It’s my birthday today. In a previous post I mentioned that I’ve had, for many years, a project to do a self portrait in the same general size and format every year near my birthday. Here is this year’s installment.
24″ x 18″ water soluble graphite and watercolor crayon
some earlier drawings from the series
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Bill Sharp - paintings blog 
Lovely work…Happy Bithday Bill!!!
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Strong portrait, Bill. Lovely.
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Thanks Anita and Steph.
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Happy Birthday!!! You look great. What an excellent discipline to undertake, an annual self portrait. I really like the way you handled the medium. I’ve never heard of water soluble graphite. Makes for a painterly sketch.
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Well Happy Birthday Bill! A day late.
Great sketches. I like how they all have the same 3/4 profile. Very cool.
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Silvina, You’re very kind. I just ran across this water soluble graphite stick by accident. One drawback is that it doesn’t erase very well, which forced me to go darker than I might have.
Frank, thank you. The project dictates that profile, since that’s how it started back in 1975 or so. It started as an assignment in a class I took, while at the Maryland Institute, to predict what we would look like at age 60.
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Happy Birthday Bill! It is a compelling project, seeing not only how you have changed physically, but also how your artistic strength has evolved. Still thinking about that M.A.? I say, go for it!
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I’m very late with my birthday wishes, but since it is still within a month, they apparently still count! I hope this year will be special to you – with a lot of growing in art, expanding on ideas and originality, playing around with experimenting and may the fun always stay FUN! And great portrait…whenever you feel like doing a portrait exchange with me, let me know…
Ronell
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Hi Ronell. It’s good to see you’re back. Thanks for the good wishes and I’d love to mangle your portrait any time.
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