Instructions for setting up for a self portrait, and tips to see what go wrong in the sketching phase.

 

1. Walk around the room with a mirror. Find a spot where the light cast interesting shades on your face in the mirror. This is a good spot to set up at.
2.  You need:
   1. two easels, one for the canvas, and one for the mirror.
   2. maybe a chair to sit on
   3.  something to place your art materials on
   4. perhaps hang a colored cloth behind you for getting other colors of the shades, and/or a less cluttered/more interesting background.
3. Place the easels with the mirror and the canvas so that you need to move your head minimally to see yourself as you paint. Ideally you would only need to move your gaze. It gets tiresome to move the head, and difficult to have the exact same pose if moving.

 

4. Make an initial quick sketch on a separate piece of paper. It is easer to do the sketch on the canvas if one has practiced first, on another sketch.

5. Sketch on the canvas. Use coal, pencil or a light watercolour line.

 

5 ways to help see where you went wrong in the sketch:

1. Walk back, look at the picture from distance
2. Turn the sketch upside down
3. Look at the sketch through the mirror
4. Close one eye, and look at the portrait as you also hold your hand so that you can only see one of the eyes of the portrait. This way you get a “flatter” image, and you may see which one of the two eyes needs fixing.
5. Take a picture with your cell phone and inspect it in small format.

 

This is what I learned from the teacher and portrait painter Sissel Wibom.

/Mirjam

 that sketch on the canvas is not done. The little sketch in the top right corner looks like me, but at the point the photo was taken the coal sketch on the canvas needed much more work.