People reading

I had really intended my "people reading" collection to consist of more generic pix, meaning an unspecified person in a bookish environment perusing an unnamed novel, like my girl in the wing chair from a few posts ago. It's hard to find models for these things, though, so two days ago I posted a notice on my Facebook page asking my friends and relations to send me pix of them reading.

What I ended up with was a bunch of head shots with people holding up specific books, and in some of them people were looking at the camera, not at the book. So I revised my directions to say Hey, give me context—a chair, a table, a lamp, a cup of tea—and look at the BOOK like you're actually reading it. No results yet, but in the meantime I decided, despite my initial plans, to go with a portrait of a "real" (i.e., named and recognizable) person reading a specific book.

This is Michael, with whom I worked back in the 1980s at The Advocate. I reconnected with him on Facebook through the agency of our mutual friend, Susan, and he has since been so complimentary about all my artwork, I decided to make him the subject.

I had big fun with this—I love his astounded expression as he reads his book (which is Clavell's Gai-Jin, sequel to Tai-Pan, title not included in the photo), and capturing his ice-blue eyes and the small details of the book cover. Thanks for the reference photo, Michael!

Perhaps I will intersperse more "real" and "specific" people and books in with my "scenes." These are fun!

Uniball pen, watercolor, Bee sketchbook.