Self Portrait Marathon
Wally Torta has issued the challenge: a series of self portraits, each to build upon the last one:
June 9, 2006
I propped up several thick books against the computer monitor so I could put a mirror there and sit while I sketch. This way I get more details then a quick sketch while standing. I didn't know my left eyebrow is higher than my right eyebrow.
June 12, 2006
This one has a limited palette of just black and orange.
I wish I could do them in a way I didn't look like I'm staring. But while I'm drawing, I'm always staring into that mirror, so maybe this can't be helped.
June 14, 2006
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...
(larger version underneath...)
Still, an early night to bed and lots of sleep will do me good. Keep well, everyone!
June 21, 2006
Time to experiment with the whole 'box of crayons'...
(larger version underneath...)
My eyes and mouth are off here. I can't even blame feeling peaked on it, either. It could be the heat. That's it. Maybe the next one will be better.
June 24, 2006
What am I seeing? Exterior shell of my manifestation...
It holds what is inside.
What dreams? Such dreams... just dreams... unless...
(larger version underneath...)
June 27, 2006
"Two Mirrors and I"
(larger version underneath, even larger 1024x768 here)
Because these weren't mirrored directly of me, but interacting with another mirror, it felt like I was sketching someone else other than myself, almost. Almost.
July 4, 2006
"Another Reflection of Me"
I would have done better, but my hand gripping the mirror began to grow weary...
Thus, I'm pretty bug eyed there. For all the others, I either propped up a mirror or used one that could stand on its own. In the background there's our bookcase, with some of the statues hinted at. The one on the lower shelf is a winged Isis. On the right is an oil painting I did back in... 1977!
July 8, 2006
"Another Bit of Self P Silliness"
My new glasses have not arrived, so I couldn't do the detailed one I'd hoped for, so thus this silliness...
I learned when the tongue is extended, the eyes widen slightly and the eyebrows raise a tiny bit. My nose is not that short, but my tongue is. That's all the further extension I have.
July 11, 2006
"Closer Look"
The new glasses have arrived. Fortunately, the eye doctor's was still open after I picked up Julia, so I was able to get them adjusted. Tiny dots were on the lens. I was worried they were flaws, but those marked where the correction began and were easily cleansed. Afterwards, being we were near a grocery store, I suggested we get a few things. It was a bit trippy at first, things in and out of focus until I got the gist of moving my head just right.
After putting away the groceries and eating three pieces of chewy bread with olive oil and four windmill cookies with soy milk, I had to see how a self portrait would result:
Our round mirror has a magnifying side, so I used that. My left eye (which looks to you like my right eye) appears a little smaller. That's not a mistake. It appears smaller when seen through the correction for its worse far vision. However, that my earrings are a kimbo is solely a mistake. The blue streaks on my right eye area are the shadows caused by the glasses.
I wondered why I never used the magnifying side before in these self portraits. Alas, without the corrective close vision, that magnifying side is all a blur to me!
August 28, 2007
"Taking Assessment"
It's been over a year since I attempted a self portrait, so I'm due:
I might try one soon with the watercolor pencils.
August 29, 2007
"With Watercolor Pencils"
September 25, 2007
"Quick Sketch (for my arm over head got tired)"
October 27, 2007
"Linear Self Portrait"
Blending the linear style of the intuitive artwork with the observational...
(time note in upper left corner, 4:05 - 4:13 - eight minutes!)
April 26, 2008
"Grinning With Wrinkles"
The Friday Illo theme is 'Wrinkles'. When I saw the topic of 'Wrinkles', I got
the idea I'd do a smiling old person, focusing on their eyes. I pulled up Flicker and got to searching for inspiration.
Then I realized, "Hey, I'm nearly fifty, I think I can show my own wrinkles!" So I got a mirror, grinned
widely, and voila, WRINKLES!
I am happy to have smile wrinkles. There's no way I'd ever botox that all away to be an expressionless flesh
mannikin.
July 5, 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!
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