It had been over 20 years since I've picked up a pencil to render a human likeness... I'm hoping there isn't too much rust:
Thanks... and as well thanks (to TreeHugger) for suggesting I post it here. I have yet to cultivate any rapport with those who frequent the art forum so felt it might be a tad presumptuous to expect much feedback from posting my work here. Happiness is learning that I can still render- I had long assumed that if I hadn't totally lost the craft it would be present greatly diminished.
It's like riding a bicycle Stinkfoot. You never totally forget how. I know I've taken long absences from my work as well.
Thanks Gardener... It's a matter of patience I guess. My method is very painstaking and requires that patience and focus be maintained throughout an entire work- which I'm not all that good at.
It's amazing though how much your hand remembers. It's a matter of training the hand to respond to a mental image. Most folks that complain that they can't draw, just haven't reached the stage where they've taken the training wheels off the bike yet. You'll never lose that skill Stinkfoot. You've already biked solo.
It's the mind-hand connection that I questioned... specifically if the mind's eye can break down a complex image like a face into more simple shapes- defined not only by their forms but also by their spatial relationships to one another. One eye might be slightly above the other; the bridge of a nose may appear level with a cheekbone; a smile is a whole face expression- sometimes a smiling mouth turns downward at the corners. It takes patience and a clean erasing medium. Sometimes I need to bike a tightrope.
Not everything is ever perfect, especially the location of eyes and nose in a face. Sometimes it better just to let the mind take over and capture the feeling of the person. Formulas for faces and characters are great for getting you started, but sometimes gutt comes up with better results when you going for capturing the true spirit of the person. Perfection is something us meer mortals will never be able to capture.
Thanks for all the feedback guys... My aim was to capture the essence of the personalities as they appeared in the original photograph- a rather emotive shot with my sister and her niece- each clearly enjoying the others' company. It was very important for me that first, each individual be readily identifiable from the drawing, and that the chemistry between the two subjects be captured as well. To me a piece of art (drawing) isn't just creating an image to represent an individual or object; it's drawing a viewer to the inevitable conclusion that there is a story behind all of it. What I hope to have successfully pictured is a relationship; the fact that two people are fairly accurately depicted almost becomes incidental- except that I do want the recipient of the gift (Christmas) to recognize both young women in the picture.
