‘Self Portrait’

‘Self portrait’ was an experiment with ink and magazine. When I set myself up to create in the evening, my warm and dimly lit room creates a yellow cast across the items on my desk. My mirror sits opposite me and I find myself often inspired to draw myself as I am; no makeup, no pose, simply what I look like at that exact moment. I found an old magazine that was damaged and ripped a page out. I love the unyielding power of ink and want to improve my line work and experiment with loose more gestural marks. I didn’t want to overwhelm the page and left the drawing as soon as it felt finished. This is my favourite self portrait I’ve done; uncertain of where the face starts and ends, with the bold letter ‘T’ dividing the image up into defined section of text, ink and white. The hairs gently draping the edges add an element of freedom, unrigged and unrefined, gently balancing the harsher shadows and contours of the face.