Self Portrait in Profile

What do you do when you are lacking models to draw...? Step up to the plate, be your own model, and draw yourself! I know, it doesn't meet the criteria for the busier composition that I had been wanting to do, but I was anxious to try another human portrait and in profile. The picture I took of myself was not by any means that clear but good enough to draw from. So unfortunately ;) , all those laugh lines and wrinkles didn't show up in the enlargement. Oh Darn! And let me say, those bangs hide a lot too!!

The thought of a self portrait can be rather daunting to think about. Oddly enough though, once this was started, I ceased to think about the subject being me. I started to see characteristics of my sisters and parents showing up. How often really does one study their own features section by section? I find myself constantly checking my sketch to the photo. There was a little fear that subconsciously I might do a little altering! But so far everything is checking out. That is the beauty of a graph. Just as a side note: I did transfer the graph, as you can see in the picture, and I find myself erasing large areas and not needing it. This could be due to the smaller size of the portrait which is 8x8".

So far, it has been really fun to build up the values. It is such a surprise when I hit that magical moment when a feature pops out from the Bristol. I never thought working on humans could or would be fun. My gratitude will always go to Lee Hammond for pushing me into purchasing Bristol board and blending my values. That bit of knowledge has opened a whole new area of art to me. I will be eternally grateful!