier) skin tones. I used it in the background too, with some Lukas Green Umbre, another weird color I've had no use for.

This was a situation where my propensity to over-use Titanium White was a bonus — it really helped me get those chalky, dead colors right.

I haven't painted a self-portrait since high school! This one is a keeper.