I thought it might be fun to have a self portrait challenge. But with a twist. Your self portrait shouldn't be the average view of yourself. Show a bit of your personality. Draw from life, from a photo whichever you're more comfortable with.

No time limit, no pressure. Just for fun.

To start off I thought I'd share this self portrait with you. It was done in the wee hours of morning due to insomnia and inspired by Julia Randall's coloured pencil drawings of mouths.

It's done on grey mi-tientes paper - the smooth side using black and white charcoal and a little sepia conte. About 9 x 12 in size and took about 90 minutes to draw.

I enjoyed using charcoal in a more controlled way as I'm usually wielding large chunks of it at life class. There is something a little disturbing about the light and dark with the touch of colour, but that's what I was aiming for. I may do a few more drawings in this medium and subject before its put to rest.

Most self portraits tend to reflect us at our best. I wanted to show the other side of me.

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WOW WOW WOW~!!! This is wonderfu!! And yes the comb of the white, color, charcoal and grey of the paper is very interesting indeed!!
The part the blows me over is 90 minutes! I know, I know, practic practic practic..
Don't think I have time to join in this one, nor the desire to look at myself for as long as it would take
but would like to try this technique on day.
I am sorry you were unable to sleep, hope you can get some Z's tonigt!

Thanks airscapes. The beauty of doing this on coloured paper is that I can let the paper do a lot of the work, so it speeds up the process. All I'm doing is adding highlights and darks.

I used a photo reference combined with mirror use for this. It would be too difficult to hold my tongue like that for 90 minutes!

I am going to have to try this one ... your drawing is very well done ...the mouth you have done perfectly lol I love the look .
I am going to Pin this thread.

Hi,

I love your idea . Once I find a picture that fits the idea, I will join in!

Ok I looked for a picture of myself making a face but could not find one .. I hate having my pic taken ....sooo I decided to do my daughter who is the master of making faces lol she is beautiful but loves to take pictures acting out so here is kellie my 14 year old .. I looked through BRB's gallery and tried to self teach his way of drawing .. I am a big fan of his work

Thanks Kim. This was fun to do. I love the drawing of your daughter - very well drawn and the expression is priceless

Nathalie, can't wait to see what you come up with.

This is some version of what my kids apparently see when they've gotten on my last nerve. At first I thought I was going to do this in a comic-book style, and then halfway through I got interested in it and started going another way. I like the photos I took for this and I think I'll do a more serious drawing when I get the chance. I never seem to have more than a half-hour to spend drawing these days. Sigh.
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This seems like a fantastic challenge, that I might just have to do.... so BBL hopefully with something half decent!

You sure look like you’re at the end of your tether. Great drawing

Yup run kids - Dad's PO'd This is a good drawing Ernest. It has an illustrational feel to it alright. I know time restrictions are a problem sometimes, but the best thing you can do is take some time for yourself and let the rest of the world do its own thing for while.

I'll look forward to seeing what you produce Firehorse.

Nice job ... a bit scary lol but very well done . i try not to let my emotions be photographed lol .

Wow, that is fantastic!




Great job, I like the way you drew this.. Its very interesting and I mean that in a good way.

Great idea and great drawing Jeanette! That color combination is sure interesting as it is the facial expression portrayed, you don't get to see those tongues in drawings a lot.
I really like ypur version of BRB's style Kim! You sure selftaught his way pretty well.
Cool drawing Ernest, I like a lot the comicbookness of it.
Here's mine.

You men are scary looking ... what about a silly face lol .....well done anyways ...love the expression .

Yes, the men's images are a bit scary, but very good nevertheless. Kim..excellent sketch of your daughter. Jeanette...Are you sticking your tongue out at us? You know, not everyone can bend their tongue to do that, so you must be congratulated. I must do something on colored paper soon - that is lovely!

Right now, physically it seems I can only do quick sketches, so although this too is very scary, here's mine - Oh my! I am tired *yawwwwn*!

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Maire

Made me yawn to look at it!

Great drawing Mr Offir. It really shows emotion well.

Maire, you've caught that tired look perfectly. Makes me want to go back to bed!

hello all!
great drawings here along! makes me want to draw also one from me. my only problem: I have never drawn people before ... - scared ...
but it looks like this is going to run longer so maybe I will get all my positiv thinkings together and have a try
(but I have some nice expressions of my horse .... )

marie excellent job ....how many times did you tawn during that drawing to get it just right lol .. awsome job .

Thanks everyone!

Yes, Kim - quite a few times, but it wasn't hard cuz I yawned every time I looked at the sketch. The really difficult things to catch were the scrunched up closed eyes. It seems my eyelids are not transparent and opening one eye gave me some hilarious results

Maire

thanks maire - you just made me laugh with imagening this situation !!!

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hi everyone
so many lovely selfprotraits WOW I'm realy impressed.
I didn't want to miss this challenge so I made this 10 mitute sketch of a pic of myself doing a little mouth.
Here goes....
Oh and Marie I yawned too looking at your portrait, Nice job

Love Kaly

With a little bit of color...

Amazing talent here; I enjoy them all..but don't have the skill to attempt a credible self portrait.

John

Cute SP Kaly, interesting expression.

Love the clown nose Mechtonia, the touch of colour against the black and white is wonderful.

wow what a great idea jeanette-you know i have yet to do a self portrait, like kim i hate having my pic taken and i dont think i can look at myself long enough to draw me. but i think i might give it a try!
great work everyone, i really look similar earnest when my kids are getting on my last nerve. but awesome work everyone.
Lori

Oh my goodness I would love to try.....everything on here so great...such talent...hope i can measure up!

I'v finally made time to draw a selfportrait. It's from a foto taken a day after a party, and I went to sleep with wet hair The contrasts isen't to good, because I don't have any editing-program on my pc atm.

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and this one is a bit more pretty;)

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Lol at your first. They're both pretty good

Thanks:) I look even more crazy on the real picture though..

Here's a big kiss to everyone who participates in this thread. Thanks for the idea Jenette!

F and 2B on A4 160 gsm inkjet printer paper, the background is charcoal.
Draw time 1 hour.

I thought it would be fun to just let the pencil flow without thinking about too much detail and only using hatching. It was a fun one hour I can tell you.

what a lovley kiss:) I belive you, it looks like a lot fun to draw that pic

utva..................wow you are beautiful

Rj....that is so funny and just great

hi everyone! - I love this challenge! at least I had a try this week ... a short sketch in my bathroom with a big ... (?? - a big thing you look inside and reflect yourself. - you will never hear such an explenation of this *ggg*). As I told in an other thread I am looking like a monkey but there is still a recemblance: we have both 2 eyes, a nose, a mouth ...!
I will post it here today evening. (my evening!)
love all your drawings - especially from utva. to me it doesn't look like wet hair. it looks like you have been sitting some hours in front of a mirror for a ball !

wow, thanks:) well, it's not wet, it dried during the night... maybe I should try it on a ball next time, but we seldom have balls in Norway;) looking forward to see yours melthemi!

And to independentdrawer, thanks for the kind comment, I did my best to make it pretty;)

When I saw this challenge I was like wow .. This is a really good idea, Janette

I took some photos of myself .. photos that represent me and I tried do draw using one of those photos as a reference .. but I don't think I succeeded ... I think I can only draw people who don't make faces

so this is my attempt
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in my opinion you did a good job, hellenFq! you still can recognize that it's you ....! good point to me ;-)))

yeah, I like it too!! The eyes are lovley:)

now here my promise for a good laugh (since this pic I belive in this monkey-theory ):

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Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I've worked 4 hours on mine and my kid tell me to say it's someone else.......

I will take a break before I get too upset and do some irreparable damage. And I thought this would be fun!

Sorry I couldn't find a funny picture so I went with my normal self.

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Just a line drawing for now.
I cheated a bit and used a posterized picture to work from, as I was feeling totally uninspired lately.
Anything to get going again!

Aaaaah!

HAHA LOLOLOLOL nice humor Paulette

RJ, I love your portrait

Helen That's beautifull and it does look like you

Melthemi nice portrait

Metchtonia ; lovely clown I love clowns

UTVA, beautifull

Love them all

Really funny Paulette:)

paulette: I wouldn't like to meet you in the evening .... but me either ;-))))

kaly: thanks! now I know what "nice" pictures mean in real ...

that is a freaky picture hun .. somehow I dont think its the real you

Nathalie Renaud gave me the tip to post my new drawing (some kind of self portrait) in this thread....
Comments are very welcome.

Hi,

I thought this had a different twist to it, if the definition of twist can be extended.

By the way I'm still working on mine. I decided to start all over again. And I'm getting there, not quite yet but working on it. And mine will also use a different definition of twist.