This week, I’m going to start with:
HALP!!!!!!
This Saturday is the #FallBackInTime event on Twitter, Facebook, and what not, where your favorite romance authors (and we hope, you, too!) will post a selfie with their first or favorite historical romance novel. And so far, my selfies all ended up looking really dreadful. (More suitable for Halloween, really…)
Selfies are, of course, nothing new. Back in the day before smartphones & cameras they were called self-portraits (and they tended to look fab!) (oh well, but then we typcially only get to see the self-portraits of, you know, real artists instead of those done by amateurs). Some of them are very serious (and done in oil), others are far more cheeky – and naturally, self-portraits by the artists of Punch tend to fall into the latter category.
One of my favorite staff portraits in the magazine itself is the border for the preface to volume 7 from 1844. It was done by Richard Doyle and shows the writers and artists bringing their offerings to Mr. Punch:
Between Mr. Punch and Toby, his dog, you can see Mark Lemon, the editor, and (I think) one of the publishers, while behind Toby the artists and writers are queuing and waiting to hand over their work. The short guy at the front is probably John Leech, followed by Thackeray (tall + curls + small, round spectacles = super-easy to recognize!) and, at the far end of the queue, by Dicky Doyle himself, holding a gigantic pencil.
Kinda cute, isn’t it?
Well, the same cannot be said about my own selfies, I’m afraid, even though I have a smartphone with a camera and don’t even have to sketch my portrait. But…
Well…
The second attempt turned out even worse:
And the third attempt… At least I managed to keep my eyes open. That’s progress, right???
But still not particularly, er, nice. *sigh*
So I’m coming to you, hoping that you might have some tips for me how to improve my selfie-taking skills before this weekend so that I won’t end up traumatizing the rest of the world with my truly bad selfies. HALP!!!!!
And, of course, I hope you’ll join us on Saturday for the #FallBackInTime event and post your own selfies with historicals that you particularly enjoyed or that started your love affair with the genre. 🙂
Needs: a little eye makeup, better lighting (perhaps outdoors would work), and a friend to hold the camera a few inches further from your face so the focus improves.
Get the friend to tell you something funny — your smile will “sell” the picture.
Thanks for the recs, Susan! Yeah, the lighting was pretty bad for these – I took them when I came home from work in the late-ish afternoon.
Sandy, you are too cute. Love the smile in the first one and the mysterious look in your eye in the third. However, the directions I read somewhere said to be creative. Your sketches are delightful. Why not draw yourself?
For anyone who wants to know more, here’s the Facebook page for the event: https://www.facebook.com/events/512905705479257/
Oh dear, we have to take a selfie AND be creative?!?!?!
As to drawing myself, I really wouldn’t want to give anybody nightmares. 😉 I’m not very good at drawing people (especially faces!) (NOSES!!!! noses are dreadful things!). But perhaps I could do a cubist self-portrait. Hmm….. 🙂