These more or less look like me. I was alarmed at how long it took me to correctly draw Mary's face in the painting I was working on y
esterday, so I decided I best get some "real" practice in before the time comes when I need to draw people "for real!" Self-portraits are such great things, since you've always got a cooperative model, but if you draw yourself TOO much, everybody else you draw starts to look like you too. It's because you learn to draw your nose perfectly, and it becomes your symbol for nose, and all noses everafter are more or less your nose. I suppose the fix for this is to draw OTHER people, but I don't have any handy right now. My other problem is that I draw my eyeballs entirely TOO big. I happen to have big eyes, but not THAT big...I blame it on cartooning :-). I've been studying Sargent, and noticed how simply he sketches in the eyes...just a few lines, really...and also how small they are. The big eye problem goes back to symbolism...the eyes are the most important parts of our faces--it's where most of our attention goes (or should be going!)--so we tend to draw them larger because they seem more important in our minds. Our society puts a lot of emphasis on the beauty of big eyes, as well. At any rate, some things to work on. I'll need to shanghi some people into sitting for me so I can a) practice on not-me people, and b) get some examples for the upcoming Faires.
These more or less look like me. I was alarmed at how long it took me to correctly draw Mary's face in the painting I was working on y
esterday, so I decided I best get some "real" practice in before the time comes when I need to draw people "for real!" Self-portraits are such great things, since you've always got a cooperative model, but if you draw yourself TOO much, everybody else you draw starts to look like you too. It's because you learn to draw your nose perfectly, and it becomes your symbol for nose, and all noses everafter are more or less your nose. I suppose the fix for this is to draw OTHER people, but I don't have any handy right now. My other problem is that I draw my eyeballs entirely TOO big. I happen to have big eyes, but not THAT big...I blame it on cartooning :-). I've been studying Sargent, and noticed how simply he sketches in the eyes...just a few lines, really...and also how small they are. The big eye problem goes back to symbolism...the eyes are the most important parts of our faces--it's where most of our attention goes (or should be going!)--so we tend to draw them larger because they seem more important in our minds. Our society puts a lot of emphasis on the beauty of big eyes, as well. At any rate, some things to work on. I'll need to shanghi some people into sitting for me so I can a) practice on not-me people, and b) get some examples for the upcoming Faires.