A Series of Self Portraits

Starting in high school, I made the four self portraits below. The first, made at the beginning or the year, was how I’d always drawn self portraits before: with the knowledge of how a face was supposed to look, but without the perception of how my own face looked. Although at the time I considered it my best yet, I improved drastically throughout the year.

The second portrait was painted, with each color representing a different set of values. These colors formed shapes that made proportions much easier to measure, so despite the simplification, the painting still looks like me.

The third portrait was back to graphite. This was the first time I realized I love shading. I’ve always been a careful, methodical worker, so the triple-checked proportions and smooth blending really spoke to me.

The fourth portrait was graphite again, a few months into my dive into realism. By that point, I had improved my speed and ability to gauge proportions accurately, and my greatest challenge was texture: how do I differentiate the background form the subjects, the cloth from the hair, the cheek from the lips? I made this drawing as a birthday gift to the other two people pictured in the drawing, my longest friends.

It’s hard to notice gradual change and improvement. I was constantly learning new techniques and practicing multiple times a week, but it’s hard to compare a dynamic contour gesture drawing to a still life value sketch. Because these three projects were of the same model (me) and done months apart, I more readily noticed my improvement. I’m glad I have these to prove to myself that with practice, there’s always further to grow.

If you see anything you like, you can click on it to see details and a description!