He writes about this in his journal as follows. However he did it in one enormous long paragraph and I can't read those. Just so I have a note to remind me what to do, here's what he has to say in my multiple paragraphs version with bold highlights and bullet points! (And that's a bit of self-portraiture for a start ! Who says it has to be an image?)
At the urging of Natalie d'Arbeloff, famed author of Blaugustine, I have taken on the job of defining the parameters of our new Self-Portrait Marathon.If you go to his website you'll see there's a lot of names in that right hand column and a lot of portraits are being posted! You'll also find Eric the male model in his figure class doing press-ups!
First, the underlying reason behind the parameters: if drawing is first of all about seeing, and it is, then it follows that drawing yourself will involve seeing yourself. Drawing well (and by that I don't mean skillfully, but honestly) means you'll have to see yourself clearly and deeply. That's not an easy thing to do. That's why this is a marathon.
If you want to climb on board, here's what you have to do.I, for one, am dying to see (a) what you look like, (b) what you think you look like, and © what you want me to think you look like. I think I'll do some screen captures and post our entries in a gallery here, side by side, so we can see how a portrait changes from week to week. Oh boy, this is going to be so much fun, kids! And listen, you don't have to be highly skilled. Sometimes that even gets in the way. Let's not measure ourselves against each other. We're all exploring, and there are a thousand paths to the top of the mountain. So when you have something posted, send an email to wally at wallytorta dot com pointing me to it. Oh, and if you don't have a site or place to post, send me your scan and I'll post it here. Okay. . . . ladies and gentlemen, start your mirrors!
- For the next month, you must do a self-portrait at least once a week; more often, if you want to, but be reasonable.
- Work in any medium you want
- post it to your site, and send me the address of your post so I can list it here.
- And think of your series this way: your last portrait is the stepping-off point for your next. Build on what you've done, see yourself more deeply. That doesn't necessarily mean draw more pores and wrinkles, although it could. It means reveal more of yourself, to yourself and the rest of us.
...........and if you go to his gallery for the self-portrait marathon - you'll find a lot of faces of people who have illustrated blogs - some of which you may know. At the time of writing 74 images are posted and it only started last Thursday!
And I formally signed up this morning - so guess what tomorrow's post is..........
I may just have to go any and buy one of those tablet thingies which I've been putting off buying as I know it'll become a huge distraction while I learn all the digi-things it does. I wonder if I'll succumb before the month is out?
Technorati tags: art , drawing , portrait , self-portrait
I have one of those tablet thingies and I still haven't figgered it out very well. But I think I'll drag mine out, too, and try to come up with something for Sparkles ;D. Can't wait to see what YOU do!
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Oh, and I must check and see how your class is going!
I have a cheapie tablet thingie (a Genius not a Wacom) and Corel Painter (definitely not cheap but you can download a month's trial from the Corel site to see if it's something you get on with) and it's really easy to use. I found it quite instinctive and natural. The combination makes for a fantastic digital sketchbook. But it is an enormous user-upper of time and I've only just scraped the potential.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I believe you get on fancier models which would be useful is an 'eraser' on the back of the pen. So you just turn the pen around, rather than having to click onto eraser mode.