Self Portrait is a story about Brian Duncan computer technitician/artist living in a city apartment who seems to have a gloomy outlook on life and finds himself unable to finish a painting, untill he finds inspiration after loosing his job.
One thing that I really enjoyed about this story is the 'artist' dialouge. I thought that 'only an artist' would say things like 'Burnt Umber', most people would have used a phrase like 'an ugly shade of brown'. Brian also muses about how he cant afford 'real art', implying he doesn't think of his art as real art. In my experiences, I've found a lot of artist have a negative view on their art (either as a means of self-pity. low self-esteme, or in order to push themselves into doing better). I would like to see a little more of this throughout the story, perhaps in the description of the tree (he really likes it, get artistic on the description) or when he is gathering supplies for his materpiece (give me names of brushes he pulls out, I get a list of colors). Even in small places like the bit about the sofa (it could be a drab charcoal, not just black).
Overall I found the story to be rather entertaining, and there is a lot of good solid wording throughout. I think with a little more elaboration, and character interaction could make this a really solid piece.
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