This expression study sketch using a mirror was done in the late seventies. I seem to recall I was doing prep work for a drawing of Gandalf the magician for a friend and I was trying out sketches of my different expressions. The final art is long gone but this sketch remains.
Mirrors are wonderful things.
To a visual artist, a mirror is a valuable tool. If I need to draw just the right expression, and I don't have a readily available live model, a mirror will save the day.
Of course, mirrors are valuable in general for checking one's appearance to adjust the out-of-place hair or to see and brush off stray food crumbs from the corners of one's mouth, etc.
As well, mirrors aid drivers in seeing when other cars in the rear of the vehicle. The clear reflective surface of a mirror can extend the power and range of light… and sight. They help dentists to see behind molars and store owners to see customer activity around out-of-sight corner aisles.
In a similar way, to varying degrees, each person has a mental mirror that, when developed and polished, can give a kind of third-person objectivity to one’s behavior and interactions. That that mental mirror must be cultivated with tenacious self honesty.
"O would some power the gift to give us to see ourselves as others see us."
--Scottish Poet Robert Burns
Mirrors are wonderful things.
To a visual artist, a mirror is a valuable tool. If I need to draw just the right expression, and I don't have a readily available live model, a mirror will save the day.
Of course, mirrors are valuable in general for checking one's appearance to adjust the out-of-place hair or to see and brush off stray food crumbs from the corners of one's mouth, etc.
As well, mirrors aid drivers in seeing when other cars in the rear of the vehicle. The clear reflective surface of a mirror can extend the power and range of light… and sight. They help dentists to see behind molars and store owners to see customer activity around out-of-sight corner aisles.
In a similar way, to varying degrees, each person has a mental mirror that, when developed and polished, can give a kind of third-person objectivity to one’s behavior and interactions. That that mental mirror must be cultivated with tenacious self honesty.
"O would some power the gift to give us to see ourselves as others see us."
--Scottish Poet Robert Burns
This is also a good place to
include a Google Drive Link to a re-formatted paper wrote in college
about the psychological benefits of self-portraiture -- officially
titled "Psychodynamic Processes of Self Portraiture".
• See my Self Portrait Album on Flickr
• NYTimes Interactive Article on Albrect Durer's Self Portraits
• Room Interior As Self Portraiture
• Portrait Sketches of Friends and Family
© by O. Douglas Jennings. All rights Reserved.
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