Part 4 Project 6 Ex 2 My own face

My own face

I know that I've drawn the component parts of my face but somehow putting them together seems much more daunting.  I began by doing some quick sketches as I looked through a mirror.  I had given little thought to how difficult it would be just to recreate the pose as I looked down onto my paper then back to the mirror.  (I later read in the June edition of Artists and Illustrators that I should not move my head just my eyes and work to the side of the mirror.  Too late though)

Charcoal - 5 minutes each

Five minutes only gave me the opportunity to get down the essentials and no real room to correct my mistakes.  I don't really have a broken nose!  I found that I consistently get the features too far apart then end up with a head that is too long and thin.  The top image here is the better one from the face shape point of view.

Pencil - 5 minutes - looking down

In this pose I had my head tilted backwards and this changed the proportions significantly.  The nose appeared to shorten, the top lip was more obvious and the mouth turned down.  Scary image and again little time to do anything about the wonky nose.

The notion that I might look this grim is quite worrying.

Pencil - 15 minutes

I decided to take a little more time and I liked the way I could play with less pressure.  There are lines here that are too dark and I think the planes of the face need some definition but I can see my way to something that passes some resemblance to me here.

I have been wondering if water soluble pencils might work for the tone of my faces so I had a try with them.  I've only used them once or twice and not really liked them.  I have four, 2B, 4B, 6B and 8B and I experimented with them all.

I tried various quantities of water and both straight and stippling strokes with my brush.  I found that stippling gave a good opportunity to  move the graphite to where I wanted it.

Water soluble pencils

I only tried in my sketchbook but I expect the texture of the paper makes a huge difference to the success of these pencils. I think I'll try a sketchbook portrait in this medium and see how it goes. I'll experiment further if I decide to change my carrier in the future.

Working with new materials in my sketchbook gives me time to consolidate what I've learned about my water soluble pencils although I used  my ordinary pencils as well.  The water soluble was quite hard to control enough but generally speaking I'm happy with what I did and I will use them again.  I thought I'd be able to lift out highlights like with water colour but that wasn't so and  I had to use my putty rubber but even so I found it hard to get the highlights I wanted.  I also tried white pastel and chalk but they just looked grey.  Maybe the trick is to use the colour of the page and not introduce graphite to it.

Self portrait in water soluble pencil and graphite

This is recognisably me but with a year of two shaved off.  My chin line isn't as well defined as I have shown I'm afraid.

I'm finding it easier to get the right proportions and these are fairly accurate - I'm sure it's down to practise.

Alongside this work I've been looking at self portraits of famous artists and I've noticed that most of them work from a similar pose to the one I adopted above.  I think this gives a softer, less intense perspective than a full frontal view.     However, there are only so many angles a portrait can be drawn from so I'll have to be inventive.

Self portrait in charcoal

This is the best likeness I've managed.  The ultimate test was asking my four year old grand daughter who the picture was of and she said "Grandma".

I struggled with the new proportions created by the change of position; the ear started off way too small.  The eye is hardly visible (though not closed as it appears) yet it has a definite presence.  There are lots of shadows and I'm quite pleased with this, humps, hollows and all!  People have recognised who the last two drawings are.

Throughout this exercise I've concentrated on monochrome drawings and found my confidence increasing with regard to tone.  There's still a long way to go before I'm where I'd like to be.  I think my best results were with charcoal - it's very easy to manipulate and very forgiving.  I find that I'm not so afraid of the "darks" if I know I can get rid of anything too intense.

I had practised the facial features quite extensively including my own and I think this helped with the self portraits - I had already made myself familar with my own face.  Initially the proportions gave me problems as I combined the features into a whole but the final two somehow dropped into place.

I want to experiment with different materials but there's a risk factor that I have to overcome first.

I've pretty well finished Exercise 2 now but there's one additional drawing I've done.

I have wanted to use ink to draw with but not really got on very well with dip pens.  I bought a cheap fountain pen with a similar result.  Yesterday I got two Lamy Safari pens (fine and medium nibs) and had a practise to see what I could manage.  The ink that came with the pens is blue and my black cartridges haven't arrived yet.  I guess anyone can have a blue period.

My new Lamy pens

Then I used my new pen (fine nib) to draw my face.  I propped up the mirror and didn't take my eyes off it whilst I drew.  I've had fun like this before so I knew I would get a surprise and in a strange way I can absolve myself of responsibility.

Fountain pen without looking

Another one with problems with the ears but I'm amazed that's all.


I've improved an awful lot with practise - I never thought I'd do a self portrait that bore any resemblance to me.