As a consequence of my reading the book loaned to me by my friend, dealing with the self-portraits of Egon Schiele and Jenny Saville, I have started to experiment with this particular genre. It is an exercise I have tackled rarely. Somewhere in my portfolios I have a charcoal sketch I did of myself as a student. Also, the Four Quartets series includes several figures based upon me, although these are not strictly-speaking “self-portraits”.
Initially the current exercise was set in motion by the idea that both Schiele and Saville could be described as doing “dystopian” images of themselves. I realised very quickly that in order to do that it is necessary to have as a basis an accurate notion of what one actually looks like. Any caricature has to be based upon accurate observation. So, I have settled (at least for the time being) with the project of capturing a good self-likeness.
The wind was rather taken out of my sails by my wife’s asking who was the man portrayed in my sketch-book. I consoled myself my responding that that particular image had been attempted with only one mirror …. hence reversing the likeness. Tonight I tried the exercise again with an arrangement of two mirrors, yielding an image in correct orientation. To my relief, on this occasion, she recognised it as me! Even so: I am aware that I have a long way to go before I will feel satisfied …. and even longer before I will be in sufficient command of the material to attempt anything like the deliberate and perceptive caricatures of Schiele.