Yesterday I attempted my first self-portrait since we set out on our travels. Water-soluble pencils and graphite, forty minutes, about 11″ square.
I wish I didn’t look so disapproving, but when I compare this effort to my previous one in March, I’m very pleased. I don’t look flat! My colors are happy! My skin looks young!
Of course, I made this one using pencils and not paints, so I had more control over my marks, and there wasn’t as much potential for everything muddying together. I still think it’s too difficult to pose and draw at the same time, so I want to try something more active next time (I think I said that last time too). Erik suggested I think more like a caricaturist, and work on getting a few features very lifelike, and then not worry so much about the rest. It’s a thought.
Another thing I could do, next time, is use my regular brushes with the water-soluble pencils, instead of my little waterbrush. The waterbrush is fantastic for travel, but when I’m sitting in one place, it’s not necessary — and it’s so small that it makes it hard to fill in large areas quickly.
Anyway, as I say every time: progress.
(Note to self and fellow artists. This actually started out as an attempt to make a quick sketch before doing a longer painting, but I got into it and just never bothered with the painting. I did a fast sketch first with the water-soluble graphite pencil, shading lightly. Then I ran over everything with the colored pencils, and then with water. At the end, I noticed that the differences in color meant some areas that were shadowed didn’t quite look dark enough, so I went over those again with the graphite and then left that dry.)
I like the idea of attempting a more movement-based self portrait; that sounds challenging and fun to capture different expressions. I also like the way you caught a less usual expression here, a bit pouty and as you say disapproving. It’s great to see the variety
Thank you, Esther! Yes, a movement-based portrait would definitely be a challenge — logistically if nothing else, since I don’t have an easel and I’m hesitant to tape anything up to the walls of our holiday flat. Well, I’ll think of something, I’m sure!
I think the pouty expression must be my “concentrating” face while trying to draw.
Remember, I’m not an artist, but when you said you can’t pose and paint at the same time, I’m wondering, can you draw from a photo of you? Oh, and I like this drawing. Interestingly I don’t see disapproving, I see lost for some reason. But maybe I’m layering on earlier posts about settling in to a new place over this drawing.
I can see the lostness, too. It’s hard not to read my self-portraits as somehow reflective of how I feel when I make them, although I don’t know if that’s accurate. Who knows, maybe it is! What I’m depicting in these portraits isn’t so much myself in one moment, but all the tiny changes and expressions I make over the minutes of drawing — since I can’t hold still while drawing/painting. I think that’s why there is inevitably some distortion too.
I can draw from photos and I get more detail that way — see this picture and this one for comparison — but I lose some immediacy and movement. Of course that’s when drawing someone else; with myself, I have to say it’s been a very long time since I tried. I think partly I’ve been hesitant to try because I feel there might not be any exchange if I try to draw from a photo of myself. That is to say, I’d just be copying; I don’t know that I can learn anything new from a flat reproduction of my own “I’m posing for a picture” face. Does that make sense? If I’m drawing from someone else’s photo I can still learn something new about them because I don’t know their faces/bodies that well, but if it’s me, well, I already know exactly what I look like in pictures. Maybe what I’d need is to get someone else to take a photo of me — one that captures what I think of as an unfamiliar side of myself — and then paint that. Hmmmmmmmm.
Thanks for giving me something to think about, Lisa!
Wow, I never would have thought of it this way, capturing the movement. Capturing life more than a photo would. I’m impressed.
Maybe we need some photographers in this conversation, to see what they think!
I really like it. My teacher once said do a portrait of yourself every year. when you look back you see where you were as a person at that time. As I said. I think it is really hard to do a painting, drawing of yourself. It’s like when you hear your own voice. Is that my voice??/
I try to do self-portraits every few months or so, maybe just because I feel like I’m still learning so much that my skills change a lot from month to month!! They are such a great record both of how I looked (well, my haircuts at least), and where I was as an artist/see-er.
Do another one at the end of the trip and you will see another you.
I certainly will.