©JAL, 6-14-06
(larger version underneath...)

I thought about self portrait number three early today. The clothes I was wearing led me to thinking about it. I'd been thinking number three would be with the complementary colors ultramarine blue and orange, and the clothes I was wearing matched those colors. (Okay, the blouse is actually a reddish orange, and the skirt is striped with reddish orange and denim blue. Close enough. The work day felt longer than any I've had in a long time. It wasn't merely eagerness to get started on my drawing. When I came home I felt a bit peaked, so maybe I'm coming down with a bug. So I figured I'd better get doing the creative thing before I crash.

It's shadowing, the dark circles under my eyes aren't THAT dark. Still, an early night to bed and lots of sleep will do me good. Keep well, everyone!

Taking Self Assessment Invites a Self Portrait:
"With Watercolor Pencils"


©JAL, 8-29-07
July 6, 2008
"Life Twice"

After watching disc 5 of _The Great Artists_, featuring Vermeer, Turner and Van Gogh, I felt inspired to draw. I decided on a self portrait. I plopped the mirror before me and smiled to see the scene behind it of the Coptic ankh. I remembered ANKH, the Egyptian word for "life" is also their word for "mirror". The artisans often made word pun of this, making mirrors ankh shaped. For instance, a gilded mirror shaped thusly was found in Tutankhamun's tomb.

Similar type mirrors can be had today:

So I included it in the drawing:


Close-up detail here

Another serendipity is part of the journal title, 'Life Twice', shows in the upper left. So that became the picture title!

In case you wonder what the two figures are, they are dragons. The one on top of the shelf is of iron, and the other is the little one on my computer desk.
October 18, 2009
"Time With a Mirror"


Pencil presketch, erased, micron pen and colored pencil on 17x14" drawing paper


I chose a limited color palette:
Prismacolors: light peach, sienna brown, yellow ochre, bronze, pink, olive green, black cherry

(I have a whole series of self portraits, the good, the bad and the ugly. (Hopefully nothing TOO scary! Grin!)