The sclera is visible underneath the eyes, which reflect the same washed blue of the background. This blue is as startling as, and reminiscent of, the green background of a Van Gogh self-portrait. The visage is grimly determined and the mouth a thin-lipped line.
Ears are large and the shoulders blend into the background.
He is thin and somewhat haggard. Commentary his haunting self-portrait is made even more so when the viewer realizes that although the painting is titled with the artist at age 70, he did not live that long. Willing was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1984 and died four years later at age sixty. This is one of his last pieces. Painting was physically difficult for Willing by this time, and his style of painting shifted from larger odd objects in surreal settings, to smaller, intense portraits.