Beard, Pipe, Beret.

I will be cartooning at a great conference later in the month and in preparation for it they asked me to contribute the usual photo and short blurb about myself. Most of the speakers at the conference are academics. Their photos and bios have gravitas.
The most recent photos of myself, however, were taken accidentally when the kids were doing tricks on the trampoline and stopped for advice on how to get the camera to film things. So I'm blurry, carrying a load of washing and looking a little distracted/harrassed. Sometimes my head doesn't even feature in-shot. In the voice-over, David Attenborough would describe me as being in my natural habitat. Well, yes, David, you are correct, but I don't think these photos carry the gravitas that I need as a professional artist.

Which led me to do a little pondering on what kind of photo does give you the "I'm a deeply successful, wildly talented, artist person" vibe. A quick search of art history revealed that Great Artists of the world have three key elements to their appearance: Beard, Pipe and Beret. So I went with that.

I'm very pleased with the results.
Though I would like to add that if you do overplay it a little you can end up looking like Popeye, the sailor man. See bottom, second from right.

Thanks go to my skilled photographers (aged 9 and 11 years old).