Meaisín's Year of Daily Self-Portraits + Video

[Meaisín]

Attempting to complete daily self-portraits to improve! I felt inspired and began. It's a great exercise for driving me on and experimenting, and it makes sure that I'm drawing everyday. Keeping up so far, even if there have been some very late nights and terrible drawings. Mixed medias/styles and etc.
Will try to find more time to make sure I get the images uploaded more frequently.
Now that I've seen the other threads here, I'm even more inspired, and looking forward to the next day's portrait and hopefully, improvement

All comments/suggestions welcome, thanks for visiting.

[Meaisín]

1st - 18th

Keeping the dailies going. Eighteen so far, here they are. Although I'm not sure if it's the best method, I've kept the medium/approach/angle relatively fresh in the hope of improvement.

Hope uploads are alright - couple of photos due to A3 book.

Thanks for views/comments/crits

[Meaisín]

19th

Self Portrait from yesterday. Van Gogh drawing self portrait influence, so light pencil drawing under dip pen and ink.

Take it easy!

[Meaisín]

20th

'Feeding Time!'
Today's self portrait. I had a bit of fun with it. Needed a change in theme and expression ^_^
Quick blue pencil sketch under 3B. I think my toning might need more control/decisions made before I start. A toning chart perhaps. Not sure how good it is to cross from hatching, suddenly into solid tone.

[Meaisín]

21st

Hello again, here's today's. Blue pencil sketch under 4B. Drawing through sunglasses... ¬_¬
Don't think I'm too fond of this one. Took a little while, as the annotation shows, and I think I need to do a lot more studies. Im presuming more structure/muscle/bone/plane research. Drawing the face straight on as I see it might be flattening the drawing... I'm not sure. If I built up the forms underneath, I'd guess it would appear more three-dimensional.
Anyway, I'm sort of musing, but please reflect if you feel like it. All comments/crits/views welcome.

Ádh mór ort!

[*ViRuS*]

your getting better as these go on, looks like your getting more comfortable with pencil already since your first one. good job =)
it wouldn't hurt to study the skull, and look at/do anatomy studies for the figure as well, as proportion and structure are your weak points.

[Meaisín]

*ViRuS* - Thanks for your comment. You're right, my figures and proportions need a lot of work; hopefully improving that with my life drawing too! I may try to work with a larger mirror or from a further distance in the future - maybe more practice with my figure in my SPs too . I took the anatomy advice to heart...

22nd

Had wanted to do a self portrait like this for a while - good for reference studies and anatomy. I had a bit of fun with this one too, enjoyed it. I had a couple of Louise Gordon drawings next to me as reference as I tried to self portrait my skull in blue pencil. Then HB pencil for the self the outside world sees . Should study more head anatomy.

Thanks, ta-ra!

[Meaisín]

23rd

Tried the same thing again today with a different angle/reference book by my side - Joseph Sheppard. Was a great reference for forms, but had to obviously change the skull shaping/lighting/proportions to suit my sitting. I think some of the proportions are a bit off actually, but I'm still quite happy with the result. Took a while, but satisfying product.

Cheers!

[no87]

good work man! keep it up

[Meaisín]

24th

no87 - Thanks for the encouragement! Sometimes it seems tough with animation/uni work/time etc. to get these done, but I actually really look forward to them, get excited about seeing future progress and trying new things - it's awesome/worthwhile to draw everyday

Here is yesterday's SP - a rather strange expression, and I think what I intended as a smile at first became a quizzical mouth, but oh well. Hope to improve on proportions and timescales.
Aim to get today's SP up later when I get a chance to knuckle down.
(Included - imagination doodles on a 'Merry Christmas' message to someone - learning my face! Crudely, but learning it nonetheless )

Thanks, love you bye! [Adam+Joe ]

[Meaisín]

25th

SP for today(or yesterday if you're pedantic... but my day hasn't ended till I shut down )

Looks like I have a lazy eye and am very unhappy... Wanted to get in some colour though. I don't think I know how to use colouring pencils very well. It's tough to find a range, or appropriate colour sometimes. But I'm sure these exercises will help with colour when I start to use it more and try digipainting. Ah well, onwards and upwards...!

[Meaisín]

26th

Happy to have tried a new expression, although I seem to have ended up really evil looking. HB with coloured pencil touches. I wanted to do something different from the start and it was just too tempting to add some sinister colour as the face developed. Hopefully it's alright; maybe my imagination just needed to breath . Imaginary horns were hard to try and render realistically... I wasn't about to start on armour . I should probably try quicker exercises and focus on some figure studies.
Anyway, 'nuff talk, I appreciate all words and advice.

*Snarl*

[Meaisín]

27th

Looking out the kitchen window this evening while my good friends cooked dinner

[Meaisín]

28th

Wasn't feeling too great tonight - took me a while to get into this one and get the basic layout/proportions working. Can still note errors with nose and eyes mainly I think, but s'ok. Still beginning by drawing features or edges floating in space, then lining up relationships/interactions with the edges of other features.

[Lawrence Humphrey]

Yesterday's, number 27, was really great--keep up the good work.

[Meaisín]

Lawrence Humphrey - Thanks a lot, I was pretty content considering I went straight in with a pen. I'll do my best !

29th

Here's today's (21/12/09); a late night one, but a fun change of approach. I'm planning on looking at/studying Schiele's work for a bit, mainly regarding line quality and such, so with book on lap and mirror by my side I aimed for an artist study/SP .

Due to my travelling home tomorrow for the holidays, I may not be able to update for a while. Will depend on a scanner. Anyway, I will aim to, and will keep up the dailies!

Pouty-pout wide-eyes

[Yang87]

number 27's awesome. i really like the mood.

keep up the good work!

[*ViRuS*]

your getting better and better... as far as color goes- i thought number 25 was a great use of warm/cool colors. really look for that in life and don't be afraid to push it. keep it up man, your rocking these. =)

[Meaisín]

Yang87 - Thanks a lot, nice to hear.

*ViRuS* - Cheers, I'm happy my intentions with the warm/cool effect looked alright. I do want to pursue this more; I was surprised by what I could get by heavily employing blue/orange pencils. I'll keep searching and pushing !

30th - 49th (30thx2, 37thx2)

Here's the update I implied would happen. Didn't get to a scanner over my holiers, so here is the Xmas holiday update! I've kept up the dailies, and enjoyed them! They are still all from life; windows/mirrors/reflections/live webcams/etc. Was great to try a larger mirror/more figure.
Appreciate and look forward to any comments. Cheers!

[Meaisín]

50th!

Today's
Sorest... back/neck... ever...

...And Stretch!!

[Herr_Oin]

nice Progress! It inspirates me to improve my skillz...draw and draw and draw...

[Meaisín]

Herr_Oin - Really great to hear dude, thanks! Progress is addicting ^_^. Wise words... I'm the same... must draw more !

51st!

Finally decided to try digital painting... WOO! Was a bit daunted before, but also so excited to try my tablet for the first time, and as usual it's that fear barrier that just has to be smashed through and you just got to go for it!

It's quite... grey, and really messy. But I thought I would just try one level of zoom/one brush/black and white to start small and get practicing on some tonal work. Anyway... bed soon!

[Meaisín]

52nd

Second try - Feels great to practice this! Even though I'm probably still pretty awkward, I can feel the workflow/comfort increasing slightly already.

Found it quite hard to get a lighting set up tonight and what I ended up with might have been a bit tonally flat.
Messed with the nose a lot... the under sketch could have been more careful.
So tired tonight could barely keep my eyes open - heh, and I can see it in the SP

Anyway, enough naysaying; great fun, I look forward to more!
Cheers all!

[Meaisín]

53rd.

Today's. Another very late one.
Went on a bit longer than I thought, but time just disappeared - it became pretty intense as I accelerated to finish and got into the flow of the hair.

Lips had errors, eyes, lines a bit off, clumsy with layers... but still experimenting! I see mistakes of course, but, more more more...!

Great stuff!

[no87]

loads of great stuff man! awesome to see you starting digital too! keep it up

[Meaisín]

no87 - Thanks again for the kind words. Yeah, the start in digital is really exciting. It's a shame I didn't get a chance to practice today actually, but I'm really looking forward to going back to it, which is great. Will do my best !

54th

Back to big sketchbook for this one; wanted to sit and chill with friends and took the opportunity to do this. Camera for upload I'm afraid, no access to A3 scanner at the time. A toughy. (Changing) Angle of head/persp./bent back due to bar over window obstructing any view above .
Was kind of happy with tying down the head though - it went through some seriously bad first attempts . Hand/arm/back all look so wrong now.
Ah well, no sweat, there's always [the sooner the better] next time!

[Meaisín]

55th

A little different...
I wish I could get further with these in less time, but I guess that's the learning. I think I got impatient with this one and sidetracked/[confused :/] by the inclusion of colour - began to experiment and not really know what I was aiming for. Also didn't want to spend a long time trying to tightly replicate the shading on the skin, so it's done speedily in places. Ah well, nice to see something different and I think the lines are ok.
I appreciate any advice. Cheers!

[Meaisín]

56th

I clearly deserved it...

Ridiculous pose - as I sketched I probably forgot to emote, so the rest of my face is flat and reactionless... as if I take punches and just keep looking straight into mirrors ¬_¬. Should have morphed my arm more... so I didn't look like I'm crazy and just punching myself. Ah well, I can always say I was reprimanding myself for not drawing more . This reminds me of the 'SF20' book cover now... only... not action packed... or awesome.

[Meaisín]

57th

Great music, pen in mouth, squinty eye... good stuff

[danlucas]

nice, these portraits are really coming along. I see your improvement over just these portraits. And I like the new fresh ideas coming from each one. Keep at it. Check my sp if you can. Pce