A Self Portrait a Day

I started with a cut out of my face and really whacked the contrast and brightness up - I wanted to get a bit of distortion into the piece before I even started by really smoothing out any details with bright light.

The photo behind is a picture I took in my Granddad's workshed of his wireless and tools. The colours and order of this picture really appealed to me.

My Granddad lives in a nursing home now and his house is soon to be sold. It feels sad to say goodbye to place where I spent every saturday morning of my childhood.

There was a toad in the back yard today.

I watched it crawl along the bricks.

I think our yards were built along an ancient frog road.

There's a mummified frog in the collage below. I don't know what happened to it - perhaps it couldn't get out or couldn't find food or perhaps one of the cats got it.

The words are from a short story I wrote.

Frogs give me the creeps a bit. I think because of this boy I was madly in love with as a small girl. He used to love frogs and gave me one to hold and I was so terrified of holding it but I also wanted to impress him. I think I held it for about a second before I dropped it. Now I get slightly panicky whenever I see them.

The photo portrait I used was out of focus - I love the softness of it when combined with the other imagery.

This portrait is overlaid with a detailed image of some coiled fabric I'm working on.

The fabric is twisted into strips and then sewn into coils - like you'd coil a clay vessel.

The stitches holding the coils together ended up looking like cracks - or some sort of leathery lizard skin.

The rosette shapes along the top and bottom of the image are from a different coiled piece.

Today's portrait came from my thoughts this morning as I brushed my teeth.

With all this bleaching and whitening and brushing and whatever - what are our skulls going to look like to archaeologists of the future?

Are we going to have yellowed skulls with big white shiny smiles?

How weird is that going to look?!

I have a headache today. I don't usually get them but I'm trying to give up caffeine again - I think that might be the reason. I took a series of very unflattering photos of myself looking grumpy and then laid them over the top of each other.

I've been at my Dad's house cleaning today and the dust has really affected me. I picked one of my doodles and put it in grayscale and then layered it over the top - I didn't intend it but it kind of looks like all of those dust clouds that I've been breathing in.

The thumbnail of this image looks really bizarre.

Today I feel quiet and delicate.

The photo was taken next to the window with the bright sunlight shining into my eyes. I really wanted to capture my silver hair but I couldn't see the angle the camera was at because of the sunlight.

I used a pleated piece of fabric as an overlaid layer. I centred the darkest part right over a chicken pox scar I have right in the centre of my forehead.

I was determined to make a self-portrait that was more harsh and strong today but I guess I'm in too much of a whimsical romantic mood today.

I blame the girly summer clothes I'm wearing. And my hair being down.

I don't know what the words are about - they just came to me.

I used an image of the sky I took a few nights ago at sunset and details from a textiles piece.

Today I broke free from the delicate look.

I was inspired to take a photo of myself after I'd just washed my hair.

I started playing with the contrast and brightness and then went on to use the dodge and burn tools.

To start with this reminded me of Sadako from Ring and then I started thinking about The Thing in Gormenghast - Titus's feral foster sister.

I'm interested in exploring the parts of myself that I don't like so much so I layered a close-up of the skin on my stomach over my photo, thinking that the marks might make an interesting texture - except they didn't come out in the image at all.

I then used dodge and burn on the skin layer and it came out looking very fiery and red.

Over the top of that I added a contrasty image of some fiery Autumn leaves. Just because it needed some extra texture and also because I've been thinking about making some images for Wuthering Heights so I've been trawling through all my wild countryside images. I thought the colours leant themselves to Autumn leaves.

Yikes!

You wouldn't want to meet this little lady down a dark alley.

I keep her behind barbed wire and under a doormat.

I guess I'm a little bit annoyed today.

I'm annoyed about closed-minds, assumptions, sheep, the souless. I'm annoyed about being the whipping boy and keeping everything locked inside.

My camera's batteries are still charging and I don't know where the other set went so I used the scanner today.

I love the way scanner images come out - I don't know what it is - perhaps the equal distribution of light or something?

Anyway, so I scanned my face (hope I don't go blind) and fiddled about with contrast, brightness, dodge and burn.

The title came from the bright sparks of light I got by using dodge on the black background (you can't see them in this smaller version) - guess it's flecks of dust and perhaps my hair? Anyway - it looked like stars to me.

These scanner images always look like underwater images to me somehow - like someone in a glass box of water. Or something embryonic.

I also scanned my hand rolling over the scanner bed and layered it over the top. I kept the fingers at the bottom but burnt the others until they faded into the dark background.

This is another image that came from scanning my face in.

I thought this angle was hilariously unflattering and wanted to play around with it.

I layered an image of some ruffled fabric over the top and played with opacity and dodging and burning and contrast and brightness.

Lastly I added a section from another image of my scanned hand.

This image made me think of the tree in the film The Fountain and how it's floating through space on a chunk of land. I also thought about astral projection and drifting through space.

I keep meaning to join in with Illustration Friday so that I can get back into drawing and painting but I can never seem to find the time - so I thought I would use this week's word "Diary" and let it inspire my self-portrait for today.

I layered three pages of writing over the top of my face and played about with them.

These pages are three of the morning pages I write each day.

The title comes from the first three words I could pick out still from this image.

I adore the way that handwriting turned out - check the image above for a close-up detail.

I had to rush today as I'm off to a wedding in a minute.

I used an image from today and the close-up of the handwriting from yesterday.

It's not one of my favourites!

Today's self-portrait was made using a close-up photo of flowers I took yesterday at the wedding.

I love how one flowers matches up perfectly with my eye.

The wedding was held at Hestercombe Gardens near Taunton and we had free range of the gardens so I wandered around taking photos of plants.

I was delighted to find Stachys Byzantina growing in the gardens - a plant I'd loved as a child - I used to think it was how you grew rabbit ears (even though it's more commonly known as lamb ears).

Today's portrait is me wearing a headdress I made during my degree. It's a large piece made for Ceres from the masque in The Tempest.

It's one of the things I was really proud of making but now that I'm on a clutter-busting mission I don't know whether I should keep it or not. I don't have room to display it so it's just shoved inside a plastic bin bag down the side of the bed. It just feels like a shame to throw it away.

For those that don't know - Ceres (also known as Demeter) is the Greek/Roman goddess of the Harvest.

The image I settled on using was an out of focus blur. I played with sharpening the image up in Photoshop which led to a pretty odd looking piece! I then layered some shrper shots on top and played with the opacity. Then I went in with dodge and burn on a few areas.

I used the same flowery image, from yesterday's picture, to layer over the top.

Yesterday I was working on finishing a mixed media piece which I started back in February. It's supposed to be a cavity in a wall full of things that have got bricked up inside. I intended on trying to make it look like I was in the wall but I couldn't see how that would work.

In the end I decided to layer a close-up of the wall piece over the top of my face. I then added a detail from the headdress I wore yesterday.

Weird. Looks a bit like I used a picture of Kate Winslet (even if I do say so myself) - I think because I used so much dodge around my chin and eyes.

The top layer is a close-up of a half-finished textiles piece that I'm thinking of getting rid of.

A friend of mine and I are doing a decluttering challenge at the moment - where for at least 5 days we're doing at least 15 minutes of decluttering in our homes.

So I've been thinking - I have so many half-finished craft projects. I've decided that for every new thing I make I need to finish 2 projects and for every new thing I make and finish I need to declutter 2 things from my possessions - otherwise it's just going to get ridiculous in here.

This portrait took me quite a while to do today.

I wasn't sure whether to leave the image as it was or whether to layer something over the top.

Then I wasn't sure what to layer over the top.

I was going to use the flowery image I've already used on 2 portraits. Then I took some really cool detailed shots of coloured pencils but they didn't look right for some reason.

In the end I settled on using a textiles piece I've been working on which is based on the backgrounds of one of Frida Kahlo's paintings. I love the way it came out looking quite shimmery in places.

They'd snuck, unnoticed, into the Seamstress's workroom when they were naught but babes.

Today's portrait is a warning to naughty children who might sneak into a busy work room when a seamstress is too busy stitching to notice.

These twins ended up stitched together and no one could pick them apart.

I don't know where this came from - today's new Illustration Friday challenge was "Double" - so I went from there.

I think the twin on the left is the boss. She looks reproachful. The twin on the right looks kind of sheepish.

The one on the right is the real me.

I was thinking earlier today about making some sort of supernatural piece. I was thinking more along the lines of Galadriel in Lord of the Rings when she goes "all weird" when Frodo offers her the ring but I ended up with this.

I'm intrigued by the idea of looking beyond the physical world and I guess that's what inspired this piece.

Originally I was going to stud my face with diamonds but I love the way the fabric looks over my face instead. I used an image from one of my textiles kits of fabrics laid side by side.

My face ended up looking quite corpse-like before I layered the fabric over the top.

I'm getting really excited about creating imagery like this just with my own photos etc.

I seem to be interested in eyes at the moment and telling stories - even if I'm not quite sure what those stories are yet.

I took this image whilst lying down and then tried to make it look like I was standing up. I wanted to see if I could get a different angle on my face and whether I would look much different if gravity was pulling from a different direction!

I like the proud look in this piece but I find it a bit freaky because it looks more like an old friend than it does me.

Yesterday I found a piece of organza which I'd studded with sparkly bits, in one of my old sketchbooks, and thought it would look cool layered over a self-portrait.

I mentioned wanting to stud my face with "diamonds" on the 24th so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to create that effect.

I took out most of the organza and just left the studs in place - I love the distortion left by some of the fabric that didn't get deleted.

The image I used was one that was out of focus but I'm finding myself drawn to the photos that don't come out so well - they seem to have more possibility for creating something unusual.

Today I intended to make a self-portrait where my face still looked photographic but the rest of the image was very flat and almost looked like a painting. I was thinking about the way Gustav Klimt painted his figures. The faces tended to be well painted and then the rest of the painting were very flat and highly patterned.

Anyway, for whatever reason that didn't work out and mt mouse ran away with me.

I ended up with this very dark looking character - she's a mysterious woman who rarely comes out from her house. All anyone hears of her is the sound of her sewing machine.

Today I tried playing around with the idea of flattening the rest of the image out - like in paintings by Gustav Klimt.

I'm not sure whether I like this one or not. I think, perhaps, that the neck could have done with a bit more work.

This image makes me think of iconography for some reason, and even those paintings at the beach that you stick your head through!

Today's self-portrait is my face placed on top of one of my art doll's heads.

I wanted to try out her hair do and see if it suited me!

I think it's a bit too "Star Wars" for my liking!

I haven't really been enjoying this project for the last few days - I guess I've hit that wall that any creative project goes through - where you just want to stop. I shall keep going until the 4th of August though.

Today's self-portrait was laid over a background of buttons. The buttons are from a bag I made a few years ago.

I just wanted to see what the buttons would look like but I quite like the way this image could be saying I feel like I have to bite my tongue and not say certain things. Or perhaps I'm wishing someone else would "button it".

This portrait was taken on the floor with me lying my head down on the carpet - might as well make use of the fact that I hoovered yesterday!

I started by playing with dodging and burning and then layered over a close-up from the headdress I used for the self-portrait on July 19th.

I like the extra texture it gave but the beads look a little weird just under my nose and I look a bit like I have a blonde goatee!

I took today's portrait whilst I lay down on the floor.

I played around with the contrast and brightness and dodge and burn.

The top layer is a detail of a woven dress I made for one of my craft challenges.

This image was made using the close up of a soldering iron burn on organza.

The burn sort of looked like some sort of coffin/Egyptian mummy shape which got me thinking.

I wanted to experiment with making the burn look like some sort of cocoon.

Someone mentioned to me that this looks like part of the female anatomy and now I can't stop sniggering about it.

Well seeing as it's the 4th tomorrow I guess I've finally reached a month's worth of self-portraits.

This was a simple self-portrait with the contrast bumped up and the brightness bumped down, dodged and burnt and then layered with a light dusting of stitchery.

I think this might be my last one for a while. Perhaps it's time for a new challenge.

She's saying goodbye. Goodbye to who? Cruel world? A lover leaving on a jet plane? Aliens? Angels? Migrating birds?