At the end of each journal I like to do a self portrait or two and write a little wrap up about my life during the period that journal was active. I blurred some of the writing so I could say what I wanted without worrying about “over sharing” personal stuff.
I was inspired by Raena’s wonderful self-portraits to try sketching standing in front of a mirror instead of just sitting down and drawing my face. While I didn’t get a real likeness I did get two images that capture how I felt and saw myself that day. And even better, I was willing to take a chance, draw in ink, leaving the “mistakes” and accept that while my sketches weren’t as “good” as I wanted them to be, I was OK with letting them exist as a point on a journey.
Jana Bouc, Artist 
11 replies on “Self Portraits to End the Froggie Journal”
I love how fluid your self portraits are. How did you manage to warp the words in your journal? I have been trying to find an artful way to do this for ages and am at a loss.
LikeLike
Thanks Amie. I tried it two different ways using Photoshop. The simpler one (that worked best for this purpose was just using the smudge tool which looks like a finger ready to smudge something in the PS toolbar. I also tried using a layer effect set to Gaussian Blur with a mask set to display only the portion I wanted blurred, but I liked the smudge version better. If you don’t have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements I think there are probably free programs you could use instead, such as The Gimp (a free Photoshop-like program). I’ve never tried it but I know some people really like it.
Here’s another low tech idea: scan your page with a piece of tracing or vellum paper covering the text. Jana
LikeLike
Brilliant. So simple. I love it. Thanks Jana!
LikeLike
Wonderful that your self portraits are always so reflective of your thoughts. Plus, they seem to stand in, lines and all, as a metaphor of sorts for your self image. Very clever idea to do this at the end of each book.
LikeLike
This is an incredible idea! I love it. Your sketches are wonderful and your words will carry so much meaning for you (and your family) in the future. Thank you for sharing this idea.
LikeLike
Your comment about my family reading my journals in the future made me pause. I hadn’t really thought about that before and wonder what my sons might do with them. Hmmm. Some of the stuff I’m not sure I’d want them reading but I guess it will all be up to them. Do people put stuff like art and journals in their wills? Who knew a comment on my blog would lead to such deep thoughts! Jana
LikeLike
Thanks for your comment at Levonne’s Pretty Pics! Love your self portrait! I feel inspired!
LikeLike
Great self-portrait! I don’t think I have the courage to go in with pen!! Thanks for the mention!
LikeLike
Love both although I think the top one looks more like you. I really like the idea of doing it at the end of each sketchbook.
LikeLike
Thanks Shirley, I got the idea from Louise Stanleywhen she had a show of her journals at California College of Art. She starts each journal with a self portrait which felt too daunting to me so I close mine with one instead. Jana
LikeLike
Very nice pic. Nice confident line.
LikeLike