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I've done three over the past twenty years, each following a different method. Most recently I used two mirrors: a large one on an easel to my right, and a hand mirror held in my left hand, which let me see what was reflected in the large mirror, approximately a profile view. In the reflection seen this way, the view of the hand mirror in the large mirror gave a simultaneous front view of my face. The hand mirror also had a crack in it, and I chose to paint it that way. The primary light source was high overhead, to my left front just a bit. I used a large baffle of black cloth behind the easel holding the big mirror to block out much of the secondary light from that side of my studio.
In 1993, I just did a straight mirror-image self-portrait, very quickly for me (eight hours), when my sitter for the day had to leave due to a business emergency just as I was about begin painting him. I didn't want to waste the paint on my palette. There were two primary light sources: one cool, a window on my right, and one warm, a halogen spot to my left and above. There was also secondary light from a glass door behind me, and much reflected light. I didn't really plan it, I just took a chance and painted what I saw, figuring I could always burn it if it turned out badly.
In 1984, I did a pastel self-portrait using a single mirror (the one in my bathroom) in six hours, but I reversed everything I saw, so the image would not be backwards. That is, everything I saw on the right, I mentally reversed and put on the left, and everything I saw on the left, I mentally reversed and put on the right. If an angle leaned two degrees to the right, I made it lean two degrees to the left instead, and so on. It was not as difficult as it sounds. The primary light was the window to my left, through which light reflected off the wall of the neighboring house.
For the next one, I might use a mannequin modified to my dimensions, dressed in my clothes, if I can get it into the right pose, perhaps with my face covered by my hand, as part of a scene. We'll see.
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