I often advise younger artists to use themselves as models if other models are hard to come by, and when I was younger I found my own physiognomy the most fascinating subject to draw and paint. But now, as I am getting older I find it much more difficult to raise the enthusiasm to do self portraits.
I wonder is it to do with simple vanity or the lack of it as I mature? Now I rarely look in the mirror if I'm not brushing my teeth.
Or is it something to do with the difficulty of confronting what we have become rather than looking at the potential that we all have as youngsters.
Anyway, here's an unfinished self portrait that I managed recently.
7 comments:
I prefer the photo; http://movieoverdose.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/bronson.jpg
Amazing! did you start with a drawing?
I still like to do self portraits, but I can imagine getting sick of it alright!
Dear PJ,
Very interesting to look at all your portraits, particularly, eyes, like Rembrandt's works...
Kind regards,
Sadami
really like the look of this, nice expression too :)
PJ – This is gorgeous, but I sure wouldn't want to run into this guy in a dark alley! Maybe you've got a dark side I don't yet know! This and your earlier self portraits make me want to pull my sketching materials and mirror out to have a go at this tried-and-true bit of subject matter myself!
Thanks for all the generous comments guys.
I won't ask how you happened upon the picture of Bronson, Padhraig!
Marc, I did a fairly minimal pencil sketch. No point in including loads of detail if you are just going to paint over it.
As for my Dark side Daniel, it's getting blacker by the day. I need to create a nice sinister book as an outlet for it.
All the best
PJ
Oh, come now. Wrinkles are good! It's means you've engaged in life instead of just botoxing your face and buying a minidog by way of dealing with maturity.
All the same I rather like the dark look. How about illustrating the Bauernspiegel? That's pretty dark. Die Schwarze Spinne? The Black Spider?
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