pencils (only 2H for now) The beginning of a second self portrait. This will be my second realistic self portrait on this site, and I take some perverse pleasure in the notion that you still won't really know what I look like. I will not be able to finish this one until after moving, but I did figure out most of the construction. It was tricky because the two elements overlapped and I kept getting confused what lines I had figured out for the face and what was for the hand. The composition was also tough. At first I wanted the hand to just come straight out of the center of my face, but that put the whole thing very far off balance. I also considered just eliminating the wrist, but that didn't feel like it was growing out. A more straight on angle in the hand would have worked, but I really liked this one, so I shifted it to come out of my cheek instead. I like the resulting shape. The second issue was whether to put on any facial features at all. My initial idea was not to, but when I tried adding the eye and lips and I really liked it, so I am probably going to keep them. I am also thinking of adding something in the background, but I am not yet sure exactly what. Any kind of comments or criticism is welcome.