Self Portrait

Absolutely stunning work Alison. I love how you capture the reflected light in the eyes. Well done.

Hi Alison - You've made that technique work very very well for you here, and the drawing of yr husband is pretty good too, I like the cutoffs - but like everybody else's comments - is it on blue or white paper?. Re yr blog, You'll love the course, be confident in the nautural and hard won skills you have - they go in advance of you - particularly when it comes to an exhibition, or sending work to illustration agencies to try and get on their books - just because it seems that's where yr work is heading if you want income from it. I had a couple of different agents at various times and they do the biz - I don't chase that work now - but before you get too style bound - you definately need those basic skills that you show in the work here. I worked for years at a lil studio home while bringing up my son, but in the end, having somewhere else to go- a studio -if it's within yr reach is much better - but when it comes to making deadlines for a piece of work for publishing etc (eventually) you'll find that being able to get at the ongoing work at all times of day is essential. - hence a travelling working portfolio I guess . All the very best - cheers Dai.H. ( ps if you have a look at the commercial section on my site www.daiharding.com you'll see the kind of stuff I was selling - as I said I don't chase it anymore - but I do keep a deal with a creative licensing company in the USA going - such things are handy now and again)

PPS - forgive my presumption about the illustration route - you very well might make a go of it by doing terrific realist work for the great n the good like Anigoni - again all the best. Dai.H.

William, thank you for taking the time and commenting :o) Dai, Thank you for your informative comment! I have to say I would love to be more commercial, but really don't know where to go first as regards that. I would say I do need a lot more confidence at the moment, and don't feel I have enough experience in any medium to know which works best for me. Illustration sounds like a great idea, but as for whether I am able to reach that, I really don't know. I think I've said somewhere here that I have been drawing for exactly 2 years, and I know I have a LOT to learn. You said to not get stuck in any one style and that is something I talked of today with my mother (bless her!). I really don't want to get stuck in a comfort zone that I become too scared to leave. The paper is so white it looks blue, and I think that makes it poor for photographing. Looking on the wall behind me at my husbands and my self portrait, the white looks white behind the graphite, so I suspect my poor photography skills, as well as my basic camera are not doing the drawings any justice here. My studio - I adore being able to walk away from the house and housework and get down to some serious drawing! The portrait of my husband took 60 hours of interrupted work, compared to a mere 12.5 hours for Oliver. I have (almost, George is almost done) completed three portraits in four weeks, so I KNOW I am not the snail I thought I was! lol God Bless studio space :o) Thank you for the Kudous, I will have a look at your website once the children are asleep and I have some peace!

Illustration agents are funny - you'll find plenty on the web especially thru the Association of Illustrators site - who can be very helpfull to you. The funny thing about Agents is that they want you to be versatile - but - they will only take you on initially on the strength of a definate and distinctive style that they know that they can sell - common sense really -( the first big job I got from one agent was a full page colour for Cosmopolitan Mag - because I was hawking lots of Tamara De Lempicka style stuff and it was a hip retro thing then ) - and one that doesn't take the bread out of the mouth of an existing illustrator on their books. You'll see when you look the huge range of styles that people get signed up for. Every illustrators style comes to a natural selling end after a while, but well before that a good agent will be encouraging you in the other styles you had in yr folio - ie the versatility they saw there in the first place - and which you should have continued to work on anyway - that's quite exciting - the building of a new style in discussion with an agent. Cheers and all the best. Dai.H.

I hear you Dai! Thanks for the great advice.

Hi, Alison. I think your self portrait is very good. I'm interested in it, too, because your photograph is very different from your portrait. I've done a couple of self portraits, too, although mine were more like sketches (although I'll put them up). Mine don't look like my photograph either - they are different from each other, too. Are you going to do another one?

Hi Angie, another self portrait...not at the moment! This one will look different as I've lost weight since I drew this and I'm a couple of years older too! I think it's also a great lesson in different poses and lighting. The accent for this portrait was my eyes, so that is where my attention lay. I have another self portrait from a year or so after this one where I am looking more like my usual smiley self (I'll attach it to my blog if I can find it!).

Hi Alison - that sounds interesting. I think I didn't express myself very well last night. I didn't mean that your portrait didn't look like you - it does. I didn't mean either that a nice smiley would have been better - I'm sure it wouldn't and in any case, it's very difficult to look at yourself and keep on smiling for the time it takes to draw a portrait. I meant that self portraits seem to show a very different view of oneself from that seen by others and that this changes. I know that when we draw somebody that the result is a sort of mixture of the person seeing and the person seen, so it's no wonder that looking at ourselves should produce such interesting results. I have two self portrait sketches (that I will find and attach sometime soon) that look v. different from each other. One concentrates on the ageing lines in my face, just like you concentrated on your eyes in this one.

PS Your eyes in the portrait are fabulous!

Angie! Check out my blog! I've posted a more recent SMILEY self portrait of me. Oddly enough it was drawn because people don't see me as the serious looking face above. I guess it really is just how I see me!

If the eyes are right it goes a long way to make the whole thing right - must try graphit - do nearly all oils with the occasional pen & ink - mixture of animals & people - for me the eyes are the key

Stunning work Alison. I'd like to know more about 'Circulism'