Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Seventy (A Work in Progress) Digital Self-Portrait


Today I went back to the old iPad to finish up this exercise.  Ten years ago, when I turned 60, I did a self-portrait in oil bar on canvas.  I turned 70 yesterday and for weeks before I had thought about doing another self-portrait, but found lots of reasons to put it off. But a few days ago, I decided to try a self-portrait on my iPad, using the Procreate app.  This is my first real attempt at a digital portrait.  It was quite a struggle.  I started from memory, and then switched to some recent photos, and finally found an old photo that had the head position and facial expression I was looking for.  Procreate captures a video as you draw, so I have been using that to see how the self-portrait was progressing.  It was both horrifying and useful. (If I get brave enough, I may post the video so everyone can see this struggle.)  Anyway, this afternoon, I made an adjustment to the shape and width of the face and jaw, and cleaned it up and cropped it.  I am happy enough with this self-portrait to call the exercise finished.  But the title is "Seventy (A Work in Progress)" because that is what I (still) am.

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