First posted 3 Jan 2012
A self-portrait is a personal representation of your own appearance, or your ‘self’. Usually produced in picture form, a self portrait can be a painting, drawing, photo or any number of other mediums that exist.
In a self-portrait the artist has the liberty of producing something that represents them in more than just looks. They can be very personal. Van Gogh produced over 30 self portraits. Mainly he portrays himself a scruffy ginger haired and bearded man. He painted himself in this way, and this is how we think of him. Perhaps he wanted us to think certain things about him as a person. Many artists have produced abstract self-portraits, which do not show the physical attributes of the creator, but try to convey the essence of their ‘self’.
The concept of a self-portrait in words interested me. A self portrait is how you see yourself and being brutally honest about what you can see in the mirror is not necessarily a requirement. It could be a fantastic journey into how you feel or what you see inside. Having said that, an accurate description of how I look in the mirror sounds like a challenge. It is not something that I am particularly looking forward to, I avoid mirrors at the best of times. It feels like I need to find a balance between the overwhelming desire to be critical and scathing, and the reality of what I actually look like?
Have people written self-portraits before? Are they honest descriptions of what they actually look like? I’m sure it has been done, but I am not sure if they have been published. A quick internet search didn’t reveal any. So I am on my own for now.
Is writing an unashamedly honest monologue about your own appearance difficult? Or is it surprisingly easy? I suspect that depends. It took me most of my 30 years, but I think that I am at a point where I accept what I look like (most of the time), and I don’t think I’m too concerned about laying it all bare.
I’ll start from the top, I am 5 feet 2 inches tall, and I have brown hair that is currently really long. The colour of my hair is most definitely mid-brown, with shades slightly lighter and deeper than a dark chocolate. It is naturally straight and there is a lot of it on my head. There’s also quite a lot of it in the hoover and in the plug holes.
I have yellowy white skin, that tans quite well, except that my cheeks always catch the sun and get tinged with pink. My skin goes a yellowy brown colour when tanned. I have a forehead, how does one describe a forehead? It’s a medium sized forehead.
I have a long straight nose which has a pointy end, I don’t mean that it flicks up or down. I mean that the middle of it is longer than the sides. On my right nostril I have a scar, the remains of a mole I had removed as a teenager. It has only been partially removed due to complications with where it was located, but considering I had 3 operations the scar is neat. The mole was a rather large and protruding dark brown. I barely notice it now, but as a young teenager I was really embarrassed by it, thus why I had surgery to ‘remove’ it. Occasionally I do notice it and it surprises me, I don’t particularly like it. But at least now it’s not the first thing that people notice about me, which makes me happy.
Either side of my nose are blue eyes, apparently they sparkle. I think they sparkle most when I am happy or when I am being cheeky. The colour of the sky and the light changes their colour, which ranges from a navy, to bright blue. I sometimes have exceptionally large pupils, so much so that it’s a bit freaky and people occasionally think that I am on drugs, which I can confirm I am not! I think it is adrenaline that causes them to grow large.
My eyelashes are short and brown, I’d rather that they were longer. My eyebrows are normally tidy but natural looking. The left one arches slightly more than the right.
I’d say that my face is oval in shape. It is longer than it is wide, and I have cheek bones that are slightly raised and contribute to my cheek burning-in-the-sun problem. My lips are quite small, thin and a similar in colour to my skin. Fortunately they smile well. Behind them are my teeth, which are also small and a bit higgledy piggledy, especially the bottom ones. The top middle teeth angle in towards each other, like a pair of swing doors that are pushed in towards my tongue. It’s not that pronounced, so I never had a brace to correct it.
I’ve almost recovered from a lengthy bout of chapped lips, which culminated in a cold sore in the right hand corner of my mouth. It’s nearly healed but here is a slightly red scar as a result. I have an unremarkable chin, and a straight jaw that leads to my ears, which are again rather unremarkable. I have lobed ears and they are pierced, I occasionally wear earrings. My hairline stops just above where my ears join my face. I have many spots and blemishes.
Well, that was an indulgent 500 words. I think it is all true, it’s how I see it anyway. I think I could have been nastier about myself, but I think this is more accurate. Not just accurate about how i look, but about how I feel about how I look. I suppose I could have written more, and of course that only really covers my face.
It actually wasn’t too difficult, but perhaps it’s all a complete load of rubbish. I don’t think it tells you much about me as a person, but it does tell you something about what my face looks like. Perhaps the way it is written tells you more about me that the actual words. I don’t know. A picture telling a 1000 words, or 500 words telling part of a picture….
1036 words
EasterlyMoves 