Spark eluded

This is one of those times when I chafe against my lack of perception about how to unfailingly capture the spark. This portrait is based on a photo of my friend Claudia's Aunt Anna, who is a beautiful woman with attitude. I captured the likeness pretty well, although I didn't quite get right the angle of the face and the chin tilt; I know it's a well done portrait, and she still looks beautiful, even regal; but I feel like the portrait is completely lacking in that intangible something that makes her Anna—a spirited attitude that speaks out of her eyes and says simultaneously, I know I am beautiful and, What's it to you?

The difficulty begins with the eyes, and this is a problem that I am solving more often lately but still haven't mastered: How do you make your subject look at you? In her photo she is staring right at the photographer, and that's part of the attitude of daring that comes across so forcefully there and not at all here, where despite every effort I made, she is staring off into the distance instead of looking at the viewer. It's so frustrating that I find myself yelling at the portrait, "Look at me! Over here!" as I move the highlights, elongate the pupil, change the shape of the eye, all to no avail. She just ain't gonna do it.

So, while some might see this as an accomplished portrait, I am made aware, once again, of how far I still have to go to master this discipline.

Or, I could simply draw and paint more abstractly and not worry about it; but that's a question for another day!

"Aunt Anna 1"—graphite and carbothello in Bee mixed media sketchbook, 9x12 inches.

Drawing once more

I really wanted to make a painting today, but I just couldn't settle on a subject. Then I found this photo of a homeless man, and realized doing justice to him would be difficult in paint, but maybe more expressive with pencil. So here is another line-and-shadow rendering, with accents of white Carbothello pencil and Signo gel pen and some watercolor enhancement for the eyes, cheeks, and lips (and coat), on tan paper to help with the weathered look. 9x11 on Strathmore toned tan 184-lb. mixed media paper.

Graphite, Day Two

Patrick Greenwood challenged us to do a graphite "morning drawing" every day this week. I don't know that I'll go that far, but I decided to try another one today, and went for a little more ambitious pose/angle and more challenging features.

If I'm going to do more of these, I think I'm going to have to invest in what some swear by as a secret weapon, the Black Wing pencil, for a softer, darker lead. And also learn how to blend and smudge better! And maybe find out what to use for fixative after.

"Willow"—graphite pencils HB-6B (and a little Carbothello for blush), in Bee multimedia sketchbook, 9x12 inches.

Graphite

Every Monday they keep throwing pencil drawings at us as assignments, and every Monday I have deviated and used another medium. Today I finally decided to give in and do one. It's not that I can't do it; it's that I don't do it that well, and also I don't enjoy it near as much as I do ink or paint of ANY kind. But...here it is.

This was Patrick Greenwell's lesson, and I do admire his drawings. I didn't use the reference photo from which he worked, though, mostly because after only three weeks I am heartily sick of seeing the same face a thousand times every single week as each student does her version of the model. I told Phoebe today that one requirement for taking this class should be that you watch the lesson, then apply it to your own reference so we aren't all so heartily bored by the time the first thousand get done and then the hundreds of stragglers keep posting over the next six months!

We were supposed to use a photo with a difficult angle, so I chose this one with an extreme uptilted chin, to show foreshortening. At least one person will (I hope!) recognize the subject of this drawing, while for others it will just be another pretty face!

This was done with a hard and two soft leads, and then I went back in with a little Carbothello colored pencil for the blush on the cheeks and the brown of the eyes.

"Chin Tilt"—H, 2B, 6B pencils and Carbothello in Bee multimedia sketchbook, 9x11 inches.