LOVING SELF PORTRAITS
week 3 • Art of Flow at home
Day 15 We are half way through our 28 days of creative exploration. Thank you so much for joining me here and for sharing your daily art expressions. I hope you are enjoying the process! Week 3 focuses in on ourselves and includes some self portraits... Shadow Selfie Yes, a selfie! Using sunlight, candle light or a lamp, play with the angle of the light shining on your face from one direction (a darkish room makes it easier to create strong shadows). Have some fun (it's ok to feel silly & self conscious) take a few selfies with your phone camera, experiment with the shadows and the angles. This works best if you take some time to set up the light or utilise natural light from a window. Consider trying more than one lighting set up. Try casting a shadow pattern across your face for effect. You can edit and crop, maybe taking out the colour or choosing a monotone to simplify the image and turning up the contrast... or play with an app for effects... We will use these photos in a few days for inspiration and as a reference to create artwork from. Art of Flow at home Facebook group And on instagram use #artofflowathome "There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique." Martha Graham 
Artwork by Jasmin Lancaster
Day 16
Bind Contour Self Portrait Sensitive... Slow... Continuous... Descriptive... Yes, here it is again! My favourite, a blind contour (feeling with your eyes). It's really valuable to set aside at least 10 minutes for this, if possible two 10 minute drawings is ideal. Often the first one is the gateway to the second (or third) where you may find yourself more relaxed and able to see more. You will need paper and any drawing tool (not paint) and a mirror. We will be drawing a self portrait without looking at the paper. Sit comfortably in front of a mirror. If you're right handed place your paper on your right, if you're left handed, to the left. Make sure you can see yourself in the mirror but you can't see your paper. Focus your attention somewhere in the centre of your face (not the edge, I like starting near my eye) and place your pencil near the middle of your page. Slowly, slowly with a continuous, descriptive, sensitive line, (always in contact with the paper, never lift your pen or pencil) begin to move your eyes and your pencil at exactly the same rate, imagine you are touching. Move your pencil even slower... allow yourself to see more... the slower you go, the more you will see. Every nook and cranny, every little detail can be caressed. I like to set a timer and then surrender to the full ten minutes with a curious open mind (resisting the urge to peek) and reminding myself to SLOW DOWN. Art of Flow at home Facebook group And on instagram use #artofflowathome "The moment you accept yourself, you become beautiful" Osho 
Day 17 Move your Amazing Body Delight in your way of moving... Move, dance, do yoga, sing, use your body, cartwheel, play, sport, swim, run, work out, stretch, jump, walk or do whatever you love. Maybe you want to turn up the music and dance a painting out. Remembering and rejoicing in how incredible our bodies are, allowing our bodies do what they were made for makes us feel happy! You could express your interpretation through a photo or a video. Art of Flow at home Facebook group And on instagram use #artofflowathome "Do your Dance, take a Chance, it can only make you Stronger" Prince 
Artwork by South Coogee Art Club student
Day 18
The secret is in the shadows mysterious... poetic... Softness, colour, sensitivity, shadow, subtle and diffused. Choose one of the shadowy selfies from the other day as a reference (or take some new ones), notice how the shapes of the shadows are negative spaces, shapes with no names. (To read more about negative space you could go back and look at day 4 from week 1). You might like to draw with soft pastels or use ink or paint or collage (or keep altering photos). Very lightly and loosely allowing the shapes to have soft blendy wet messy edges. I suggest using only one colour (a monotone) to start creating your shadowy portrait. Draw or paint the shadow shapes and how they relate to each other. See if this can be an artwork without lines, just soft shapes placed near each other a bit like a jigsaw puzzle. The shadows are always connected... Art of Flow at home Facebook group And on instagram use #artofflowathome "Art should astonish, transmute, transfix" Brett Whiteley 
Day 19 Grateful thoughts & feelings Meditative moments to remember our blessings... You might like to write a gratitude list or a thank you note to the universe... Maybe use a word that rises up to inspire an artwork... Give yourself permission to show yourself gratitude too... We have spent a few days observing, examining & confronting ourselves. Today can we show ourselves some loving kindness. Rest.... Art of Flow at home Facebook group And on instagram use #artofflowathome "It’s not happiness that brings us gratitude, it’s gratitude that brings us happiness." Unknown 
Artwork by South Coogee Art Club student N.K
Day 20
Feeling Gorgeous This will be our last self portrait (do I hear a little sigh of relief hehe) We are going to combine the two processes that we've ben exploring this week. 1. With a crayon, charcoal or marker (pencil if you must) using a continuos line start a semi blind contour drawing. You can look at the paper 10 or 20% of the time, just if you really need to, without loosing that honest & sensitive quality that drawing with full attention on ourselves (not our paper) evokes. You could either use a mirror or look at a photo of yourself. Again it would help if you set up great shadows & light on your face. 2. Using any medium: paint, watercolours, crayons, coloured pencils, torn paper collaged, whatever you have or want to use. Fill all of the spaces... all the shapes of your face... the shapes of shadows, the shapes of lights. The important shapes may not be your features (eyes, nose, mouth). Allow the features to appear between the big important tonal shapes. You may like to continue in a monotone (one colour + white) or set yourself free again with colour. Just be aware of using light colours where there is light and darker in the shadows... This is your chance to have a go at this if you didn't do a shadow artwork the other day or a chance to go deeper... have fun with it... it's quirky... not necessarily pretty... but full of character... be brave... be silly... you are safe... with love Gabbi Art of Flow at home Facebook group And on instagram use #artofflowathome "I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it's true I'm here, and I'm just as strange as you." Frida Kahlo 
Day 21 Nourish yourself What is it that you need today? a walk in a place of beauty and inspiration... to watch an Art film... maybe view inspiring art online... (can't exactly go to a gallery) follow your heart, gather inspiration and feed your soul. This is a perfect time for an artist date with yourself (the idea of an artist date is from the book 'The Artist's Way' by Julia Cameron) In Julia’s words: “The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly “artistic” - think mischief more than mastery. Artist Dates fire up the imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well of images and inspiration. When choosing an Artist Date, it is good to ask yourself, “what sounds fun?” and then allow yourself to try it.” It could be anything that you need today, it may be as simple as a bath or some time alone or it may be that you need to connect with your people. Nurture yourself! Art of Flow at home Facebook group And on instagram use #artofflowathome "No matter what your age or your life path, whether making art is your career or your hobby or your dream, it is not too late or too egotistical or too selfish or too silly to work on your creativity." Julia Cameron |