Shameless Self-Promotion!

These are a couple of self portraits done with graphite pencil on Strathmore 400 series drawing paper several years ago, - in 2002  I think. No photographs involved - just me and a large floor-to-ceiling mirror. Each image is approximately 9 inches high, cropped here to cut some blank paper. There were two light sources: natural light from a window on my left and a simple old fashioned floor lamp on the right. Each drawing was one sitting within a couple of days of each other. I don't recall how long they took but I'd guess at least a couple of hours.  I was able to work with no interruptions, a condition I find essential for most of my work. There was a third version, actually the first one done, that barely resembled me but looked more like my younger brother. Not a bad thing, you understand, just not quite right.

Now that I'm looking at them all, each drawing seems a bit more honest than the previous one.
I aged at least a year in each. (Just remember, they are here in reverse chronological order) I hadn't intended to show this last one, but so that you can see the progression, the improved observation and understand the value of repeated effort. here it is. So, as I usually say, Just Do IT- but do it again and again! 

Damn! You know, I'll never learn! Why didn't I just say, here are three nice self-portraits done over a period of time, several years for instance, and I could have walked away a hero, a god! Imagine that, I could have been ... an Art God! *







"The self portrait is a thankful thing, the model gets tired  exactly when the artist does." Aapo Pukk

"Everything I paint is aself portrait, whatever the subject. Jamie Wyeth

* Comments?