Instead of sharing my daily drawings (of which there were few) this week. I thought I'd share my annual birthday self portrait.
Several years ago I started a tradition of drawing a self portrait on or around my birthday. It was inspired by Rembrandt, who painted many expressive and honest self-portraits throughout his life-time. The self portraits track his emotional, physical and creative maturation.
I'm not Rembrandt, and I don't paint in oils; even so, each year I'm challenging myself to draw or paint something to represent the moment, the week, the day, that I grew one year older.
This year's drawing is very small, just a simple pencil sketch in my tiny moleskine sketchbook. Did I catch my likeness? To be honest, I think the sketch was perfect about 3 minutes before I put my pencil down. I added a few too many strokes, and lost some of the intensity. However, I think it perfectly captures my current mood of introspection.
Today isn't my birthday. However, on the day, I spent a lot of time reflecting on what has happened in the past year and what I hope will come to fruition in the next year.
Do you have any birthday traditions?
Feeling inspired? Please share, tweet, pin or favourite!