Home Forums Explore Subjects Portraiture Drawing yourself in a mirror.

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  • #990131
    Samhey
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        Since drawing from a picture reference is different than drawing from life(because the picture is reduced to two dimensions) I got curious to if the same thing applies to drawing yourself by looking in a mirror.

        The mirror is, like a picture, just a flat surface. So I’m not really sure what applies.

        Anyone got any facts on this?

        My art blog: dra.ws

        #1171685
        kevinwueste
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            Drawing from a mirror is still a dimensional problem-solving effort ( like from life) – if only slightly more flattened. It is not easy to do – I suggest drawing from two mirrors so you are drawing what you look like and not your mirror image.

            -Kevin

            i draw, paint and teach | my voice is hoarse | my shoulder hurts.
            Talent is really a capacity for a certain type of learning of knowledge and a consuming interest in the facts that contribute to that knowledge~ Andrew Loomis
            http://www.kevinwuesteart.blogspot.com
            "kevinwueste" on instagram

            #1171691
            Samhey
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                Thank you for repyling, Kevin.

                I never thought about drawing from two mirrors. I guess the two-mirror technique is only for getting the aesthetics right(?)

                My art blog: dra.ws

                #1171688
                wal_t
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                    Interesting topic. When doing a self portrait one can argue with what image one is most familiar with. That is typically the reverse image of yourself as that is what you see each morning and evening in the bathroom mirror, using just 1 mirror. Walter.

                    #1171682
                    karenlee
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                        Walter, I think that you have unintentionally made a good argument for using two mirrors. The truer but less familiar image from the 2-mirror method would help counteract one’s instinctive tendency to draw what one thinks is there, the familiar one mirror backwards image of oneself. Drawing what is there in the 2-mirror image requires greater observational effort.

                        #1171684

                        I have painted self portraits using photo, one mirror and two- the two-mirror was most challenging- and the best because it was most like painting from the model.
                        Set it up- and show us the progress!

                        bethany
                        moderator in figures & portraits blogs: artbybethany life-presence
                        website www.bethanyart.com
                        My inspiration is art... because without art, we would just be stuck with reality. ~Daniel R. Lynch

                        #1171686
                        kevinwueste
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                            Walter, I think that you have unintentionally made a good argument for using two mirrors. The truer but less familiar image from the 2-mirror method would help counteract one’s instinctive tendency to draw what one [I]thinks [/I]is there, the familiar one mirror backwards image of oneself. Drawing what [B]is[/B] there in the 2-mirror image requires greater observational effort.

                            :thumbsup::thumbsup:

                            Yup! To iterate further – this is who we are and this is who we should attempt to paint ( if we can sort-out the setup).. Nothing “wrong” with a one mirror setup in my opine – just that this is more right:)

                            -Kevin

                            i draw, paint and teach | my voice is hoarse | my shoulder hurts.
                            Talent is really a capacity for a certain type of learning of knowledge and a consuming interest in the facts that contribute to that knowledge~ Andrew Loomis
                            http://www.kevinwuesteart.blogspot.com
                            "kevinwueste" on instagram

                            #1171680

                            I would like to see instructions how one sets up two mirrors for a self portrait – verbal or a sketch. I have tried it and managed a sliver of myself in the second mirror, and nothing but a profile. While a profile has many uses and often necessities, it is short of a “portrait” IMO. My advice to Samhey is to forget all technical discussion, set up one mirror near the easel, strike a pose with whatever slight head angle is most comfortable, and do it in any medium. Your face in a mirror is essentially a very lonely school room, with you the master teacher and the intimidated student as one. Your mirror image is reversed from what all other see? So what? The first self-teaching step is to look at your image in the mirror and see a perfect stranger gazing back at you. And the second step is instant and complete recognition that the stranger gazing back at you is not a photograph. A hundred pages could be written with technical details why this is so, but only your eyeballs seeing the immediate truth is what matters.

                            A mirror is a school room, nothing more, and you are the cheapest model in town (if not the ugliest, lol), and the most patient model, and the most severe critic and the most effective teacher available.

                            #1171690
                            Constance
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                                i have never tried painting with two mirrors, but after reading this, i will try in my next self portrait.

                                Instagram: unsuspectingstrangers

                                #1171687
                                kevinwueste
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                                    I would like to see instructions how one sets up two mirrors for a self portrait – verbal or a sketch. I have tried it and managed a sliver of myself in the second mirror, and nothing but a profile. While a profile has many uses and often necessities, it is short of a “portrait” IMO. My advice to Samhey is to forget all technical discussion, set up one mirror near the easel, strike a pose with whatever slight head angle is most comfortable, and do it in any medium. Your face in a mirror is essentially a very lonely school room, with you the master teacher and the intimidated student as one. Your mirror image is reversed from what all other see? So what? The first self-teaching step is to look at your image in the mirror and see a perfect stranger gazing back at you. And the second step is instant and complete recognition that the stranger gazing back at you is not a photograph. A hundred pages could be written with technical details why this is so, but only your eyeballs seeing the immediate truth is what matters.

                                    A mirror is a school room, nothing more, and you are the cheapest model in town (if not the ugliest, lol), and the most patient model, and the most severe critic and the most effective teacher available.

                                    I’m sorry you have not had success in figuring out mirrors. I don’t have a 2 mirror setup at the moment but – with apologies – stole/borrowed this image from a painter who also shows his step-by-step. The painting results – you’ll need to go to his blog to see as it’s not part of the UA to post another’s work- are in 3/4 head and hand.

                                    http://www.jqdaily.com/blog

                                    -kw

                                    i draw, paint and teach | my voice is hoarse | my shoulder hurts.
                                    Talent is really a capacity for a certain type of learning of knowledge and a consuming interest in the facts that contribute to that knowledge~ Andrew Loomis
                                    http://www.kevinwuesteart.blogspot.com
                                    "kevinwueste" on instagram

                                    #1171689

                                    This is so interesting.

                                    Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.


                                    :clear:

                                    #1171681

                                    Thanks for the link Kevin. He did manage a 3/4, with his eyes turned from the viewer. You can use two mirrors, but you can’t have it both ways. You can only look into one. And looking into one of the two you can see a corrected reverse of the first reverse you see every time you brush your teeth, with severe limitations of pose and eye contact with the viewer of the painting. That is what I found in all my fiddling around with two mirrors; that and the obvious conclusion that two mirrors greatly restrict, and add absolutely nothing, to the learning curve of portrait practice that one mirror provided. And that is what mirror image painting is all about. And that was my advice to the original question of this thread. A single mirror image has no resemblence to a photograph. It is definitely alive. It presents all the basic cranial and facial anatomical structure a painter needs to sharpen his observational skills and paint what he sees correctly. Practice, practice, practice.

                                    #1171683
                                    karenlee
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                                        A 3/4 pose, the classical portrait, is actually much easier to do with two mirrors than with one. I have done lots of mirror portraits and I have to say that getting a good 3/4 position is very hard with one mirror; my changes of head axis and head rotation always manage to show in the final product. Although I may not fall asleep like some models are prone to do while sitting, my minute changes of head position are very hard to control in the one-mirror system. But, I agree that even with one mirror, the person in the mirror is always the best available model and a valuable teacher–I urge anyone to use him/her as often as possible!

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