Inspiration Station: Julia Kay self portraits

It’s been said “Pride goeth before the fall,” and I am the first one to admit that pride is one of the seven deadly sins I am most likely to commit.  I am proud of lots of things — that I am paying my way through my master’s degree, that I balance a very hectic schedule, that I’ve completed a project 365 and nearly finished with another one.

Julia Kay puts my measly 365 projects to shame. Etsy has done it again in linking to a fantastic inspirational artist.  Not only has she completed a massive THREE YEAR project of drawing a self portrait every single day.  I don’t have nearly that much commitment!

The other great thing about Julia is that she is experimenting with moving from traditional media to digital media.  She wrote this ‘how to’ article on how she’s transforming her approach to creating art.

As another artist working in digital iPad media, it is difficult to find subject matter experts on working with the new challenges this media presents.  I teach a digital art on the iPad class, and so far designing my course syllabus and projects has involved using traditional media projects and transposing them into the digital realm.  It’s always refreshing to see how someone is using this unique tool, and immeasurably more wonderful to see someone take such a painstaking approach to it.

Self Portrait

There is a great tradition amongst artists of creating the self portrait.  Why? Who better to practice your techniques on than yourself? You’re always available. All you need is a mirror and bam! You’re set up and ready to go.  No trying to find a model, no constant reposing because the model twitched, no surprise day of painting ruined because your model didn’t show up.  You’re the model. You’re there, raring to go. 

Now, you may not enjoy looking at yourself with such scrutiny.  Hence the abstract portrait, where you can claim a yellow circle with  a red Z crossed over it truly represents your “portrait.”  That wouldn’t be the first time!

I personally cannot stand to look at myself like that. I despise photographs of me.  However, I will always defend the educational value of a self-portrait.  So, here it is.

This one is about a year old.  There’s no rhyme or reason for the background.  It was fun and mod.  I often have been told I look good in red.  And of course there is that whole vampire phenomenon going around currently… something about Twilight? </sarcasm here>  So that’s why I have red eyes.  Apparently my painted doppleganger has feasted upon some A- recently.

Created in Sketchbook Pro with iPad.