A self portrait vs selfies!

The process of painting a self portrait is for sure one, if not THE most challenging thing I have ever done as a painter. This self portrait was particularly tricky as I was mainly working from life and had to use two mirrors in an angle to each other to be able to observe myself in profile. During the process of painting yourself from life you really have to juggle quite a few things. Being a model, which means sitting as still as possible, having to maintain character, making design decisions and of course painting the painting!
Painting a self portrait and analyzing your own face for hours might be considered a bit of a narcissistic thing to do, ( and sometimes I do believe it is the foundation) but in most cases it is actually a very unfortunate side effect of not being able to pay models or a good way to do some self contemplation.
It is almost like giving yourself a truth serum as I have discovered many times, the state of mind and feelings you are carrying deep whit- in WILL bubble to the surface during the process of the painting.
I have been thinking about this phenomena a lot lately due to today's obsessive selfie mania. The waves of fake smiles and picture perfect lives are flooding social media and I do wonder if it will ever stop? Will we ever go back to a civilization where people get their portrait painted a few times during their life time and that is it? Personally I don't think so, but a part of me would for sure enjoy that hypothetical world. I do believe that a portrait is worth more than a thousand selfies. Is is a person filtrated through another persons eyes and mind. It is something made to last for generations and something that generally speaking is way more cherished by the beholder. But hey! That's just my personal opinion. :)

I made a little step by step picture guide of my process during this self portrait. The steps are more or less the same as I wrote about in my previous post depicting landscape painting; https://steemit.com/art/@mayasky/creating-a-painting-five-steps-that-never-let-me-down#comments
The only difference during this process is the beginning stages where I've been working for longer with just one color, burnt umber, and included more details.

If you have any thoughts on the portraitures role and importance in todays society I would very much like to hear it, even thou you might think it belongs to the ancient times! :)
Hope you enjoy!