It’s A Face

Since the month is more than half gone, I decided to look to some of my other resources.  That meant pulling a beginning drawing book off the shelf and looking at the pages devoted to doing portraits.  This book had a different way to approach the proportions of a straight on view.  Trying this was good and also it was good to go back to trying a full, but unfinished, portrait, since I’ve mostly been practicing noses, eyes, and mouths from the Sktchy class on the Loomis method.  I noticed that I’ve been getting a little too fussy about it all and I think I need to pick up the pace to a slightly uncomfortable level to keep moving along and prevent getting stuck in one place for too long.  That started to happen with noses.  Right after I felt like I was really starting to get noses, I lost it. I wanted it back so I started to try harder, which didn’t work.  It got frustrating.  Eventually, I realized that it was better to move on. When I took Roz's online drawing class, the pace was brisk. I'm not going for that.  I want a pace that leaves me just slightly off balance.

Here’s what I did today.  It’s a face. I used my own reflection from a mirror, but the resulting drawing is not my face.  It’s vaguely related to it (like maybe a 2nd to 3rd cousin), but it’s not my face.  Since I’m working on newsprint, it’s also a crinkly face.  This paper does not lay flat on the easel and any crinkle in the paper catches light in a weird way.   

All of that is okay, since resemblance is not the goal.  Working on portraits this month has stretched me and has been helpful.  I feel like I’m making better lines, seeing more clearly, capturing shapes better, and improving proportions and placement.