Drawing: Self Portraits

Welcome back everybody. Today I have some more drawings to share with you, specifically self portraits. Now I don't consider myself to be very self obsessed, but I noticed at the end of my first semester of art classes I had already drawn three self portraits. In my defense two of them were assigned by teachers. I'm a bit hesitant to paste my face all over the internet, but I don't have to worry about that from these images. The self portraits I have drawn so far look more like distant relatives, than they do myself. The first is a, not so flattering, pen drawing that I drew at the beginning of my first semester.

The second one was part of my final project for my basic drawing class (a surrealism piece), it looks a bit better than the first, but it's still not so great. The biggest problem I identified after having finished it was how small the range of value was. Meaning, most of the drawing is a middle gray tone, and there aren't much light or dark mass tones. The third self portrait was digital, and sadly my computer recently crashed, wiping out all of the projects I had stored on my computer. However I did create another self portrait much more recently (which is fairly obvious) that resembles me more than the previous two.

When you are drawing a portrait there are many things you need to be aware of; the lighting, background space, and direction the person faces, all factor into how much the portrait will resemble the subject. A straight on portrait can capture someone's face nicely, and profile can be just as successful, but the most flattering portrait is usually a three-quarter view. Most faces are asymmetrical, and a three-quarter view can emphasize their “good ” side, and also have a stronger sense of depth than a straight on, or side view. One major thing to keep in mind if you're ever commissioned to draw someones portrait is to make it flattering. Someone might have a large, crooked nose, it might not be a feature they want you to emphasize.

Practice makes perfect, and the one model you can always practice drawing is yourself. Take care everybody, have a good day, night, or whatever part of the day you are reading this.

Sincerely, Ian Berget