Self portrait

drawing challenge

In my drawing class I teach my students to draw a self portrait. Each artist has an easily accessible model and all they need is a mirror. This project comes soon after I teach about the features on a face; nose, mouth, eyes, and ears. The hair counts too I guess. But mostly they learn about the proportion of the features on the face. There is a basic guideline and then generally speaking everyone's face has differing features such as a pointed nose or full lips for example that make each person unique just as God had intended. It is one of my favorite classes to teach because I have had students say that they cannot draw faces. After one class, my students can draw a face.Handing each student a mirror is fun and funny because they look at me as if I have lost my mind and then they look at themselves in the mirror and smile. They are scared. Why? Because they have to stare at themselves for about an hour or more and the whole time they fear what ends up on the paper will not look like themselves. In most cases, the self portrait looks just like themselves. Instant confidence in their ability to draw faces. As an artist and student myself, I have been instructed to draw my face over a dozen times in different classes. In several drawing classes, of course, in graphite, colored pencils, even a life size portrait of myself singing in the shower (covered by the curtain and signing into a shampoo bottle of course). In Printmaking and screen printing I have prof that I can draw, etch, and press myself with a funny face. Recently, I took a 30 day challenge and it too had listed Self-Portrait. That is the image above. I decided I would use Graphite, Pen & Ink, Marker and Watercolor Pencil showing four different techniques to draw myself.Try it...all you need is a mirror, a drawing tool, and paper.

As for my self--portrait below, this was hard for me. I don't really like drawing myself....so I wanted to find a way I could have fun while pushing myself to do it. I decided that I would use four different drawing techniques to achieve an overall piece.

Section 1 Bottom Left is Pen and Ink given crisp black and white clean lines.

Section 2 Top Left is Copic Markers which made for some nice blends in the skin and hair.

Section 3 Top Right is Watercolor Pencils whimsical and the best place to break the rules.

Section 4 Bottom Right is Graphite Pencil and Blender taking me back to the Drawing Class.

Overall, I feel great that I did it! A true challenge on many levels.

#Mariaillustration #Drawing