I think that the fine line between selfies and portraiture is found based on whether or not you’re the one taking a picture of yourself, or somebody else is. To take an actual professional portrait of yourself, you probably need a good amount of setup time, therefore I don’t think this was anything necessarily easy. Sitting in direct sunlight would have changed the mood of the picture a lot, but the distilled light helped create a much darker tone and set a different mood for the pictures. Had the window blind been completely pulled up, these pictures would have come out a-lot differently.
All of thee put the light behind you. Try having the light on the side and front as well.
Cameraphones get this flat low contrast look with backlight.