Face #23

14X17"
Pen and ink

I love vacation time--it gives me an opportunity to finish projects like this one. This face has been sitting in the studio for a couple of months now, waiting for those rare moments when I have a chance to do something with it. This past week I had two entire days to spend in the studio--yeah!!! Now, some people out there may wonder why I would spend hours "working" on a drawing like this when I'm on vacation. It IS work, but somehow it doesn't feel the same as sitting at my desk and working on the computer. There's an incredible sense of energy I get by bringing something to life, by taking a blank piece of paper and transforming it into something else. Does it take time and mental energy? Yes. Do I feel tired at the end of the day? Usually. But it's a worthwhile venture to me.

Face #22

8X10" Pencil

New year, new faces. I don't know how far I'll get with the project this year, but here's my latest prize. She's not really a new face to me. I've been watching Emma Thompson in movies for years...ever since my best friend introduced me to the talented actress. We've watched Emma in sophisticated roles such as Howard's End, Sense and Sensibility, and Remains of the Day. We saw her funny side in Junior, Peter's Friends, and Nanny McPhee. We watched her act alongside her mother in The Winter Guest, and of course, her most recent performance as a disturbed novelist with writer's block in Stranger than Fiction.

I'm not sure that this drawing captures Emma's likeness as well as I would've hoped, but I noticed a definite improvement over the first time I tried to draw her. Practicing with the Bargue drawings really helped me with the eyes, and working with several different degrees of pencils helped me with the shading. I'm really surprised how it all turned out, especially since I did the majority of the work in about 2 hours. I hope that my friend enjoys it as much as I do.

Face #21

4X5" Ballpoint pens

There is a difference between drawing what we see and drawing what we know. When we are younger, we tend to draw with symbols--the sun is a big yellow circle with lines sticking out, the house is a triangle on top of a box, etc. These symbols can follow us as we learn to draw more realistically. In these last three drawings, I started to notice some of the symbols that I use when drawing a face. The particular way I draw the nose, the shape I tend to use for the eyes, the line I use to mark the chin--all of these are my symbols. If I want to get closer to a likeness of my subjects, these symbols will have to be abandoned for what my eye actually sees.

Face #20

4X4" Ballpoint pens

Drawing requires practice and discipline. The practice part is what I tend to skip out on. And what exactly do we practice in drawing? I think it's more a matter of practicing how to see things. If you don't see something well, how do you ever expect to draw it well? Before drawing faces 19, 20, and 21, I tried to stop and really take a look at what I was about to draw. I looked at the lines, the shadows, the negative space...I tried to see it all before I put the pen to the paper. Even if I couldn't see a drastic difference in what I drew, I could feel a difference while I was drawing. It's all about the seeing, much like music is all about the hearing.

Face #19

4X4" Ballpoint pens

I recently finished the book "The Undressed Art: Why We Draw" by Peter Steinhart. It is a wonderful book about drawing that challenged me in many ways. Why do I feel I have to wait for exactly the right moment to draw? Drawing is a way of seeing, of exploring, of discovery. I don't have to wait for the perfect conditions to draw. Heck, I don't even have to wait until I have "traditional" drawing utensils in my hand. Pick up the nearest writing implement and go to it! That's what faces 19, 20, and 21 are about. No fancy tools, no fancy studio, no fancy subject--just pen and paper at a simple desk.