Alter Ego – Self Portrait Painting (2025)
Artist’s Statement
A self-portrait I painted using oil on canvas for RTA323 Contemporary Strategies.
I decided to take advantage of the open guidelines for the course’s final project and do something I hadn’t had the chance to since I entered university. I love traditional art forms; I grew up sketching and drawing constantly, then started acrylic painting on canvas and unconventional canvases (rocks, fairy houses, etc.), branching into other mediums. I learned how to oil paint in a small art class in 2021. After the pandemic, I really needed to get out and do something with other people, and I’d always wanted to try oils. During that time, I had purchased a bunch of supplies for oil painting and barely touched them since. This opportunity let me try them out again.
Going into this project, I wanted to use projection as a contemporary strategy for painting, a technique I’ve applied many times in my past pieces. I also felt like doing a “self-portrait”, but I’d been struggling with my self-image and how people depict themselves on social media at the time, so I chose a full-glam Instagram picture of myself for my reference.
The whole point of this piece is that looks can be deceiving, people pick and choose what to show of themselves on social media and not every day is going to look like that. I created this painting while barefaced, looking completely different from the reference picture I used of myself, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still me. It’s just a different version of me, an alter ego that I put forward to the virtual world when I’m feeling at my best. I chose to name it “Alter Ego” because of this idea; I love cosplay, makeup and drag, so it was exciting to recreate my own ‘persona’ in art form.
Timeline
Reference Image: Transformed with Canva’s Sketchify App
I chose a full-glam Instagram-worthy picture of myself for my reference photo. I ran it through a tracing software in Canva (Sketchify) and adjusted the intensity until it had the contrasted look I desired.
Reference Image 
Sketchify’d Image Preparing the Canvas
To create the piece, I first primed the canvas, using Gesso to smooth the base and let it dry for 24 to 48 hours. After it was completely dry, I mixed Magenta and Titanium White Gamblin oil paints with linseed oil and a palette knife until I got the perfect light pink I wanted. I then went a little crazy, slathering the canvas with paint using a palette knife and playing around with texture until I found the desired technique. I achieved the final base texture by making short horizontal waves with the palette knife in a downward motion, creating a ribboning texture. I didn’t have any inspiration for this technique; I just experimented with the paint, aiming for a thick texture when it was left to dry.
Projecting onto the Canvas
It took over a week for this base to fully dry, and by the time I started working on the portrait, there was still a bit of pink blending into the black, which was very annoying. Once it had dried enough, I propped the piece on an easel and set up the projector with the reference image. This was a taxing process in itself since I was working with what I had (I did this in my basement with the projector stacked on books until it was at the right height and distance). After painstakingly setting up the projection, I had to carefully start tracing the lines with a Sharpie; with a shaky easel, finicky projector, and thick textured canvas, this was another difficult task.
Painting the Portrait
After over an hour of tracing every line and dot, I started filling in the outline with black oil paint. Rather than using a true black, I mixed Ultramarine Blue and Raw Umber Gambin paints. I had accidentally made black with them before, and it worked really well. I was using a sharp palette knife, and the base texture was so thick that I think it wasn’t fully dry under the ridges, so the pink started mixing in with the black. I filled in all of the biggest areas and left them to dry.
After a few more coats, I used a smaller brush to start applying some of the details, especially around the edges of the outline. I got it to a true dark black (the contrast was crucial for me) and then went in with a Sharpie to fill in all the edges and details from the reference photo. I went in with a tiny brush and some ivory black oil paint to add some of my own details, stippling the shadows and filling in some more of the facial features. I also made the hair and neck more detailed, keeping the abstract look but making it my own. I was really nervous at this stage; part of me wanted to leave it because I was afraid of ruining it by adding too much. At one point, I thought I had messed up the lips and had a small mental breakdown over it. Nonetheless, I actually really like how it turned out. I think it looks more artistic and less realistic, but you can still tell that it’s me (with some exaggerated features).
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