Self-Portrait: Editing Eyes, Nose, and Mouth
Albrecht Dürer, Self Portrait, Age 13
Self-Portrait: Editing Eyes, Nose & Mouth
You will need:
A pencil
Your self-portrait from last session
An eraser
A mirror
Vocabulary:
Edit: to make adjustments.
Self-Portrait: Editing Eyes, Nose & Mouth
Artists adjust their self-portraits to make them look more like themselves.
Artists compare what they see in the mirror with what they’ve drawn in order to make it look more accurate.
Self-Portrait: Editing Eyes, Nose & Mouth
Eyes
The more accurately you can refine your eyes, the easier it will be to refine the rest of your features, so take your time and do your best.
�Compare the shapes you’ve drawn to what you see when you look in the mirror. ��What can you add or adjust?
Self-Portrait: Editing Eyes, Nose & Mouth
Develop the parts of your eyes.
Let’s start by looking at your eyelids.
Look closely in the mirror and trace your eyelids with your finger.
Can you see your eyelids clearly? ��Are your eyelids the same size or do you see more of the one on the top or bottom?
Go slowly and draw what see.
Next, look at the colored part of your eye, called your iris.
What shape is it?
Draw your iris symmetrically in each eye.
�Look at the black dot inside your iris—your pupil.
How large is your pupil in comparison to your iris?
Draw what you see.
�
Self-Portrait: Editing Eyes, Nose & Mouth
Refine your basic nose shape.
What shape is your nose?��Look in the mirror and identify your septum, indicated on my drawing with a red “u”.
Your septum might look like a deep “v” or a shallow “v”. Or it might look like a deep “u” or a shallow “u”.
�What line can you use to draw your septum?
Look closely at your ala in the mirror and begin to refine or draw them more accurately.
�Draw each ala symmetrically.
Self-Portrait: Editing Eyes, Nose & Mouth
Add bridge of your nose.
Do you notice the bridge of your nose?
�Some of us have a prominent bridge while it will not be very noticeable for others.
Look in the mirror and trace along the bridge of your nose.
�What kind of line could you use to represent it?
Does it connect to your brow?
�Draw what you see.
��
Bridge
Self-Portrait: Editing Eyes, Nose & Mouth
Space out the width of your lips.
How wide are your lips?
Find the edge of one of your lips in the mirror.
Draw an imaginary line straight up and notice where it meets with your eye.
Use this method to find how wide your lips should be in your drawing.
Self-Portrait: Editing Eyes, Nose & Mouth
Refine your lips.
Now that you know the width of your lips, look in the mirror and use your finger to trace the crease separating your top lip from the bottom.
What kind of line best represents the crease? Where does it belong in your drawing?
Draw the crease.
�What shape are your lips? ��Is the top or bottom larger than the other?
Draw what you see. ��
Crease
Self-Portrait: Editing Eyes, Nose & Mouth
Reflection:
What’s one way you adjusted your eyes?
�What’s one way you adjusted your nose?��How did you adjust your mouth?
What do you plan to adjust next?��