Self Absorbed

I've been reading Peter Steinhart's interesting book, The Undressed Art: Why We Draw.  He mostly discusses his experiences in west coast life drawing classes, the delights and challenges of drawing from life, and how difficult it is to be a model in these classes.  I'm not currently going to the class I attended all summer, mostly because I don't like driving twenty or so miles and back in the dark, and also because the winter sessions are a little later, and I get so wound up I cannot sleep when I do finally make it home.  Still, I miss the experience, the excitement of drawing live, with a time limit, in the company of other people.

So, I have been drawing myself in a mirror.  I don't take any more than twenty minutes total, and I'm working without looking down at the page much, though I do glance down occasionally.  I thought I'd do a whole series of these between now and the end of December, and see how my renderings change over time.  They are not flattering, but they look weirdly like me.  I enjoy seeing what will happen under my pen each day, and am interested how different aspects of my face and posture are emphasized in each drawing. They aren't boring, and assigning myself to do these is getting me back in the habit of drawing every day, a habit I seem to have lost over recent weeks. I'm limited by the little notebook I'm trying to fill, maybe 3x5 inches, with flimsy paper that won't take water media.  Maybe it was supposed to be a journal, but I rarely keep a paper journal.