Self Portraits

Self portraits are the most difficult type of drawings.  Not only is the subject a face/person, which is difficult enough on its own without at least some training and experience, but it's yours.  It's difficult to resist the urge to idealize yourself, but you also don't want to make it look bad.

I drew a self-portrait recently, and as it progressed, the subject felt more and more like its own person.  After I had completed the basics of the portrait, I was at the stage where I would quickly flip back and forth between an image of myself and the drawing, playing one of the old "spot-the-difference" games. I was at the point of diminishing return, where extra details I added did less and less to make the drawing look more like me.  After all, this was a drawing, not an attempt at photorealism.  At this point I stopped focusing on matching every detail, and completed the portrait as if it were some imaginary character.  This allowed the overall result to look much more coherent, since I could make my own judgement calls instead of being dictated by the photograph.

In the end you have to admit that you aren't going to get the eyes just the right color, or shape the nose perfectly.  It's always going to be a representation of yourself; if you want it to be exact just take a selfie.

On a similar note, viewing self-portraits of other people can be quite entertaining.  Many beginning artists will try and idealize themselves to the point where they look unrealistic.  Finding which parts they choose to emphasize (usually eyes), and which they choose to minimize (usually nose, ears, eyebrows), can tell a lot about how they view themselves.  Many artsy-type people (for the record I don't consider myself to be one) are on the other end of the spectrum, and can actually make themselves look worse.  I think that also is just a reflection of how artsy people view themselves.