My own head

I find it hardest to draw myself. I struggle to identify with the features on my face and drawing from a mirror where my position is always slightly changing also proves quite difficult. It also doesn’t help that I hate the way I look.

Quick Studies

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I began looking in the mirror for my quick studies, adjusting the light as I began each drawing. Changing the position of the light also had the ability of changing how big certain features of my face looked, especially my nose. The lighting also added angles to my face. I kept the pose of looking straight forward to ease myself into an exercise I was finding very difficult to do. This exercise has also helped me to notice how big my eyelids are. After the quick sketches I decided I wanted my first pose to be with simple lighting looking slightly to the side, a simple way to a difficult task.

Self Portrait One

For my first drawing, I tilted my head up slightly and turned to the side, but not by a lot. I think I got the facial proportions fairly accurate but I feel the bridge of the nose lets the drawing down, it doesn’t quite work and is probably where I drew in slightly different angles as my head moved as I sketched. The mechanical pencil allowed me to add finer detailed with the tone, but would also be easier for me to correct a mistake. I think the mechanical pencil didn’t work so well for the eyelashes as the bottom eyelashes were very subtle and have ended up blending in with my cross hatching for the tone underneath the eyes. But looking in a mirror with the drawing helped me to see the proportions were accurate, I was particularly worried the eyes may be off as I do have a rather wide interocular distance, but the drawing seemed fine in the reflection.
I am quite happy with how this came out and felt ready to correct my mistakes on my next drawing but also approach it in a bolder way than just a mechanical pencil. I wanted to adjust the lighting to something harsher so I had a lot of tone to work with.

Self Portrait Two

My face looks a lot different here to me, probably due to the drastic change in lighting. This has allowed me to play around with a black paint marker to work in a harsh, dramatic tone to the drawing. The big areas of dark tone made my eyes look further apart, and looking in the mirror with the drawing confirmed this, but my attempt at the bridge of the nose was a lot better with this drawing attempt. I love the result of my right eye as I was able to include the highlights that were present in the eyelashes making for a more realistic depiction, however the left eye looked a lot more cartoony and bad with the fine liner. I think I may have made those lashes a bit too long. I’m really happy with the outcome of my nose, I feel my use of tone is very effective here. I think the mouth also works rather well but appears a bit slanted compared to the rest of the facial proportions. So while I have improved with this drawing I have also made a few more errors.

I have found this exercise quite difficult, I do not enjoy sitting for myself. The exercise was useful in building up my live drawing skills and helped me to think more about lighting and poses for my drawings. It also helped me to think about how different mediums can help with different aspects of a drawing. The paint marker was useful for the vast areas of dark tone on the face. I’m looking forward to considering the lighting and poses for my assignment pieces which I am excited to tackle.