Hello World

My name is Shamus Collins. My wife came across a blog entitled "Creative Journey" by an artist named Myrna Wacknov. There is a link on that blog to another blog Myrna has created entitled "Drawn to the Mirror" and this is my point of interest. Myrna has set forth to create 365 days of self portraits that began on Jan. 1st. Well I am starting a little after the first of the year but I am going to make the same goal for myself. This sounds like a fun and inspirational way to force creativity. Let the fun begin.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

110/365 Speechless



This one I really like. Simple, dark, light, and I think it represents me well. The title is "Speechless" because I have no mouth. Not because I think that this sketchling is so amazing that it leaves one speechless. One of my favorites though.

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109/365



This one didn't quite turn out like I wanted it to.

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108/365





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Tuesday, May 4, 2010

107/365 Mask



This is me removing a mask of sorts. We all wear masks from time to time, sometimes being naked in front of the world is a difficult thing. Letting someone see who you really are. We need to scream to the world " Here I Am, like it or not this is Who I Am ". Well world, there are several faces of me in this self challenge. Let it be known that these are all just simplistic expressions of an image of the man. Some carry more weight then others, but all are sketches.

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106/365





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Friday, April 30, 2010

105/365




4B Graphite Pencil. 15 minute sketchling. Me resting my head on my arm. By the way, all of my self portraits are for sale. Only $119,000 each. :)

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104/365 Come Together



This is a revisit of sketchling 40/365. This sketchling flows a lot better then the original. The two faces feel more connected, more a part of each other as opposed to a reflection. I like this one a lot more then its' earlier counterpart.

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Thursday, April 29, 2010

103/365




I took Myrna's advice and played with this one a little more. I actually like this one a little better now. Thank you for your advice.



I absolutely hate this one, but I am not going to throw any away, so... here is number 103/365

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102/365


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101/365



I have been gone from my work for a while. I am refocused and will be creating and posting as often as possible.

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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

100/365



I finally made it to 100. 2/7 of the year are gone. Still a little behind but I'll get there.

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99/365





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98/365





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Tuesday, April 13, 2010

97/365 Looking Down



Simple lines and simple shading. Deep thought or not? Maybe I was just tired. No. I was actually holding my baby, I left him out though.

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Sunday, April 11, 2010

96/365 Less Is More



I think that I've been putting too much charcoal on the paper. The simpler ones look a lot more complete. I know that it sounds stupid, but I think they look better overall. The next few will be experimenting with little color variations and simple lines. At least for a few sketches anyway.

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95/365 Nightmare



Welcome to Nightmare Me. This is actually a negative of a photo. Didn't turn out all that great though. Cool photo, bad sketch attempt.

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Thursday, April 8, 2010

94/365



A 6B graphite pencil.

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93/365



This is what last nights sketch was supposed to look like. The oil pastels were hard to work with. I don't think that I'm getting all that I can from the charcoals but I am getting more comfortable working with them. At least that's one good thing.

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Wednesday, April 7, 2010

92/365 Oil Pastels



This was done with oil pastels. I have never worked with them before. I don't like them.

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Tuesday, April 6, 2010

91/365



I know that this sketchling is simple, but that's one of the things I think I like about it. There is very little detail in the darks, none in the lights, but you still get a good feel for the subject (me).

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90/365





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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

85/365



This one ended up being slightly larger then I had planned. I was originally going to leave the hair off all together but it didn't feel right. Adding the hair increased the size so that it wouldn't fit on the scanner. It ended up looking a lot like 58/365, not my plan.

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84/365 Strange Angle



This one is mostly focused on the hair. A different angle and everything else light shows the interest of the hair quite well, I think.

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Monday, March 29, 2010

83/365



Above is a photograph of the entire sketch, below is the scan.





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82/365




Above is a photograph of the entire sketch, below is the scan.





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Sunday, March 28, 2010

Thursday, March 25, 2010

80/365



Done with a 600 charcoal pencil.

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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

79/365 The Next Chapter



This it the first sketchling in a new book. It is a Master's Touch 11" X 14" 80 sheet 70lbs spiral. My art instructor suggested I try using a larger sketch book, I think that she would still like me to go larger then this but I still have to scan them on a home sized scanner, so this will have to do for now. Some of the picture is cut off by the scanner but not enough to matter, you get the feel for it just the same. I will have to keep this in mind though.

I am going a different direction on this next book. All charcoal and graphite. I have no experience with these materials so it is all trial and error. I hope to learn to use these materials confidently. It is a little intimidating using unfamiliar tools and working on a size larger then what I am used to. However I will give it my all and push myself into trying new technique.

I might not complete a sketch every day. I will not hurry just to get one done that day. I might post what I have so far that day and then re post the final piece the next day along with that days work. I will catch up on days that I have more time though. The goal is 365 self portraits this year and I will settle for no less from myself.

So... let the next chapter begin.

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Tuesday, March 23, 2010

78/365 The end of book one



This is the last page of my first sketch book of the year. The next book is larger and I will focus primarily on the graphite and charcoals.

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Thursday, March 18, 2010

75/365 Abstract



This one is an abstract sketch this an intentional bold beard border. The eyes are off, they are supposed to be. I'm trying to combine different elements together. I'm not sure that they work too well together with this one but it was an experiment.

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74/365





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73/365





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Sunday, March 14, 2010

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Friday, March 12, 2010

68/365 I Messed Up



So I messed up with this one. I had my sketchbook opened wrong and I drew on the back of a previous sketch. I completely ruined 66/365. I actually liked that one a little. I will revisit that sketch soon just to have a clean copy.

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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

66/365



A quick pencil sketchling for the day. I have to over darken everything for it to scan dark enough to see. I don't like this but they scan too light if I don't.

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