Self portrait by Raymond Ellis

And now you are immortal. This isn't the first portrait you've done? You inspire me to have a crack at a self-portrait, when I've recovered from the flu (which I intend to keep moaning about until someone sends me a restorative bottle of Scotch). It would be a good project to encourage on the site. Strong colours, composition, tones. I'd say more, but haven't yet got the Scotch...

excellent work!

Incredibly competent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like a lot, except that you appear to be floating.

Brilliant treatment of the glasses. I'm shortly to atempt a portrait of a man with a full beard. I may shout for help!

Well, thank you all for the comments, I appreciate your input! A good friend of mine, who is also a brilliant artist in his own right, once said to me that you are not really an artist until you have painted a portrait! I know that is not true, but believe it or not, it bothered me for years! Anyway, I tried a few years ago, but obviously, I was not competent(ahemm!) to do the job, so I sought out a good portrait painter, and to this point in time, I attend classes when I can, to try and improve at it! This portrait was about my third attempt, and to date, the one that is most like me! I have done a charcoal portrait of a close friend and gallery owner, and presented it to him as a gift.That was probably my best effort to date. (Diana, he also has a full beard!) Ok, here is a challenge to all here..... Attempt a self portrait and post it! Should be fun! Any medium will do! How about it, gang?

Sylvia...''''''floating is my thing!...especially after a few glasses of good red!!!!!!!!

Natural pose too, this always looks better than the old Victorian straight face pose! Good for you learning new projects.

Smashing portrait, really love the lighting and your brush technique. You are right about portraits. I Particularly like self portraits. We can get to know the artist behind his/her work.

I love the light in this portrait, its brilliant! I've only been doing portraits for the past year or so and I'm self taught so every piece of work is a real learning curve for me. Did you actually paint this with a light shining onto you or did you use your imagination? I'm up for having a go (I've never dared to do a self portrait before, funny isnt it but I'm worried about it not looking like me!!). I've always done portraits from photos so I can do it at my leisure without the subject matter changing, it will be a real challenge to paint myself all in one sitting....I'll have a go and perhaps post it on here when I've done it :-)

Andrea, no, no set up lighting here...purely done with artistic licence! To be honest, nothing in this painting was planned..just worked from one brushstroke to the next!

I love this portrait raymond. What do i like about it ?.... your brush technique, the colours... the way you have faded the clothing into the background. I also like the way you haven't included detail but the painting seems complete...my problem is wanting to put in too much detail. lovely !