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End of Sketchbook Self-Portrait with Birthday Flowers

Birthday Flowers Self Portrait, ink & watercolor, 7x5"
Birthday Flowers Self Portrait, ink & watercolor, 7x5"

To put the finishing touches on a completed journal, I make a self-portrait for the last page. Since it was also my birthday, I wanted to incorporate my birthday flowers in the painting. So I hung a mirror with a yellow clip  from one of my swing-arm lamps on my drawing table and put the vase of sunflowers between me and the mirror and then drew what I could see in front of me: the flowers in front of the mirror, with me and the flowers reflected in the mirror.

As usual for my end-of-journal self-portraits, I wasn’t willing to measure or try to draw and place features accurately but I think I did capture the feeling of me or the me as I was feeling.

In the next post I’ll show you my new journal and another idea I tried out for sketchbooking minus the sketchbook.

 

18 replies on “End of Sketchbook Self-Portrait with Birthday Flowers”

Happy belated birthday! I love your idea of doing a self portrait at the end of each journal. That is a great way to record the passage of time and a good finale.

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I have to credit Louise Stanley for the idea of the end of sketchbook self portrait. I had the opportunity to see a show of her journals and it was amazing seeing year after year of her portraits, and how they changed and stayed the same. Jana

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Thanks Shirley, They say the artist paints themselves in everything they paint. Your sketches, whether of museum items, beach finds, life drawing models or family members also are self-portraits I think as they are all steeped in your gentle essence. Jana

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Well happy birthday to you then! Actually I’m a Gemini (double) but my birthday flowers were presented a week late, drawn a week later than that, and posted a week after that! My birthday is actually June 19. And I always love hearing positive words about composition, since it’s something that doesn’t come naturally to me and have to work at it. Jana

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I like this idea of documenting events and every day life with sketches. The idea of the mirror that you left visible on the drawing is great. I hope you had a great day. Happy Birthday!
Isabelle

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I always enjoy your end of the book portraits! This was cleverly done with the flowers, too! Happy belated birthday from me, too. I love your birthday tradition of two weeks of vacation, one before and one after. Maybe next year…..

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It’s funny how after 10 years at my day job, my co-workers don’t even blink an eye about my non-negotiable birthday vacation, even though it comes right in the middle of the busiest, most hellish month at work. I get done what I can and then waltz out the door… I would love to learn to live as if every day was my birthday. Wouldn’t that make life fun! J

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Jana, Happy B DAY sorry for being late. The drawing is wonderful. For me I would be kinda scared to do this 🙂 to myself.
Have a great day,
Linda

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