Painting 101-- Swiss Guard Self-Portrait

A sweet classmate in my painting class (talented painter too!), Mim, took this photo of me yesterday with a semi-completed painting of mine.

It's based on my Swiss Guard costume in the opera "Tosca". I was trying to paint it in the style of Rembrandt. Hey, why not take on an interesting challenge? Maybe I'll do a copy of the Sistine Chapel next...

Technically, I'm getting better, in that the paint is not flying all over the place quite as much when I try to apply it to the canvas-- but it is still very much a learning experience each time I go to class. Ahh, I guess that's why it's called "class!" Duh!

Ultimately, I don't know if I want to paint realistically or not. My own drawings are still tending toward the abstract. I showed some of them to my teacher and he suggested that my next painting be based on one of them.