Self-portraits have been around since the earliest times, but it wasn’t until the mid-15th century that artists started frequently depicting themselves as the main subject or as other important characters in their work. The reasons are simpler than you think – cheaper mirrors and the emergence of the panel painting. Ewan McClure, a professional artist living in Edinburgh, Scotland, tried the mirror technique as well, and the result was wonderful. Ewan put his camera behind a two-way mirror and recorded a timelapse of the whole process which he summed up in a really modest sentence: “Around 3 hours of trial-and-error for a loose but recognizable result.”