Self Portraits

As you can obviously tell from my previous few blogposts, the past couple of weeks have been a time of definite introspection for me. I think it's good to occasionally step back and re-assess how we're spending our time, if those things are helping or hindering in terms of reaching our creative goals, and if our relationships are uplifting and inspiring. A lot of that takes a good, honest looking-inward.

A lot of my sketchbook is pretty personal stuff, and I feel like everytime I draw something "just to draw", it ends up being sort of a self-portrait of how I'm feeling, what I'm going through in my life (good or bad), and a recollection of my emotions. I really, really believe in self portraits. A lot of people will plunk down the vain card and just write it off as "myspace photos", but I think self portraits are an incredibly important way to document the different phases of our lives. It will be something we absolutely value when we are older.

I don't know about you other artists out there, but when I look at an old painting I've done, I can still remember what movie I was watching, what music I was listening to, and every emotion and reason for painting it.

Untitled, Self Portrait - Composite photos and drawings

© Erin McManness 2012

Do you take/draw/create self portraits?

Link me up! I wanna see it!