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. 🙂