Painting a self-portrait: in stages

Recently, I've come to realize just how rapidly the time goes by. I'm turning 27 in two months (officially late-twenties), and I thought I would steal a moment for myself by painting a self-portrait.

The first step to any good painting is a good drawing, so I had my roommate take a photo of me sitting at my piano, and then constructed the drawing both by eye and through a grid technique which perspective artists have employed going back hundreds of years.

Once the drawing is completed, I started filling in the areas around the subject to establish the surroundings/background as well as the palette of the picture. At this stage it's okay for the paint to look "boring" on the canvas as it's just the first layer.

Next, I continued to fill in the background as well as began painting my image (as well as a coat that was not there in the drawing, oh well). I employed some shading techniques on my face as well as the sweater in order to give the image a more realistic look.

The final step was filling in the gaps in the background (adding the bricks in the window, the base of the piano, etc) and touching up some spots on my face, sweater, and pants. I also usually firm up some of the boundaries between objects to make the image more complete and full-looking.

It's hard for an artist to say when an picture is complete, but I thought this was close enough to call it, plus it was already getting close to midnight. I was hoping for a little more sfumato in the end result, but what can you sfuma-do, lol. Have a great day everyone.

Sincerely, Michael